Service Learning

In this section: Upcoming Events Ongoing Activities

One of the ways the School supports its mission is through the service learning program. Service learning is a teaching and a learning strategy that combines the principles of experiential learning with service to the community. The school's values of compassion, integrity, and responsibility are the driving force behind service learning activities.

The service learning program has many distinctive characteristics and benefits:

• It is a developmentally based curriculum that occurs in grades K-8. Each grade level has off-campus service learning experiences as well as planned in-school activities such as a food drive or book drive.
• Grade levels are matched with organizations so that they can develop a partnership over the years.
• Through service learning students address real community needs, develop as citizens, gain a sense of social responsibility, and acquire a deeper understanding of what it means to be an active member of a community.
• By promoting meaningful ties between classroom study and real-life experiences, the program helps us to utilize the city as our classroom and enables students to encounter broader and more diverse learning opportunities.
• There is a Parents' Forum committee that plans family service learning activities outside of school. This partnership supports our school community as well as our city community.

Upper School Independent Service Hours

All upper school students are encouraged to complete independent service learning hours outside of school. This service can take many shapes from volunteering at a local organization to offering free baby-sitting services to you neighbors. Students who perform the recommened hours based on grade level, will receive an award at the end of the year. The service learning coordinator will also provide information on and generate opportunities for potential independent projects. Upon completing an independent project, students should bring a letter from either the person who supervised the work, the parent or the guardian, stating the date of the service and time spent to the service learning coordinator. who will keep a log of service learning time.

Recommended hours are as follows:
8th Grade--10
7th Grade-- 8
6th Grade-- 7
5th Grade-- 5