Willow students are actively involved in Service Learning. Their education moves beyond the classroom walls as preschool through eighth grade students demonstrate empathy, compassion, and understanding of others in need through community services efforts. Students help to raise awareness about issues, fundraise, and give freely of their time. While these community service projects support local, national, and international interests, Willow’s Service Learning Program is unique in that the projects are integrated into the academic and virtues curricula. Once an actual need in the larger community is identified, it is matched with a grade that focuses on this particular area of study. The following is a sampling of these efforts.
Lower School
- Preschoolers plant bulbs, harvest them, and in the spring, give them as gifts to our faculty and staff as a way of brightening their day
- The kindergarten collects used bottle caps and sends these onto Aveda to be recycled and turned back into caps
- The first grade supports an orphanage in Nepal through their Community in the Woods study
- Second graders interview seniors living in a retirement community, bringing attention and value to intergenerational relationships
- The third grade keeps waste out of the landfills by collecting common non-recyclable items and sending them to TerraCycle to be reused or upcycled
- Fourth graders raise funds for Heifer International, an organization that supports sustainable livelihoods
- The Fifth grade runs a school-wide walk to fundraise for Charity:water. Students simulate the walk that many women and children make in order to get clean water
Middle School
- Independent Community Service Projects – each middle school student is responsible for selecting a community project idea and completing this work on their own time
Middle School Committees
- Youth Council – supports the Community Soup Kitchen in Morristown by helping at the soup kitchen and holding an annual fundraiser
- Sustainability Committee – encourages campus efforts to be sustainable – students work in our garden and help to reduce waste
- Green Guides – educate our school community and visitors about how our campus supports our philosophy of sustainability
- Outdoor Classroom Committee – works to design and create an outdoor classroom space to be used by all students
- Publicity Committee – is creating a publicity film to help share Willow’s vision with the outside community
- School Spirit and Leadership Committee – gives its time to promote spirit
Whole School
- Earth Day – all students provide a service to the environment on this day – sample projects include river clean up efforts to maintaining trails in local parks
- Harvest Soup is a time when the school community gathers to harvest our fall crop and to give thanks for our bounty