Why wait until you’re an adult to make a difference in the world? This week, the Mack Littleton eighth grade class presented their community service projects to the entire school community. The community project is the capstone of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program, a required part of each student’s progress towards graduation. It also exemplifies a key part of Mackintosh Academy’s mission: to encourage our students to engage in global action.
The eighth graders were first asked to choose a community that they wanted to learn more about and serve. After investigating this community, they wrote research papers, and then worked with a faculty mentor to plan their service projects. Although they had teacher guidance and support, their projects were independently designed and conducted.
Students drew upon their own skills, passions and interests to create unique projects that ranged from culinary to creative to civic. The student projects included:
- Growing heirloom organic tomatoes in an urban garden
- Creating infographics and videos for an organization that assists Filipino farmers in saving seeds
- Training a dog to be a therapy dog for seniors in memory care centers
- Walking dogs for an animal shelter on cold winter days
- Serving as a lady-in-waiting for the Society for Creative Anachronism
- Teaching students how to fold origami cranes, sharing the Japanese story of Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes for peace
- Creating an art blog and organizing a “postcards for peace” project
- Designing six options for an official flag for city of Littleton that will be presented to the city council
- Writing a vegetarian cookbook to empower new vegetarians and educate people about vegetarianism
Each student was expected to spend at least 15 hours on their service project, but most did much more.
To wrap up their community projects, the students spoke at a school-wide assembly, explaining their work to the larger community of students, faculty and parents. They said to their audience, “We did some work in our communities, why should you care? Because, though each of us has spent 15 hours making the world a better place, a great effort, there is still work to be done. Each of you sitting there has the possibility, no, the responsibility to help other in need. Take the unique gifts each of you have, whether it involves math, science, creativity, or just a strong passion, and make the world a better place. This is just the starting point, what we have done, to a brighter tomorrow.”