Community Service: CONNECTIONS

Since the school’s opening, students have been engaged in our CONNECTIONS (our outreach program) on Wednesday afternoonss. Moving from awareness to engagement, students in this program explore the web of connections that exist between themselves and others.

Freshmen begin with CONNECTIONS training and projects the end of their first year. Sophomores are engaged in an environmental education program that we have developed and run in partnership with the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy. Junior year, students are actively working in community-based projects and also attend a college-counseling workshop for one quarter. Seniors are involved in apprenticeships/internships, and self-initiated projects.

At our permanent campus, we now can focus our service locally. The places where our students volunteer will be ones they can reach within five minutes of our campus—some of which they will pass every day on the way to school. A few places we have already worked with before, like Kawana Springs Elementary. Others, like the Children’s Village and the Council on Aging are new connections we look forward to deepening.