The OCRA program at Mamaroneck High school gives students the chance to design projects that respond to real needs in the school and in the wider community. For seniors Issy Sklar, Annie Zaumeyer, Robby Grimes, and Jack Bowerman, that meant focusing on students in the Transition Academy to create opportunities during lunch to work on decreasing isolation and building friendships.
The group was first drawn to joining OCRA because of its focus on student choice and community impact. For Annie Zaumeyer (’25), the program stood out to her because it allowed her to work on something that she genuinely cared about. Annie shared that it gave her “the opportunity to work with a team and was incredibly engaging because we were focusing on something that we actually had a lot of interest in.”
As the project developed, the group’s focus began to shift. What started as a project meant to improve the social lives of students in the Transition Academy became a project centered on connections during the school day. The group realized that lunchtime could also become an opportunity to create a more welcoming and unified environment.
The goal of the lunchtime events was to bring Transition Academy students and general education students together in a natural and comfortable setting. By creating a space where students could talk, eat, and spend time together, the group hoped to help students form relationships they might not have built otherwise. For Issy Sklar (’25), the project’s purpose became clearer as the group adapted to the needs of the students they were working with. “The goal was to create meaningful bonds and reduce stigmas around students with intellectual disabilities,” she said.
Throughout the process, the group also learned the importance of listening directly to the people they hoped to support. Rather than assuming what Transition Academy students needed, the students used feedback and real conversations to shape their project. This helped create more meaningful experiences which allowed the project to better reflect the experiences of the students involved.
One of the most powerful parts of the project came when members of the group presented their work at inclusion focused events, including a youth leadership summit and the Special Olympics Youth Summit. At these events, Transition Academy students had the opportunity to speak about how the project had impacted them. For the OCRA group, seeing those students share their experiences with confidence showed that their work had created something meaningful beyond the lunchroom.
The project helped make inclusion more visible at MHS by creating spaces where students felt welcomed and connected, and it shows how a dedication to building small moments during the school day can help lay the foundation for an even stronger and more unified school community.
