Lower School Community Service Program
Community service is an important component of every Lower School student’s educational experience. Each grade level has developed a project which is carried out by all the students with the help and supervision of their homeroom teachers. Teachers prepare students for their activities and encourage them to reflect on their experiences. Many of the activities are well-established and have become a traditional part of the curriculum.
In the early grades, Pre-K–second grade, students learn about the concept of altruism and discuss ways to alleviate problems of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Students in these grades learn how they can help others.
In the third to fifth grades, the community service program moves from projects that emphasize donating goods to those that give of oneself. Our older lower school students all work with younger children, gaining nurturing skills as they discover how cultural and economic differences among children in the Washington area can affect the types and quality of the education they receive.
Third Grade
Four times a year, our third graders visit the Calvary Multicultural Learning Center. Each GDS student is paired with a two- to four-year-old so that they can develop a relationship over the course of the year. Visits include an arts & craft project, a snack, and some informal chatting time. In May, the Calvary preschoolers are invited to GDS for a final “field day” celebration.
Fourth Grade
The fourth grade has two service projects. As a part of their environmental studies, students run the Lower School paper recycling program, emptying recycling bins in all the classrooms each week. Fourth graders are also big buddies to GDS Pre-K–K students. They visit the Pre-K–K classrooms regularly and form close friendships with their younger friends.
Fifth Grade
Every Tuesday, a fifth grade homeroom spends an hour reading with a first grade buddy class at Adams Elementary School. Each homeroom visits Adams once a month. Our students build substantial relationships with their first grade pals and see the progress they make over the course of the school year. At the end of the year the Adams students are invited to celebratory parties with their buddies at GDS.
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Middle School Community Service Program
Middle school students are involved in regular community service projects as a part of their education. They work alongside their teachers and advisors on projects that teach them about some of society’s most pressing issues.
Sixth Grade
Sixth grade students spend the year studying hunger in the Washington area, both the causes of it and ways in which they can help to alleviate the problem. They begin the year with several grade-wide activities. In September, students spend a morning gleaning vegetables at a local farm and the afternoon preparing them at area food kitchens. Students then participate in a powerful simulation developed by the Capital Area Community Food Bank, Hunger 101, which puts them in the shoes of someone who is hungry and without resources. After sponsoring a food drive in November, sixth graders deliver the donations to the Food Bank and work in its enormous warehouse.
In addition, sixth graders participate by homeroom in the following projects once a semester: prepare meals at school for the 30 women living at Luther Place Night Shelter, create a food pantry that houses all the nonperishable items needed to prepare the meal and raise money to cover the costs of the perishable ingredients, and prepare nutritious snacks with preschoolers at Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Childcare Center.
The sixth grade community service program is a homeroom-based, yearlong study of hunger. Over the course of the year, students have opportunities to:
- Glean vegetables at a local farm and prepare them at District food kitchens
- Participate in a simulation developed by the Capital Area Community Food Bank that enables students to experience some of the difficulties of being poor and hungry
- Sponsor food drives for and volunteer at the Capital Area Community Food Bank
- Prepare dinner for the women at Luther Place Night Shelter, which GDS High School students then serve
- Raise money for the Luther Place meal through bake sales and other projects
- Prepare snacks with preschoolers at Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Childcare Center
By approaching the topic from such a variety of perspectives, students gain both an understanding of some of the issues surrounding hunger and a knowledge of what they can do to help.
Seventh Grade
Supervised by faculty and parents, seventh and eighth graders participate in ongoing community service projects. Buses leave GDS at 8:55 a.m. and return by 11:20 a.m., on Wednesdays. Seventh graders work at the following sites for seven-week rotations during 2nd and 4th quarter:
- Adams Elementary: tutor fourth and fifth graders
- Calvary Multicultural Child Center: tend Latino preschoolers
- Canal Clean-Up: improve the environment along the C & O Canal (spring)
- Food & Friends: prepare meals for 500 homebound AIDS patients
- Friendship Terrace: visit with residents at retirement home (spring)
- GDS Angels: visit and help with yardwork for Seniors in GDS neighborhood
- GDS Carpenters: renovate District low-income housing
- Hardy Co-Op Nursery School: play with preschoolers
Eighth Grade
Supervised by faculty and parents, seventh and eighth graders participate in ongoing community service projects. Buses leave GDS at 8:55 a.m. and return by 11:20 a.m., on Wednesdays. Eighth graders work at the following sites for seven-week rotations during 1st and 3rd quarters:
- Adams Elementary Math & Chess Club: supervise games among fourth and fifth graders
- Calvary Multicultural Childcare Center: tend Latino preschoolers
- DC Central Kitchen: prepare meals for 3,000 clients
- Food & Friends: prepare meals for 500 homebound AIDS patients
- GDS Carpenters: renovate low-income housing in the District
- Hardy Middle School Math & Chess Club: sponsor games among ESL, Special Ed., and sixth grade students
- Mazique Child Development Center: care for babies to five-year-olds
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High School Community Service Program
Graduation Requirement: A minimum of sixty (60) hours of service outside the school and home, at no more than two locations.
Twenty (20) hours must be completed before the start of junior year. Criteria for appropriate service work include the following:
- The organization should have a recognized history of demonstrated service.
- Work may not be done for pay.
- Work may not be directly under the supervision of a parent or close relative.
- Students will be expected to provide their own transportation to and from service work.
- Students have a responsibility to both the agency and to GDS in terms of meeting commitments.
- There must be a specific on-the-job supervisor with whom the GDS Community Service Director can communicate and who will be responsible for evaluating the student’s work.
- Because one of the goals of this program is to open up new horizons, students may not volunteer to work at a private camp, church or synagogue, or music or dance school, unless it is to be involved in service outreach through that organization.
- At least 30 hours should offer direct contact with the population being serving. Students may work for an advocacy or research organization for a maximum of 30 hours.
One of the School’s primary goals has been to educate students about the concerns and problems of the larger community and to develop in each student an understanding of the responsibility to be of service to others. Most GDS students complete more than the required 60 hours. All hours that students hand in are included on their report cards and become a part of their college profiles. Specific requirement guidelines can be found on this website by clicking here, as well as in the Community Service handbook given to students in the spring.
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