Academics: The Curriculum
Community Service
ust as we promote the habits of an intellectual life through our academic program, we promote the habits of initiative, responsibility and connectedness through our community service program. To that end, the service program asks students to apply their intellect to current problems, issues, or needs in the community. As they do so, students connect with the community, locally or globally, take risks and learn from their mistakes, work as members of a team toward a common goal, develop and manage projects, and hone their leadership skills. Over the course of the year, teams are asked to establish a mission statement, set goals and objectives, plan their activities, establish a budget, build team unity, develop relationships with community partners, evaluate their own work, and reflect on the impact they are making in their community.
Each spring, faculty and students are asked to propose projects for the next school year. Projects are reviewed by a community service leadership team based on the project selection criteria established for the program. Students sign up for a service project, indicating their choices. The leadership team, comprised of the director of community service and a small team of students, assigns students to appropriate service teams, provides on-going support to the teams, and evaluates the projects and program throughout the school year. Successful services will generally be offered the opportunity to continue into the next year.
Typical service opportunities might involve:
- Recycling
- Animal shelter
- Nursing homes
- Knitting for those in need overseas—children’s programs in Pakistan/Afghanistan
- Math or language tutoring
- Children’s theater at local schools
- Hospital work
- Mentoring and tutoring at local schools
- Outdoor community conservation work
- Habitat for Humanity
- And more..
Service work is accomplished during the Wednesday afternoon period set aside for this work. Some projects may require students to work after school or weekends. In these cases, students meet briefly on Wednesday to plan and reflect. It is expected that students will contribute 80 minutes a week to their service project.
SERVICE LEARNING
Service learning courses at Emma Willard take service to the next level by combining community service with classroom studies. Community service opportunities are integrated into the curriculum to advance academic goals and objectives. Service learning is an opportunity for teachers and students to solve real life problems and meet authentic community needs.
The students enrolled in these courses complete the standard amount of classroom time, receive a grade and earn credit for the course. During the Wednesday afternoon service block they apply what they’ve learned to their community service work. In some cases, this work may take place outside the Wednesday afternoon time slot. By extending this academic learning into the community, students become more active citizens and help to strengthen and support their communities.
Students who enroll in a service learning course are automatically enrolled in the related community service program.
