This article appeared as "Human Powered” in the Summer 2026 issue of Independent School.
AI can draft essays in seconds, but there’s something it can’t do: replicate what happens when humans tell each other stories and listen closely. A group of sophomores in an honors English class learned this firsthand when their teacher at The Pennington School (NJ) designed a project rooted in face-to-face conversation, attentive listening, and thoughtful reflection.
What began in December 2025 as a typical personal essay unit evolved into the “Human Connection Project,” centered on conversations with people four generations older. The idea began close to home when teacher Erin O’Connell thought about her mother, who lives in a nearby senior community where many residents are single, over 80, and without much opportunity for extended conversation. What if, O’Connell wondered, her students could visit and interview residents about the small things that bring them delight?
Inspired by Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights and Thornton Wilder’s Our Town—works that celebrate the beauty of ordinary moments—and organizations like StoryCorps and Narrative 4, which aim to build compassion through shared stories, O’Connell scaffolded the project carefully. Students began by interviewing each other, practicing active listening, and crafting questions. After sharpening their skills, they were paired with volunteer residents from the senior living community. Two students sat with each resident, recording 30-minute conversations using an AI-powered transcription tool so they could stay present without worrying about taking notes.
The conversations revolved around a simple but rich prompt: moments of delight. Students later returned to the transcripts to distill a single “nugget”—an image, a story, or a routine that resonated—and shaped it into a personal essay modeled on Gay’s style, capturing delight and showing that human connection can flourish in a digital age.
Many students didn’t just recount their subjects’ stories; they absorbed them. One pair interviewed a woman who had been married for more than 40 years and wrote about the kind of enduring love they hoped to experience themselves. Another student reflected on a resident’s daily coffee with her daughter and imagined having a similar ritual with his own future child. Others reconsidered something as simple as their morning routines after hearing how deeply their interviewees cherished theirs.
The project culminated in a schoolwide chapel service, where students spoke about the experience and read selections from their essays. Even though the event took place after school, every student participated. The residents attended as well—and even helped students edit details to “get the story right.”
Students’ initial nervousness about meeting strangers quickly gave way to genuine connection. Some relationships continued beyond the project, including one resident who later returned to watch a student perform in a school play.
Photo: Honors English students turned interviews with residents at a nearby senior living community into personal essays rooted in human connection.
Photo credit: Erin O’Connell
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