The Virginia Outdoors Foundation has awarded Woodbridge’s Freedom High School $25,000 to build a dedicated outdoor learning space, which is expected to open in the spring.
As the home for the Center for Environmental and Natural Sciences (CENS) program, Freedom High School will now be able to provide students in this program with a necessary outdoor learning space, a press release stated. CENS allows students to engage in lab and field science, interactive research and hands-on projects.
Freedom High currently has outdoor gardens and walking trails but lacks an outdoor learning space. According to a press release, the goal is the connect the existing trails with a learning space to “hopefully reduce chronic absenteeism and boost student engagement.”
“Many of our students face barriers such as poverty, food insecurities, violence, homelessness, limited access to the outdoors and poor health,” Jessica Doiron, Ed.D., coordinator of specialty programs and advanced academics at Freedom High, said. “Providing students with a dedicated outdoor learning space, where students can explore and make connections with living systems, will help break down those barriers as well as increase attendance, decrease behavior issues, support physical and mental health and build a sense of community.”
The Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) aims to conserve land across the Commonwealth. Since it was founded in 1966, VOF has conserved more than 910,000 acres of land in 114 counties and cities. Earlier this month, VOF announced it was awarding nearly $1.7 million in grants to nine projects across the state; there’s an interactive dashboard available to see all of their conservation projects throughout their nearly 60-year history.
