All the 8th graders at Century Community Charter School participated in “The Baby Project,” based off the book “The Pregnancy Project” by Gaby Rodriguez. The book was written about one teenage girl’s high school project of faking her own pregnancy. Gaby wanted to see how the community’s perceptions towards her would change and how they would view her if she met their low expectations of her.

The participating 8th graders, including our Dreamers, made and cared for rice babies for several weeks and were expected to journal about their experiences every day. They weren’t allowed to leave their baby when they did extracurricular activities, unless they paid for a babysitter.

Some of the honor students signed up to take care of our foundation’s mechanical babies instead of the rice babies for two days, after which they used the rice babies again.

Through this project, the school hoped that students would learn about some of the responsibilities of caring for a baby. They also ended the program with a personal journal/memoir of their experiences as a single parent.

Check out some of our Dreamers and the babies they took care of for the program: