COMMUNITY SERVICE
Grades 1- 12
The Community Service program at Country Day has been based on a passion for teaching, training, and inspiring students to care about their community and their world for the past 20 years. Projects range from reading at the Head Start Center, tutoring Sudanese refugees, supporting blood drives, holding food drives, building a playground, and sponsoring a Bocce Ball tournament for the Special Olympics. International service opportunities are becoming a growing aspect of the school. Recent service trips have taken students to Tanzania, Nicaragua, and Mexico.
Community Service begins in Nursery classrooms and continues in the Lower School through various grade level projects. Middle School projects are planned in conjunction with the Middle School Advisory Council, an elected body of students. In the Upper School, a 30-student community service board oversees the community service work. Students no longer just participate, but come up with service ideas, then plan, organize, and implement them.
Upper School students are required to complete 40 hours of community service as a graduation requirement. The President’s Student Service Award (P.S.S.A.) is based on a minimum of 100 hours and the majority of Country Day seniors exceed this amount.
Community Service Success Stories
For some students, service comes naturally. For instance, Andrew Valencia ’08 explains, “My mom is on the board for Rady Children’s Hospital and my dad is on the board of Big Brothers, so I have a good perspective on working with and supporting kids in need.”
Middle School students recently participated with a popular radio program, A.J.’s Playhouse to hold a toy drive for Rady Children’s Hospital. The whole Middle School Advisory Council went to the hospital with a bus filled with toys – a first for A.J.’s Playhouse. Last year, Grade 6 students spent three days volunteering with the San Diego Food Bank and Grade 7 students worked with a Head Start literacy project every two weeks.
Jake Hirsch ’08 has been involved in community service since he started at Country Day in Grade 3, when he participated in various fundraising walks and Head Start mentoring. In Upper School, he has already completed 180 hours of service. This year, he organized Three on Three: Hoops for Darfur, a tournament that had 17 teams of four participating, including five teams from the Sudanese Refugee Network in San Diego.
“It’s fun to combine things I like to do with community service,” says Jake. “It was kind of cool to meet all the Sudanese kids and bond with them. Some of them are very, very good at basketball.”
Community Service efforts can also open up a new world for those who participate. Hillary Buckner ’07, traveled to Tanzania and Nicaragua with Country Day programs because of her interest in public health. Hillary encouraged her class to adopt a child at the School of St. Jude in Tanzania, one of the poorest of the poor. His name is Emmanuel George and recently sent his report card and a photo to the class. Hillary has lined up classmates to continue the sponsorship when she graduates. Other students worked through the Global 20/20 organization to donate a satellite dish to the Ilkiding’a Secondary School in Tanzania, opening up a global window for the villagers.
“Through service, our students are meeting men and women in the community who are passionate about giving – whether it’s a doctor in Nicaragua who labors from sun up to sundown, or a volunteer at Mama’s Kitchen feeding AIDS patients, or the director of the Cancer Society – they realize it isn’t just something for a college resume, it’s a lifetime commitment. It’s the right thing to do.
-Sue Nordenger, Community Service Coordinator
