Project Information
Project History
It was one of those spectacular early fall days with warm sun filtering through the leaves of changing colors on September 18, 2010. 28 Anchorage teenagers made a choice to spend the day inside the Dena'ina Convention Center. The goal --- to share ideas at the Anchorage United for Youth Summit on what would make Anchorage a better place for teenagers to live. Their #1 request? A teen center.
Nine days earlier a group of Rotarians discussed how to accomplish the task of creating an interactive learning lab for 12 to 18 old teens in the Z. J. Loussac Library at the request of Anchorage Rotary Club President Cheryl Myers. Thus a partnership was born between the Anchorage Rotary Club, Anchorage Public Library and the Anchorage Library Foundation.
It’s important to understand these teen centers are the wave of 21st century learning. The MacArthur Foundation and Institute of Museum and Library Services have partnered with the goal of funding 30 learning labs in libraries and museums starting in 2011. And Anchorage is ahead of the curve!
Before Teen Underground, there was no dedicated space in the library for teens; their resources were combined on the second floor with pre-school and grade school aged children.
What do students think about this project? In September 2010 Rotary team members met with the Anchorage School District Student Advisory Board which consists of approximately 50 students who are the junior and senior high liaisons to 12-18 year old students. The first step was asking teens what they envisioned in a teen center and what they would like to name it. Within 72 hours, 633 surveys were received with over 500 suggestions on what to name the center. On September 28th at a Teen Advisory Board Meeting students voted to name the space Teen Underground.
OK. We had the name. Now we needed students to submit artwork for Teen Underground’s logo. Contest rules and entry forms were circulated with a deadline of four weeks to enter the logo contest. 37 entries were submitted for the competition which offered an iPad for the winning logo. A team of 10 judges including students, Rotarians, library staff and two professional graphic artists chose the winning logo on November 9, 2010.
Does this sound like another Benny Benson story? Spencer Mitton, a 14 year old eighth grader at Northern Lights ABC school submitted the winning logo. Spencer was presented with an iPad for his efforts at a school assembly on December 14th. His logo will be on the wall of the teen center, and in all promo and marketing materials. Added benefits are the Nerland Agency offered to mentor Spencer and the Anchorage Daily News honored him in a 3/4 page 4-color ad.
In January and February teen volunteers joined the Rotarians to move approximately 100,000 books in the Library's non-fiction collection to clear out room for the new space.
In March 2011, the project team came together with contractors, designers and technology experts, who all donated their time to design and create the space. After a lot of hard work, Teen Underground opened to the public on June 10, 2011!
