【推荐1】Students from the San Diego Jewish Academy in the US broke the Guinness World Record when they managed to make more than 800 sandwiches in three minutes on April 1.

However, the students were doing more than just setting a world record. They gave the sandwiches to the homeless and so learned a lesson about helping their community.

“We want our students to know it’s not enough to talk about changing the world,” said school principal Chaim Heller. “It’s not enough to raise money to change the world. You have to use your hands and feet.”

The world record for making the most sandwiches in three minutes had been 490. But the 550 students from kindergarten to 12th grade may have broken that record by making 868 sandwiches in the school gym.

The sandwiches were given to the Alpha Project, which served them later that day to homeless people and low-income residents around Alpha Square.

Students found 52 tables waiting for them in the school gym, each laid out with slices of bread, lettuce, sliced tomatoes and American cheese. Forty-five parent volunteers were on hand to help, and a note on each table told the students what to put in each sandwich – two slices of cheese, one slice of tomato and one piece of lettuce.

The gym’s scoreboard was set at three minutes. A countdown started, a bell rang and tables throughout the gym became a flurry of (一阵忙乱) fast-moving cheese and bread.

The youngest students made one sandwich each while older ones made two. Within two minutes, almost all of the students had stepped back from their table. They waved their gloved hands in the air to show that they had finished.

“These types of experiences not only bring together our school community, but help students learn that everyone can make a sandwich to help those in need,” said Heller. “We want our students to see themselves as leaders who can make a difference in people’s lives.”

【推荐2】If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my years of being a kid, it’s that you have ZERO control over your own life.

Ever since school ended, I haven’t had anything I’ve needed to do or anywhere I’ve needed to be. As long as the air-conditioning (空调) was working and the TV remote had batteries in it, I was ready for a relaxing summer holiday.

But then, all of a sudden, this happened—“Pack your bags. We’re going on a road trip!” Mom said excitedly.

This isn’t the first time Mom has sprung a trip on us without any warning. Last year on the first day of summer, she said we were going to visit Aunt Loretta at the nursing home.

It wasn’t exactly my idea of a fun way to kick off the summer. One time when we visited Aunt Loretta, her roommate grasped me and wouldn’t let me go until someone gave her a chocolate cookie!

Mom kept talking about going to the nursing home for a whole day, which made me worry a lot. But at breakfast the next morning, she told us where we were really going—Disney World.

I was very happy, because I was really worried about spending the whole week at the nursing home. So was Dad.

But when my little brother, Danny, heard about the change he became very angry. Mom had talked up the Aunt Loretta trip so much that Danny was actually excited about going there.

We ended up putting off our trip to Disney so we could visit Aunt Loretta.

I tried to talk Mom into letting us do something normal, like going to a water park for the day, but she didn’t want to hear it. She said that spending a lot of time together in the car would be a “bonding” experience for the whole family.

【推荐3】Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.

Jaramillo’s students live in neighborhoods where fresh food and green space are not easy to find and fast food restaurants outnumber grocery stores. “The kids literally come to school with bags of snacks and large bottles of soft drinks,” she says. “They come to us thinking vegetables are awful, dirt is awful, insects are awful.” Though some are initially scared of the insects and turned off by the dirt, most are eager to try something new.

Urban Sprouts’ classes, at two middle schools and two high schools, include hands-on experiments such as soil testing, flower-and-seed dissection, tastings of fresh or dried produce, and work in the garden. Several times a year, students cook the vegetables they grow, and they occasionally make salads for their entire schools.

Program evaluations show that kids eat more vegetables as a result of the classes. “We have students who say they went home and talked to their parents and now they’re eating differently,” Jaramillo says.

She adds that the program’s benefits go beyond nutrition. Some students get so interested in gardening that they bring home seeds to start their own vegetable gardens. Besides, working in the garden seems to have a calming effect on Jaramillo’s special education students, many of whom have emotional control issues. “They get outside,” she says, “and they feel successful.”

【推荐3】Soccer star Carli Lloyd made history as a member of the United States women’s national soccer team, which won the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Lloyd became the first person ever to score three goals in a single game during a Women’s World Cup Final, helping the U.S. beat Japan 5 - 2 in the final match. During that game, Lloyd scored two goals within the first five minutes.

Lloyd was named the most valuable player of 2015 World Cup and won the Golden Ball Trophy. In November, it was announced that Lloyd was on the short list for FIFA’s Puskás Award, for the season’s best single goal. The goal being considered was her third during the World Cup Final, which she shot from the field’s halfway line, 50 yards from the net. She was the only woman nominated (提名) this year.

Lloyd became a force in women’s soccer long before the U.S. team’s World Cup won. She grew up in Delran, New Jersey, a small town near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She began playing soccer at age 5. By high school, she was a powerhouse in the sport. The Philadelphia Inquirer named her Girls’ High School Player of the Year in 1999 and 2000. She attended Rutgers University, in New Jersey, where she was a collegiate soccer star. She graduated as the school’s all-time leader in New Jersey, where she was a collegiate soccer star.

Lloyd has won two Olympic gold medals. She has scored winning goals in many important matches, including the finals in both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. In all, Lloyd has scored more than 70 goals as a member of the women’s national team. She has also played on several professional teams, and is currently a midfielder in the United States women’s national soccer team. Off the field, Lloyd gives back to her community by running a soccer camp for young people in New Jersey. She is a hometown hero in Delran; a local ice-cream shop even named a flavor Carli’s Cake Batter Cookie Dough Kick in her honor.