A Case Study in Education & Student Engagement

Wahlert Catholic High School, a private high school located in Dubuque, Iowa, has approximately 500 students and is a part of the Holy Family Catholic Schools system.

THE CHALLENGE

Wahlert Catholic High School wanted to engage their sophomore students in social innovation concepts to foster a greater sense of belonging, connectivity, and more genuine relationships among students.

THE SOLUTION

Through a custom Innovation Works® recipe, we engaged more than 100 sophomore

students in identifying key strategies to build connections among students.

Through a game-based process, teams of students focused on expanding the diversity of

peer groups, deepening connections among students in the sophomore class, and

welcoming new students to the school. The students developed, refined, and pitched ideas.

From this, three key strategies were identified and stakeholders worked together to create

and pitch implementation plans.

THE RESULTS

“Our students were really engaged and created solutions for building relationships among

their peers that we would not have come up with on our own. We even had 2-3 concepts we

can begin to implement right away. It introduced our students to the innovation process and

social innovation, plus we had fun!”

- Katie Lenart, Counselor