Middle School Community Service
Community Service in the Middle School reflects students’ growing concern for the world around them with opportunities that are ideal for their overall development. Each grade participates in two “Days of Service” with their entire class each year.
It’s a perfect opportunity for students to have the boundaries of their comfort zone stretched a bit. It gives them a head start in thinking about worlds that they’re not the center of and thinking about perspectives that aren’t their own. I think it’s the beginning of a long process of developing compassion and empathy.
Have a look at some of Chadwick’s community service events and activities:
- Operation Gratitude
- PVP Land Conservancy Hike and Trailwork
- Beacon Light Mission
- Clothing Drive for MHA Village
- Red Cross Blood Drive
- The Salinas Project #2
- International Peace Day
- 24 Hours of Homelessness #2
- P4K Swim Day
- All School Beach Cleanup
- Community Service Drive Luncheon
7th Grade
Seeing the challenges students face in some of our largest school districts provides invaluable perspective. At the 93rd Street School in Los Angeles, our students volunteer right in the classrooms, connecting with other students and celebrating the power of literacy and poetry to enhance lives. The focus of the first fall visit is reader’s theatre, which uses the dramatization of literature to teach reading fluency and comprehension. During their second visit, they work with the poetry slam group “Get Lit!” to encourage an interest in writing and reciting poetry.
8th Grade
Our eighth-graders wake up to the challenges facing those without reliable sources of sustenance. On their first day of service, school vans will shuttle students and their advisor to one of the following agencies supporting those in need:
- All Life Charities in Wilmington
- Curt’s Kitchen
- Harbor Interfaith
- Shared Bread
- St. Margaret’s Center
- St. Joseph Center
- The Poverty Program at SS. Peter and Paul
- Toberman Neighborhood Center
- House of Yahweh
- Los Angeles Food Bank
- Salvation Army in Harbor City, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica
Day of Service
In the Upper School, service is an elective that enables students to volunteer at a site of their choice on the day of their choice (during lunch and 7th period) each week of the school year. In the spring, Middle School students get to experience the sites where our Upper School students volunteer weekly.
During this “Day of Service,” Middle School students travel to one of ten off-campus service sites — public schools, programs for the disabled, convalescent care centers, preschools — to learn about the agency’s work and to volunteer for the morning. In the afternoon, they learn about the on-campus service opportunities available the next year, including Ovations, EcoCommunity and the Community Service Advisory Board.
I’m stressed about my homework, but they’re stressed about what meal they’re going to have next. I know I’m going to have a meal tonight. They don’t.