Alexandria Friends School Curriculum
Service Learning
Quakers believe in working together with others to create a better world for everyone. Activities that promote peace and understanding, community development, and well-being lie at the heart of Quaker service. For each year of attendance at Alexandria Friends School, each student is asked to engage in forty hours of service learning by helping people in need (through an approved organization), as a requirement for graduation. (We will be adjusting our program for next year's middle school grades.)
In order to facilitate completion, students do not report to school on Wednesdays in the Winter Trimester. Instead, they arrange to spend four hours each Wednesday at their service learning site. Ideally the project will involve direct service to those in need. Our students have worked in homeless shelters, elementary schools, nature centers, food pantries, and animal hospitals, among other service and non-profit-oriented sites.
We also engage as a school in a variety of short-term service projects over the course of the school year. Not only is such work helpful to the recipient organization, it is often transformative for the individual as well.
NEXT: Senior Project >