No one in the Upper School can dispute that our school is evolving. These changes range from the stack-less room to the dress code, and now, as of February 7, we can add the Upper School Community Service Day (hosted by the Community Service Board) onto that list. The day is fundementally different than it was in previous years.
Upper School students went to a variety of different organizations, such as Afya, Baby Buggy, YCP, and Holy Apostle’s Church Soup Kitchen. Each of these organization represents a different type of service. What are different types of service? Well, the word ‘service’ means giving back to your surrounding or greater community in any way. Therefore, there are many ways to do service, including volunteering at a soup kitchen, writing letter to soldiers, and packing medical supplies. Each very different types of work, but all for the purpose of giving back. Unlike prior years, the day was planned around allowing people to do many different types of service.
Also this year, students were an active part of the planning. Students organized the day and ran it. The Community Service Board’s goal was that every student have a voice, and so they had every Upper School student fill out a form specifying which organizations interested them. In addition, students were not assigned organizations by grade level; therefore, a mix of students from 9-12th grade could be in one group, helping to strengthen our community spirit.
Unlike prior years, after students finished their service projects, they had time to reflect upon what they did. Every individual student filled out a sheet about their day.
In addition, there was a group reflection project. Every group worked together to come up with different slogans, which summarized their particular organizations mission. This project forced every group to think about what they did and what they learned from their experience. This project was generally well received, although some members of our community found it unnecessary.
I asked Ryan Reiss ’13, about her opinion of the reflection project, and she responded, “The project did not help me to reflect on my experiences at all; it felt forced and made a great day end on a bad note.”
But no matter how much community service day changes or how many words we are “forced” to write about it, the impact remains the same. We students are humbled by our experiences and feel motivated to do more for our community.
Natalie Rivera ’13, who went to Baby Buggy, believes, “that this Community Service Day was an eye-opener for everyone in our community.” It brought us closer together, and it strengthened our bond with our surrounding community. In short, this day was a great success.
It sounds like community service day was blast! The Hewitt Student’s seemed to have found community service extremely meaningful and as Natalie said, “eye-opening”.
The new and improved community service day at Hewitt, allowing a combination of students from different grades to help our community, was a big success. This article clearly demonstrates each of the different aspects of the day that have improved it as a whole. The article was effective in that it showed student opinions on parts of the day and showed the impact our school has made.