Community Service
Vision and Rationale
The vision and mission of our school is to prepare our students to become community conscious and future leaders. In order to achieve that goal every student is required to complete a community service project every year. In this way, the student from from early childhood to middle school begins to know their community, its needs and strengths. They also begin to see themselves as contributors to the health and well being of their community.
Student leaders
The seventh graders, once installed as student leaders, are assigned, in teams, to specific classes from Kindergarten to sixth grade. Each teams’ purpose is to plan, coordinate and execute a community service project with the assigned class.
Timetable
After the November induction of the student leaders their first month in operation is December. Therefore, from December to June the planning and coordinating of the community service projects takes place.
Month Task
December: Orientation
Introduction of student leaders
to class/students.
January: Brainstorm project ideas with class
February: Decide on project idea
March: Develop plan to execute project
April: Conduct Projects
May: Finish projects and evaluation
June: Conduct Pupil Attitude Survey
Projects
Some of the projects that have been conducted in the past are: letters to soldiers, fund-raising to purchase gifts for cancer patients in pediatric ward, planting flowers in local park, assist in food pantry, serve meals to the homeless, teach computer literacy to senior citizens, perform at senior citizen center, tutor in after school program, participate in Habitats for humanity project. Each year new ideas for community service opportunities are generated and researched to assess the viability of conducting said project.
Resources
Web sites helpful as resources are:
www.YSA.org/nysd
www.kidsforcommunity.org
www.childrenforchildren.org
Eighth Graders Community Service
All eighth graders are required to complete 50 hours of community service outside the school environment for graduation.