Service Learning Program
The core part of our program is service learning—an experiential based teaching that combines classroom curriculum with meaningful service and reflection. Through service learning students are engaged in mutually beneficial community work: students apply their studies in real-world settings and the community benefits from the students’ time and participation.
Service learning is integrated into each division’s program to meet the developmental needs of the students. The variety of issues studied, non-profit community partners, and populations served provide students with opportunities to meet and learn from a diversity of people and perspectives. Throughout the program students have hands-on experiences that underscore the importance of civic responsibility and engagement and the role we all play in strengthening our community for the common good.
As a school, we offer students and their families opportunities to participate in the community through school-sponsored projects:
We want students to be inspired to make a difference, now and for a lifetime.
- Each October, Rowland Hall collects food to support a local food pantry and the state’s food bank.
- The entire Upper School, with the support of 30-40 parents, participates in the “Half Day/Whole Heart Day of Service” in mid-October. On this day, students, teachers and parent volunteers blanket the community and work with over a dozen non-profits.
- In December, Rowland Hall hosts the Christmas Dinner Give-Away, which provides groceries for a traditional Christmas dinner to economically disadvantaged families. Rowland Hall students, parents, alumni, faculty and staff make up 90% of the volunteers for this event, which feeds over 1,000 families annually.
- To commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rowland Hall families volunteer on the Dr. King Holiday delivering supplemental food boxes to homebound elderly and people with disabilities.
Student-Initiated Projects
Additionally, each year students initiate projects that benefit the community. Past student-initiated projects have included a student-driven yard sale to raise money for tsunami relief, students sewing hand-made stuffed animals to support a local family domestic violence shelter, and a student collecting outgrown school uniforms to send to children in Kenya.
Service Clubs
In the Upper School, students can participate in extracurricular service clubs. These clubs are student-led and faculty-sponsored and enable students to have fun together while also benefitting others. Also, the Upper School’s Interim program offers service-oriented Interim experiences such as rebuilding homes in New Orleans or preparing and delivering food to people in the Salt Lake valley.
Changing the World
Through our program, we hope to nurture in students a spirit of service and a commitment to social action to change the world for the better.
For more information, contact Liz Paige, director of service learning, at 801.924.5943 or lizpaige@rowlandhall.org.
