School Life
Community Service
Community Service at SJS
Foundation, Growth, and Dedication
Based on the mission of St. John’s School, the Community Service program encourages all members of the St. John’s family to become aware of societal needs and to take intentional action to address these needs. Through relationships with our local community partners, students learn more about their interests and passions as well as social inequities and how their actions can make a positive difference. As they progress through St. John’s School, our students develop their unique commitment to our broader society.
Through engaging with service opportunities, SJS students at all grade levels will…
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Engage in ongoing reflection about their place and purpose in the world.
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Develop relationships with communities beyond our campus
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Learn to use their passion to create positive change in their community
Lower School: Foundation and Exploration
Lower school students are engaged in meaningful projects that develop a habit of selfless service and foster an awareness of needs outside the confines of St. John’s. Projects are coordinated with a wide variety of organizations and are hands-on in nature. As much as possible, students are given opportunities to create, build, and have direct contact with the people we aim to serve. One of the longest-running projects is an annual Holiday Drive to collect clothing, necessities, and wish list gifts for Houston families in need. Each year, students in Class Five deliver these items to the organization or families they serve. With each project, students in Lower School are building upon a foundation of serving others without expecting anything in return.
Middle School: Growth and Experience
In Middle School, students are provided with several opportunities to serve the larger Houston community through school-wide, class level and advisory-based service projects. Believing that “sweat equity” is more valuable to both the individual student and the community, our projects focus on students giving of their time and energy rather than goods or monetary gifts. Monthly and themed optional service activities are offered in an effort to introduce middle school students to a wide array of in-person service opportunities. These include painting dog houses with the Houston Humane Society, decorating and packing sack lunches at Kids Meals, and participating in beautification projects with the Houston Botanic Garden. School-wide service allows all members of the Middle School to participate in a service opportunity together. These opportunities include our annual Special Olympics track and field event, our grade level Days of Giving, and our Class 8 sponsored Halloween carnival for children undergoing cancer treatment in cooperation with the organization Candlelighters. It is our hope that through constant and varied exposure to service opportunities, students will find an area they are passionate about and continue to more independently serve as they move into Upper School.
Upper School: Self-Discovery and Dedication
In Upper School, students start to identify their unique passions for service. Based on that self-discovery, students have the chance to develop their own ongoing projects based on community needs. Members of each grade are selected for the Community Service Student Officer Board, where they develop school-wide programming; engage new students in service; and support ongoing projects. Through serving, SJS students develop deeper relationships inside and outside of school, as well as a stronger understanding of the city of Houston. Upper School students also have the additional opportunity to integrate service into their academic program through service-learning courses and independent projects.
Service learning in the Upper School emphasizes context, service and reflection. Whenever possible, we want to educate our students about the context of a service project by asking questions like: why does this issue exist in our communities? Who else is already working on tackling this issue? How can we support those efforts? Setting context allows our students to make a deeper connection to the project and understand the purpose of the service. After serving, we ask students to think deeply about what they are learning from that service. We ask them to both reflect on their personal shifts as well as the impacts on the community they are serving. Our hope is that through engaging students in this reflective process they will see the greater purpose of service and continue to prioritize it throughout their lives.
Because St. John’s School encourages but does not require service, it is truly the hearts and hands of our students that reach out to others. The ultimate goal of the St. John’s Community Service program is to lay the foundation for a lifelong and consistent commitment to leadership in service.
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