“I like nurturing God’s creation.”
“Doing a good job brings joy.”
“We’re building friendships.”
“We’re helping the Earth.”

With passionate student responses like these, it’s not a surprise that West Side Christian School (WSCS), a CSI-accredited school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been recognized as one of the US Department of Education’s 2024 Green Ribbon School award recipients.

But the goal was not the award. In fact, two years ago, it began with a smell in the hallway.

“We noticed it didn’t smell good because the middle schoolers weren’t doing a good job cleaning the composting bins. They were dirty and moldy,” fourth-grade student Steele Vandriel said, who is one of four Creation Care team leads in charge of the composting student-led green initiative at WSCS.

Vandriel, along with fourth-grade students Liam Caterino and Josilyn Kortman, approached Janet Staal, director of outdoor education, about the problem.

Staal explained that the students spearheaded the structure and organization of how WSCS could do a schoolwide compost. “This crew created a structure and a system that is contagious. Now the other kids see how fun it is to be a steward, and they look forward to being on a team,” she shared.

Building Life Skills for Their Future

Effective communication, time management, problem-solving, mentoring younger students, and building a committed team are among the life skills the fourth-grade Creation Care team leads have learned.

“It prepares you for your future. It gets you ready, knowing you don’t always get to do everything your way,” Vandriel said. “And some jobs may not be your favorite, but you just have to do them—like cleaning a bucket.”

For Caterino, he’s enjoyed training his team and watching them become more responsible. “You’re building relationships with your team, and you teach them more skills each week until they know exactly what to do until you don’t need to ask them anymore—they just know what to do,” he explained.

Staal said that if a team member forgets a responsibility, a team lead will have a huddle and communicate about what was missed. “When they effectively communicate, each one of them has a sense of belonging because they’re contributing to the community.”

The various responsibilities the composting team is in charge of include collecting compost buckets from classrooms, dumping the compost in a wheelbarrow and transferring it to a designated area on school grounds, and cleaning the buckets so they don’t smell and get moldy. A job application was created for interested students, who have to exhibit certain characteristics to be considered when joining a composting program team.

“Kids had to think ahead if they wanted to apply for the job because once we formed a structure for the program, we had to keep it,” Staal said. “Next year, this group will be passing the work on to a new group, and I’m looking forward to seeing what new things we can do to improve the world.”

Managing Their Student Teams

The student-lead composting team admitted that managing others can be tricky at times when a job is “half done” or team members are goofing around.

“When you have a team, you have to communicate,” said Kortman. “Sometimes they leave because they don’t want to do the work anymore, and they leave without communicating to us.”

“Or sometimes, students will skip ahead to do the work quickly and it’s not a job well done,” added Caterino.

When it comes to overseeing their teams, the team leads have a couple of ways they choose to manage their team members.

“We’ll talk with them after the job, during snack time and outside of the classroom with Mrs. Staal,” said Adam Mast, fourth-grade student and team lead. “We’ll ask them why they were goofing off when they should have been doing their job.”

“Use your words,” Caterino advised. “Talk stiffly, but also be kind with your words. Explain what they were doing wrong.”

What’s Next?

When asked what the 2024 Green Ribbon School Award means to them, Caterino, Kortman, Mast, and Vandriel all agreed it means a lot because they’ve worked really hard to make their school nice and clean, as well as improve the community. They’re hopeful that they can teach other schools about composting and nurture God’s creation even more.

As far as the school’s backyard is concerned, Caterino, Kortman, Mast, and Vandriel are already thinking ahead. WSCS has a garden that is across the school from where the compost is dumped. Staal shared that a portion of their freshly harvested crops fill shelves at the local food pantry.

“We really want to bring good soil to our garden, so we’re thinking of having a compost by the garden,” Mast shared, adding that a greenhouse is also part of the plan. “We’re hoping we can grow more food and raise money so we can get more projects done at the school.”

Currently, 45–50 students are part of WSCS’s Creation Care team. What started with compost has continued with recycling; a fifth grade group comes in and does the sorting of the paper, TerraCycle, and general recycling.

“We’re blessed to be a blessing. I love the mind that He gave our students; we’re not only solving problems, but we can bless others by letting them know they were made for a purpose to care for others and beyond,” Staal said.

“They all see themselves as creation caretakers.”

If you would like to learn more about WSCS’s Creation Care team and their student-led projects, contact Janet Staal.