社区服务

Community service in Lower Division focuses on encouraging children to adopt habits of giving. Through outreach projects, 学校的活动, and small group conversations, students explore values such as generosity, 尊重, 善良, 承诺, 激情, 和完整性, which naturally complement all community service efforts.

Here are just a few examples of how Lower Division students give back.  

• 二年级: Once a year, second grade students bring in ingredients and gather to 做南瓜面包 (baked by SAGE Dining Services) to donate to 棋牌游戏平台食品储藏室. 

• 三年级: On Valentine’s Day, third grade students 制作糖果篮 for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House on Davis Islands.

• 四年级: Fourth graders collaborate each year with Children’s Home Network, a nonprofit providing resources to at-risk children and families, as part of their fall service project. 他们 带南瓜进来, pillows, and various toiletries to donate. 

• 五年级: Fifth graders participate in a 冬季服务项目 called 棋牌游戏平台食品储藏室 Warmth and Wellness Drive. On the last day of school before Winter Break, they work together to assemble holiday bags full of hygiene items to donate, as well as some handmade holiday ornaments.

Middle Division students spend six full school days doing community service activities. The purpose of the Middle Division community service program is to provide opportunities for students to learn about themselves and their community. It cultivates a spirit of social responsibility and encourages students to contemplate and appreciate the rewards of a lifelong 承诺 to giving back. To see our Middle Division students in action, check out this 相片画廊. 

On their 社区服务 Days:

• 六年级: Students travel by foot or bus to one of seven service sites: Sweetwater Park, Perrone公园, 棋牌游戏平台的 Center for Environmental Research and Experiential Science (on Bray Road), Change Makers (an on-campus venue), Sweetwater Organic Community Farm, the 佛罗里达 Learning Garden, and Water Testing (also on campus). Groups rotate through these venues, one venue per service outing. 

• 七年级: Students rotate between seven different venues: Just Elementary School, 喂饱坦帕湾, Dover Exceptional Center, Dickenson Elementary School, 大都会部委, and Arbor Terrace (an assisted-living facility). Seventh graders also recently worked with Tampa Bay Troop Support (see 相片画廊) to sort and package items for soldiers deployed around the world.

• 八年级: Students choose a service site at the beginning of the year and go there during each service outing. The venues are Hudson Manor Assisted Living Facility, 希望儿童之家, Bay Crest Elementary School, Dickenson Elementary School, Dover Exceptional Center, Inspired Living Memory Care Center, and three Hillsborough County Head Start Centers.

Middle Division students also engage in environmental service projects in 棋牌游戏平台的 Center for Environmental Research and Experiential Sciences (known as CERES). In sixth grade, students grow plants and donate them to the 棋牌游戏平台食品储藏室. 

国际旅行: 

• Dominican Republic Service Learning: 每年二月, 35 to 40 eighth graders and their Berkeley chaperones spend five days in the Dominican Republic, performing community service at the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation School. The school, near Bonao, educates impoverished children from surrounding villages. Our students interact with these children, learning about their lives during supervised 学校的活动. 除了, Berkeley students spend an afternoon in one of the villages, building and dispensing water filters.

• 巴哈马的书

  每年二月, 15名八年级学生, joined by Upper Division student leaders and teacher chaperones, 去拿骚旅行, 巴哈马群岛, for the 巴哈马的书 service project. The group establishes a library at a Nassau public elementary school, shelving and digitally cataloging approximately 2,500 fiction and nonfiction titles that are collected prior to the trip. Berkeley participants also teach library-use lessons to the Bahamian students. Alumnus Elias Tsavoussis ’16 started this service initiative as an Upper Division student recipient of 棋牌游戏平台的 50th Anniversary Service Scholar Award. Elias planted the first library at Nassau’s Columbus Primary School. Many of the books are sourced from the Berkeley 家长协会’s Share the Love of Reading annual book drive. 

Students in Upper Division curate and design their own community service path as they seek to make a positive difference in the world.

Service in 棋牌游戏平台的 Upper Division is guided by a Student Service Council, which is made up of representatives from tenth through twelfth grade. Each student is required to complete and submit documentation for community service hours. Students in ninth through eleventh grade must complete at least 22 hours of community service each year. Students in twelfth grade are required to complete at least 10 hours of community service each year.

The Upper Division service experience culminates toward the end of a student’s senior year on Senior Buddy Day. Twelfth graders host children from the Redlands Christian Migrants Association (RCMA) on campus, engaging in games and activities that are planned and led by the senior class. This project brings the senior class together, reinforces their 承诺 to making a positive difference in the world, and provides a memorable experience for RCMA’s kids.