During Thanksgiving break, the junior class received an invitation to a Service Learning Canvas page. Students quickly discovered that multiple service learning assignments were due after the break, including a 500- to 700-word essay and a recorded video. With only a brief class meeting announcement for a warning, students felt confused about the new Service Learning Program.
Previously, Upper School (US) students were required to complete 40 hours of community service by the end of high school, followed by a written reflection. The school’s current seniors, the Class of 2025, are the last with an hours-based graduation requirement.
Former Community Outreach and Engagement Coordinator Candie Sanderson began designing a new Service Learning requirement in 2021 with the help of US Service Learning Coordinators Gabriela Gonzenbach, Sasha Lyons, and Former US Math Teacher Agnes Voligny.
Ms. Sanderson aimed to move the program away from the traditional 40 hours to foster greater personal growth among students, she said.
“I wanted us to shift from saying, ‘We’re serving people in need,’ which felt like a deficit way of thinking about it, to, ‘This is an opportunity for us to help our community and to get involved and get exposed to new things.’”
It was difficult to establish structure for the new requirement, however.
“There was a simplicity and clarity to the 40 hours, and now, it’s a little bit less cut and dry because we need a series of competencies from a rubric, which is more of a gray area.”
Ms. Sanderson departed the school in September 2023 (See Volume 52, Issue 4: “DEIG officer leaves US to aid homeless”) without finalizing the plan for service learning during junior and senior year. Her position was not filled until a year after her departure; Ms. Voligny, Profe. Gonzenbach, and Ms. Lyons collectively oversaw service during the gap.
Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Global Education Patty Dei took over Ms. Sanderson’s position this fall. He is now in charge of finalizing and sustaining the new Service Learning Program. The 40-hour system was in need of alteration, Mr. Dei said.
“The hours-based approach often encouraged students to focus on logging time rather than fostering a genuine connection with the communities they served,” he said via email. “This transactional mindset diminished the depth of the service experience.”
While completing the 40 hours, students developed minimal understanding 0f their work and the people involved, he said.
“The system didn’t encourage critical thinking about the root causes of societal problems. Many students didn’t fully develop empathy for the people or communities they served. They weren’t challenged to think about the lived experiences of those affected by the issues they were working to address.”
Mr. Dei hopes to resolve these issues by encouraging students to develop deeper relationships with their communities.
“The new model inspires lifelong civic engagement and transforms service into a purposeful learning experience.”
The new service learning requirement helps students to develop self-awareness, understand community needs, address systemic issues, promote leadership and advocacy, and create sustainable impact, Mr. Dei said. Students will participate in two afternoons of service during their freshman and sophomore years. During junior and senior year, students are urged to form relationships with organizations and to complete assignments posted on the Canvas page while serving their communities. The requirement culminates in a final project, according to Mr. Dei.
For the junior class, the first service learning assignments were initially due the Monday after Thanksgiving break on Dec. 2, 2024 despite the no homework holiday. The due date was then bumped to Dec. 6, during Critical Academic Period, then Dec. 13, an exam review day, and again to Jan. 6, the first day back from winter break. After adjusting the deadline four times, the Service Learning coordinators settled upon Jan. 8.
In a collaborative statement, Profe. Gonzenbach and Mr. Dei said the assignments aim to aid students in their understanding of service.
“Assignments and projects were developed to provide a structured but flexible framework that supports both student learning and community impact.”
Convincing the US community of the new system’s benefits has been a challenge, they said.
“Moving away from the traditional hours-based mindset required significant effort to change expectations among students, teachers, and parents. It required clear communication to show how the new program was more impactful and meaningful.”
CELB member Aleeza Riaz ’25 believes that communication has been inadequate.
“The new system is quite vague, and even I don’t have a great grasp on it, so that just highlights what the problem is with the current system.”
Aleeza prefers the prior system, she said.
“Without the 40-hours of requirement, there’s no incentive for people to do service.”
Fellow CELB member Naomi Hammerschlag ’25 agrees that the new model requires more definition.
“I think that there should be some sort of structure to our service learning because a lot of people have become disengaged from those opportunities because it’s not being publicized.”
Rather than a single day of service for freshmen and sophomores, the new policy should instead introduce consistent service in students’ first year, Naomi said.
“It would be nice to expose students to volunteering early by talking about it in freshman class meetings, because it’s so easy to get involved,” she said. “I think if you just start exposing all these resources and organizations to people early, then they’ll be more likely to seek it out throughout their high school experience.”
Lizzy Nicholas ’28 shares Naomi’s desire for clarity about the requirement, she said.
“I feel like it would be helpful if the school provided a more in-depth description of what the requirements are and how you can fulfill those requirements throughout your four years of high school.”
For Hailey Jiang ’26, the service learning assignments were poorly timed, she said.
“I have a gripe with when they sent the Canvas course link,” she said. “It was the first day of Thanksgiving break, and then when we returned, they asked us, ‘Why is nobody finishing their assignments?’ Then, they made it due the third day back from winter break, so we had to do it over break.”
Julia Wang ’26 disapproves of the reflection-heavy new system, she said.
“It’s really useless, and I feel like people are going to volunteer a bunch of hours anyways, so there’s no point in doing all this extra stuff that they’re making us do.”
Mr. Dei and Profe. Gonzenbach said they will continue to accept community feedback with hopes of developing an ideal service learning model.
