Shumla Director Honored for Non-Profit Excellence

By Bill Sontag
bill.sontag@delrionewsherald.com
Staff Writer, Del Rio News-Herald

Reprinted with permission of the Del Rio News-Herald
Published March 25, 2006

In times of drastic belt-tightening among non-profit scientific, artistic and educational institutions, Shumla School, headquartered at Comstock, has emerged as a national exemplar.

Dr. Carolyn Boyd was invited to the prestigious Longwood Graduate Program Symposium, March 10, at Longwood Gardens, Kennet Square, Penn. Boyd was one of four speakers selected to address the symposium, "Public Horticulture Matters."

Speakers also included Dr. Iain Robertson, University of Washington, Caroline Lewis, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Coral Gables, Fla., and Frances Hesselbein, Leader to Leader Institute, New York, N.Y.

The four resource specialists and leadership experts addressed an audience of about 100, Boyd said Thursday, including directors of botanical gardens from across the country, as well as faculty and students of the University of Delaware, sponsors and organizers of the annual symposia.

"Public horticulture is about connecting people with plants, and we do an amazing job of that," Boyd said of the Shumla School themes and educational thrusts.

Boyd's thrust was not centered around ancient peoples and their life-sustaining flora, but rather on how to galvanize interest in a non-profit approach to education and development of critical thinking skills.

Boyd was one of 35 nominees from which the graduate student fellows of the Longwood Graduate Program selected this year's presenters.

She said her understanding of the symposium's purpose was to propel participants toward closer examination of the "community" they serve.

"If we really want to make a difference, we have to address a younger audience, a more diverse audience," she said.

At Longwood, Boyd reviewed the history of Shumla School, beginning with its launch eight years ago, and eventual development of a campus on the Harrington Ranch, now including a large, open air pavilion, kitchen, classroom/laboratory, restrooms, wickiups and a tipi.

The Shumla School mission reflects Boyd's operational philosophy: "To connect people of all ages with their environment and cultural heritage through educational programs studying human use of materials, land, and art."

"There are few places in the nation where the history of the connection between land and people is so well illustrated," Boyd explained.

As a result, she elaborated, "The Shumla School has provided hands-on education programs to 6,000 children and 4,000 adults across the state and nation since its inception in 1998."

Boyd told her audience that the school's successes thus far revolve around careful identification of target audiences, engaging community leaders, forming strong partnerships, and evaluating, enriching and re-evaluating the results.

Boyd illustrated each of these points, but surprised her audience with her description of a nearly brutal introspection at the time of the all-important evaluations.

What she called a "thoughtful and critical evaluation of Shumla School programs and marketing strategies" brought to light areas of serious concern.

Among them, Boyd listed a failure to clearly identify target audiences, a dogmatic belief that the efforts were precisely what audiences needed, a myopic, near-sighted view that the mission was so important that everyone could see it, a xenophobic attitude toward competing organizations, inadequate involvement with local communities, and waiting for target audiences to come to the school, "rather than taking Shumla to the target audience."

Then, Boyd led her audience through steps to avoid or correct such pitfalls. "In short, evaluate everything all the time," she advised.

As an example, Boyd and her staff of co-workers and volunteers sit down immediately following school programs and read student evaluations aloud to each other.

More recently, Texas State University and Shumla School have collaborated to follow those evaluations with similar introspections when elementary school students return to classrooms.

Thursday, Boyd announced that Texas State officials now share her interest in long-range evaluations of Shumla School program participants. "We want to now track the impacts of what we do with kids, gauging how it has affected them through high school," Boyd said.

Jo Ann Harris, scholar in residence at Pace University, White Plains, N.Y., flew in to Del Rio Thursday to attend a meeting of the Shumla School Board of Directors.

Harris is former Assistant Attorney General of the United States, from which position she retired in 1995.

But her passion for the archeological record in art on western walls of stone is her explanation of why she got involved as a director for Shumla School. So, Harris listened intently to Boyd's narrative of the Longwood Gardens experience Thursday.

Harris' goals for Shumla School reflect those of audience members at the Pennsylvania symposium. "This concept could be—should be—expanded to provide these experiences to more kids, and for longer periods of time, and from broader regions, even national in scope."

Moreover, Harris hopes Shumla School will become a valuable research center, with results that broaden the school's recognizance.

In addition, Harris believes the mission could be enhanced by developing teacher training opportunities in the style of experiential learning Shumla practices.

Dr. Bob Lyons, director of the University of Delaware Longwood Graduate Program, commended Boyd Friday for the surprising impact of her presentation, not only on the audience, but also on the presentations of the remaining three speakers.

"At least one of the speakers re-wrote her presentation as Carolyn was speaking," Lyons said.

"Her message, that we always need to adjust and evolve our programs or we'll become ineffective communicators, is important because our audience now is fundamentally different than it was 20 years ago.

"No question about it! Carolyn's message was completely transferable to everyone in the room," said Lyons.

Boyd was satisfied with the contacts she made at Longwood: "Del Rio made a splash, nationally, and there are people who are going to be watching what we're doing from now on very closely."