Michael Venneri ’27
Max Godshall ’26
In an effort to encourage more meaningful service, EA made major changes to its community service program this year. Instead of sending an entire grade out to serve on one day, individual advisories now conduct community service on different days. These changes aim to make community service more meaningful and engaging for everyone involved. With the school year now past the halfway mark, it’s time to reflect on the success of these changes.
On past service days, an entire grade would go out for service projects, while the rest of the school participated in a day of programming. This year’s change has two primary benefits. Firstly, this change allows students to volunteer in smaller groups, increasing personal connections. Secondly, there won’t be a need to allot multiple academic days solely to community service. This change was made to “cut down on lost academic time,” Rebecca Brinks, community service coordinator explains. With the previous format, when each grade went on their day of service, academic schedules and plans had to be altered to work around those days. Generally, the students who were not serving would engage in special programming not typically related to school material. Because there would be no academic harm to missing these lessons, a large number of students would simply not show up.
Photo courtesy of EA Communications
Students and teachers have a wide variety of perspectives on the changes. Some students have concerns about missing classes. David Ding ’25 shares, “When just a few kids miss a class, it can’t be canceled, which makes it hard for the students who are serving to stay on pace with their peers.” Ding compares the new system to last year, explaining that every student would miss class that day and so class would be canceled and nobody would fall behind. He also believes that splitting the days up defeats a sense of school-wide unity that was present in previous years.
Like Ding, Max Burman ’27 has concerns about the impact of missing class. “It’s definitely impactful because you’ll have to email your teachers and catch up on different things that you missed, and if it’s a test, it’ll mess up your schedule,” he explains. However, Burman still likes the new format. “During school is fine; You’ll have the disadvantage of missing school but you’ll also have a lot of time to serve.” This year, Burman helped clean Philadelphia. “It was really fun. We could see a lot of stuff in the city and help clean up trash which is good in general.”
Samuel Willis, Upper School English Teacher, also agrees with the changes. “I always love serving the community and it is always a worthwhile experience,” he says. Still, students missing class is also a concern for him. He also notes that this year’s changes have made it hard for him, as an advisor, to find a sub on such short notice. However, Willis also appreciates how the school takes time to allow the students, as well as their advisors, to give back to the community and create stronger relationships with their advisees.
Ultimately, the changes to community service days have been a large success. While students have had to miss class, it is better than the previous model in which four academic days were replaced by special programming as each grade went out on their community service days. These changes allow the focus for those serving to be solely on helping the community.