Mission in Motion

Since its founding, GDS has held a steadfast commitment to civic engagement and the belief that education should be a catalyst for social good. Today, that legacy of activism is anchored by two powerhouse initiatives: the GDS Impact Lab and its Policy Institute.

The Impact Lab

In 2018, GDS unified its civic action efforts into one central hub: the office of Community Engagement and Experiential Learning (CEEL)—now known as The Impact Lab.

At the time of this consolidation, the High School already had a robust roster of programming. Beyond the 60-hour community service requirement, the Impact Lab was organizing the summer Policy Institute, an internship program for 11th graders, and off-campus field trips for older students.

More recently, the Middle School has undergone a vibrant programmatic shift driven by a partnership between MS faculty and the Impact Lab. The “GDS Corps” that once tied grade-level themes to corresponding action-oriented activities matured over the past six years into “Middle School Impact”–a program that closely aligns class lessons with year-round excursions and activities.

Last school year, for instance, 5^th graders studied food and farming vocabulary in their chosen world language class before visiting Miller Farms. Seventh graders met with local mental health practitioners after learning to gather and analyze mental health statistics in math class.

Building on this learning-by-doing philosophy, the Impact Lab set its sights on the School’s youngest learners in the 2023–24 academic year. The Lab now pairs each Lower School grade with a local organization that works in areas relevant to that grade’s curriculum, creating a program that includes 40 distinct activities.

For kindergarteners, that meant getting a firsthand look at how Food Rescue US transfers surplus food to people who are food insecure; last year, they teamed up with High School students to collect leftover snacks from GDS and donate them to those in need.

The Impact Lab also serves as a vital bridge between divisions. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lab kept Hoppers connected via Zoom through its Buddy Program. As the school community fully reunited on campus for the 2021–22 school year, the program blossomed into a robust avenue for cross-divisional mentorship. This year, more than 350 GDS students served as buddies with pairs connecting weekly after school.

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The Policy Institute

What began as a modest pilot project for GDS High School students in 2015 has evolved into an incubator for inspired activism, helping the students—and now their DC-area peers—develop the skills they need to affect change in their communities and beyond.

The Policy Institute, a one-month summer program run by the Impact Lab, hosts roughly 50 fellows divided among five “tracks.” Each track explores a specific topic, such as the environmental justice movement or factors perpetuating socioeconomic inequity. For the program’s duration, fellows work alongside advocates, interact with policymakers, and travel to “ground zero” cities to learn from the people and places most affected by their focus issue. As the program wraps up, each track of students designs an action project to tackle a challenge in their core area of interest.

The Policy Institute reached a new milestone in the summer of 2025, when it officially opened its doors to students from schools throughout the DC region.

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