A Feature on the Good Trouble Project
February 20, 2026 2026-02-22 5:32A Feature on the Good Trouble Project
By Noah Coss
There have been many student let projects that have blown the minds of the audiences that witness them. The time and dedication towards a passionate mission is so incredible to see among students at Innovation Academy. But the PBL I want to cover really stands out for its small crew, large impact, and massive passion.
The Good Trouble Project is a student let group, pioneered by Laryn Russell and Colby Gallow, and is based on John Lewis and centers the focus his history, his lessons, etc. “We are based on Congressman John Lewis and his teachings, his principles.” Lauren, explained “Our entire goal is educating people and community and the idea of love and everybody being equal.” The project’s mission has a great civil rights mission and is taken to the highest heights.
Their primary focus has been to help John Lewis Elementary School and teaching the students more about this impactful role model. “We went to the elementary school to educate the kids on who John Lewis was, the namesake of their school.” Colby explained “It was really crazy because a lot of them didn’t know who John Lewis was. That was our first mission.” Laryn then added, “Then we’re going to focus on John Lewis as an individual impacting our society, and you can be an individual that impacts our society as well.”
To start off, they first played a simple yes-no-maybe game as a warm up to get the kids’ attentions. “We gave them fun questions first and then later on in the game we kind of got into deeper topics to kind of get them used to social justice issues,” Colby explained, “kind of just exposing them to what could be wrong in their community or in their school and then how that translates into the real world.” And this is the just the beginning of their exceptional journey at revealing to these kids incredible information on a serious topic of the past and today.
From playing simple games to a 3D printing of Ralphie Abernathy’s shoes for the students to pass around to showing real images of from the past, Colby and Laryn have helped the young and new generation understand an important Civil Rights figure in so many meaningful ways. Not to mention planning an 8th grade curriculum, based on young John Lewis, and presenting their PBL in front of the archives at the Library of Congress. It’s mind blowing how substantial the passion and dedication a couple of high school students can have pushing towards an important mission such as this one. Teaching the younger students how to be impactful individuals in our society today.
