Academic Departments
Community Service
s Emma Willard promotes the habits of an intellectual life through our academic programs, we also foster the habits of initiative, responsibility, and community awareness through the service program. This curricular initiative provides meaningful, long-term opportunities for all Emma Willard students to apply the problem-solving skills and leadership techniques learned in the classroom to the outside world. 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; and hone their leadership skills.
The service program does more than provide students an opportunity to help their community; it also engages them in the educational experience by encouraging them to choose the services they believe will best fulfill their interests and talents. As they carefully evaluate the dozens of available service projects, students acquire a broad scope of knowledge about the many critical needs in the local and global community and come to a fuller understanding of how their individual and group efforts can help meet them.
Guided by the program’s director, a student leadership team evaluates proposals for service projects submitted by students and faculty, selecting those that best fit the program’s mission. Students then attend a forum at which representatives of the selected projects describe the objectives of their particular service. Once students have ranked their preferences, the leadership team assigns students to the various projects. Team leaders and members meet weekly throughout the school year to perform their services and plan future efforts. Successful services will generally be offered the opportunity to continue into the next year.
