Alyssa Sterner ‘24
Episcopal fosters an extensive community service program intended to keep the student population engaged in supportive outreach initiatives and help it build connections and insights with communities beyond the school’s campus. EA students are provided with a range of opportunities to engage in community service, including multiple service trips throughout the year, in addition to programs such as ACLAMO.
Community Service Coordinator, Rebecca Brinks, explains that Episcopal’s Day of Service is “valuable because students get a chance to work with teachers and get a sense of community that they maybe can’t achieve during the school year due to a variety of academic commitments and extracurriculars.” Additionally, students have the ability to travel to a different area, outside of EA’s campus, allowing for a greater understanding of other communities’ needs.
Brinks emphasizes that the greatest benefit of community service is time. She comments, “EA’s Day of Service allows students to visit and work in a community for the majority of the day, creating a baseline connection and understanding of the events going on in the lives of the people they are helping.”
Mia Filipovski ‘23 had an informative Day of Service. She shares her experience, saying, “I went to FABSCRAPS which is a nonprofit organization that repurposes excess fabric from clothing and textile companies and we were tasked with organizing and categorizing the fabric scraps into bins based on their materials. I learned that these scraps could easily be repurposed into brand new clothing and that most of these materials go to the landfill unless organizations like FABSCRAPS redesign them.”
Photo courtesy of Anna Safford
Ishan Bhattacharrya ‘23, Member of the Community Service Corps Executive Board, details his experience, explaining, “We went to MANNA [Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance], an organization which delivers meals to people with serious illnesses, in Center City, Philadelphia, and it was very enjoyable. We worked on an assembly line, and it truly taught us about the prep and hard work that goes into distributing the food.”
While a day in the local Philadelphia area offers a rudimentary experience of service for those at EA, Brinks believes that, “The broad span of the May Term Service Trips are the most beneficial” because “it’s eye opening for students to go beyond.”
A typical May Term service trip includes an array of activities ranging from supporting the community environmentally, rebuilding damaged areas, or painting a mural on the walls of a community center, all of which will be happening on this year’s service trip to Puerto Rico. Time also plays a role in these trips. Brinks notes that, compared to EA’s Day of Service, “the extensive seven day trip furthers the baseline understanding of the community being served into a development of empathy.” She continues, “By living in a community, you are temporarily part of that community, sharing culture and forming relationships side by side with the people you are helping.“
Upper School Spanish Teacher Andrew Shimrock, who participated in the ACLAMO program, agrees with Brinks’ sentiment, explaining, “I worked with ACLAMO a few years ago and I would work with kids every season and their experiences were always transformative. They were able to see kids–immigrant kids and kids that had more difficult lives than them, kids that didn’t speak English–and it just opened their eyes to what is out there in the world and how they can give back.”
EA students have also gained perspective through Community Service Corps activities. Community Service Corps Member Kate Lamb ‘24 states, “I’ve learned that a lot of people work really hard and even though they’re doing everything they can and working their hardest to stay afloat, some people still need help. I’ve developed a new perspective of community service, and seen it as a way to support others and let them know that it’s nothing to be ashamed of to need an extra lift and that someone will always be there as a resource.”
EA’s Day of Service continues to serve as a valuable opportunity for the majority of students when choosing their path in serving the community. Shimrock shares his thoughts on the overarching importance of community service initiatives at EA, commenting, “I think that the community service program at EA is important because I believe that it is vital to give back to any community that you are living in. Going beyond that, I also think that it is a good opportunity for Episcopal students to meet people of different backgrounds and different needs.”