One Stone alumnus and Timberline High School graduate Julia Grief describes One Stone as her life-changer. The after-school organization helped her positively influence the lives of others.

“You go through this process to transform into a great leader and you get a desire to do good – One Stone changes lives, ” Grief said. “I believe people join to make a difference in the community.”

One Stone is a student-run organization with more than 150 high school teens. The group focuses on community service and charitable giving. Teens experience real-world needs and gain skills in leadership, teamwork, problem solving, creativity, communication and awareness of community issues and challenges.

“You learn all of these different skills that school doesn’t teach you,” Grief said. “You learn how to be an effective and empathetic leader.”

Jesse Remeis, a senior at Boise High School, is starting her second year with One Stone. Last year she was part of a project that targeted eighth graders at Fairmont Junior High School in Boise. She and other students educated the eighth grades on the symptoms and issues surrounding mental illness and depression as part of a public awareness campaign.

“We wanted to give junior high kids tools to cope with issues that aren’t talked about at school,” Remeis said. “It was a really cool experience to foster a community and let kids know it’s okay to get help before mental illness starts to become a real problem.”

One Stone students aren’t just helping out in the community they’re also gaining experience managing an in-house creative services agency called Two Birds. Davis Plumlee recently graduated from Boise High School and is a graphic designer for the agency. He is coached by two design professionals.

“This is a business setting and not your average high school drawing class. We have real clients who come to us with needs who might need videos, a logo or branding,” Plumlee said.

When Plumlee started working for Two Birds he didn’t know much about design and video production. He now manages projects for Bogus Basin, Bank of the Cascades and local non-profits.

“I have learned a lot from working a camera, editing video, building websites and interacting with clients. This all knowledge I have gained from One Stone and Two Birds,” Plumlee said.

To learn more about One Stone and how to become a member, click here.

Note: One Stone and Idaho Education News are funded by the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation.