172. Lily King and Jocelyn Evans Explain the Student Agency Miracle Emerging at Warren Local HS in Southern Ohio

Listeners, this episode takes us to Warren Local High School in rural southeastern Ohio, where sophomores Jocelyn Evans and Lily King are helping us explore what can happen when a public school begins listening differently to its students. Warren is a recognizable American public school, grades, schedules, homework, tests, football games and homecoming, but something interesting is happening inside it. Through Students Solving Problems (SSP) and related student agency work, young people are learning to conduct empathy interviews (in partnership with the Human Restoration Project and Polaris Education), listen closely to peers and teachers, analyze what they hear, and bring those findings back to the adults shaping their school. What began amid a familiar tension, teachers concerned about student motivation and students frustrated by traditional “sit and get” learning, has become an experiment in something much larger: trust. Jocelyn and Lily take us inside that work, including efforts to understand Warren’s Flex Friday; they wrestle with what student agency means when young people are given not merely a voice, but opportunities to influence what happens next. Jocelyn also shares how the work carried her from rural Ohio to MIT and the Student Power Summit in Los Angeles, representing Warren far from home. But this conversation goes well beyond programs and school improvement. We talk about the adults who make young people feel safe, supported and seen, leadership without titles, Lily’s hatred of homework, and what students may really be saying when they push back against “sit and get.” Jocelyn offers an extraordinary challenge to adults: “What are we doing wrong? Why don’t the children trust us?” We also explore whether school itself may contribute to young people’s stress, and whether agency, purpose, consequential work and knowing that your ideas matter might help create healthier conditions for learning. What emerges is not a story about two students who have all the answers. It is a story about what becomes possible when adults stop assuming they already have them. Warren is learning to ask, listen, trust and act. And Jocelyn and Lily remind us what we may discover when young people are given real opportunities to practice their voices. Editing is provided by the talented Evan Kurohara. My creative consultant is Mel Ching. Our theme music is by Michael Sloan.