{"id":13540,"date":"2026-02-13T00:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/students-capture-dolores-life-stories-with-public-library-partnership\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:38:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:38:47","slug":"students-capture-dolores-life-stories-with-public-library-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/students-capture-dolores-life-stories-with-public-library-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Students capture Dolores life stories with Public Library partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores High School student Novay Siglin, 18, listens as community Jonnie Ryan shares life memories and during an interview at the Dolores Public Library for a school project Wednesday. Students from teacher Jessica Kuntz\u2019s AP English class at Dolores High School are documenting stories for a project that\u2019s tied to the book Tuesdays with Morrie. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

High school senior Michael Rantz hits record on his phone and begins listening as Sandra Pyle lists the places she has lived in her 83 years \u2013 Cortez, Japan, Arizona and now Dolores, which she calls home.<\/p>\n

The English class quickly filled the Dolores Public Library with conversation as high schoolers posed questions to residents. Life experiences, travel, career and childhood reflections were all on the table because the project encourages face-to-face interaction and connection across generations.<\/p>\n

Through a partnership with the Dolores Public Library, Dolores High School students from Jessica Kuntz\u2019s AP English class are sitting down with older community members twice a week through March to listen to their life stories and write biographies.<\/p>\n

\"Taylor
Taylor Erautt, 18, and Chuck Greaves, 70, talk during an interview. Greaves is the author of several literary works, including the Jack MacTaggart legal mystery series, which consists of four books. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe kids, I see a brightness, a light, and they\u2019re smiling and they\u2019re excited. One of my students \u2013 she\u2019s from Turkey \u2013 she made a Turkish danish for her partner as kind of like a gift,\u201d Kuntz said.<\/p>\n

The monthlong exchange is designed to engage students in authentic, hands-on learning, with goals to increase class engagement, participation and literacy levels, Kuntz said. The class is simultaneously reading Mitch Albom\u2019s 1997 memoir \u201cTuesdays with Morrie,\u201d which is about reconnecting with his former sociology teacher, Morrie, who shares wisdom and messages about life as he battles ALS (Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease).<\/p>\n

\"Books
Books by local author Chuck Greaves line the shelves at the library. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI have taught \u2018Tuesdays with Morrie\u2019 over a number of years, and I\u2019ve done projects similar to this but not to this magnitude,\u201d Kuntz said.<\/p>\n

As part of her master\u2019s degree program, Kuntz designed the project as a research-focused study on improving student literacy by creating more involved learning that reduces reliance on cellphones or the use of AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem I have seen for several years now is the decline in literacy among adolescent kids. I think a lot of that is from the cellphones and technology,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Novay
Novay Siglin takes notes during a one-on-one interview with Jonnie Ryan. (Anna Watson\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Family
Family photos, including photos Sandra Pyle\u2019s time in Japan, were a part of the interview at the Dolores Public Library.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Program also aims to connect students to library resources<\/div>\n

In a photo from Japan, Pyle pointed out herself and her family standing in front of a waterfall, recalling the time she lived overseas while her husband was stationed there in the military.<\/p>\n

The couple moved often, living in several states, so Pyle printed out a basic timeline for Dolores High School student Michael Rantz, with descriptions of years, cities and major life events. Pyle, who graduated from Cortez High School in 1960, said her husband\u2019s family goes back to some of Dolores\u2019 founding generations. She calls Dolores home too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is just something about this place that is magical,\u201d Pyle said, emphasizing her surprise when some relatives decided, for various reasons, to move to other towns or cities.<\/p>\n

The program pairs 17 students and adults, some of whom participate in adult services programming at the library, including the book club. Jillian Rash, the adult services library coordinator, and Hannah Carloni, the youth coordinator, helped organize it.<\/p>\n

Kuntz said another goal of partnering with the library is to introduce students to its programs and resources.<\/p>\n

A compilation of the biographies will be displayed at the Dolores Public Library and the Montezuma Heritage Museum.<\/p>\n

Each student will present their partner with a lap blanket featuring a quote from the interview along with both their names.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

hands-on project pairs Dolores students with community members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19029,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13540\/revisions\/19029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13540"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}