Awards

2012 Community Service Applications are due Monday, February 6th. This year's theme is: Outstanding Relationships with Community Agencies.

Does your school do great service work for a specific community agency or larger organization? Tell us about it! 
Application for Recognition

 

2011 Theme: Stewardship of the Earth

CSEE's 2011 community service recognition program looks for schools doing exemplary work to care for the earth and / or to educate about it.

First Place

The Willow School
Gladstone, NJ
 

Willow is one of those rare and beautiful schools whose work for environmental stewardship has clear roots right in the mission statement. In addition to academic excellence and "the joy of learning," Willow is committed to having students experience "the wonder of the natural world." Willow's students are from preschool through grade eight. The school's environmental stewardship program is intertwined with its virtues program, which intentionally encompasses ethical relationships: relationships among human beings, and relationships between human beings and the natural world. The goal is to develop in children a sense of personal stewardship and love for the earth.

As early as kindergarten, students are made aware of problems facing landfills, oceans, and rivers- as well as the damage done when what we throw away gets eaten by creatures that live on our land or in our waterways. Students do their part by collecting bottlecaps and sending them to a company that recycles them into new tops. In true service learning fashion, the students also count and weight what they collect. 

Third graders collect other non-recyclable products and send them to a company that transforms the "garbage" into new products. Juice pouches, for example, will later become lunch bags. In this case, also, students are not only working with the outside world, but also learning in the classroom.

Older students work with an outside agency called Charity: Water, on a project that brings clean, safe drinking water to developing nations. Part of the project entails raising money for the charity; another facet works toward conservation of water, keeping the water supply safe, and protecting fragile watersheds.

Older students at Willow take on independent community service projects; though it is not a mandate that service have an environmental sustainability focus, a number of students do design innovative projects that entail earth stewardship. 

The environment has been a central theme of the Willow School experience since the school's inception. The school staff is convinced that such a focus builds a foundation for respect, and motivates young people to want to do more. 

Second Place

Far Hills Country Day School
Far Hills, NJ

Far Hills Country Day School is a Pre-K—8 school that is serious about global citizenship. Students participate in some form or service at every grade level. Not only is service linked to in-class learning at Far Hills Country Day, it is also regularly accompanied by reflection. The service program’s emphasis on stewardship of the earth stems from key statements in the Far Hills Country Day School mission statement, most notably the call for responsible citizenship and the importance of valuing all relationships. The development of empathy is an essential component of both curricular work and service work. The school is intentional in its efforts to nurture skills and capacities for environmental stewardship at every stage of children’s development.

The youngest of students at Far Hills plant seedlings in a student-designed garden-and some of their harvest makes its way into the school cafeteria. Older students are active in recycling efforts and making presentations about renewing and reusing. By the seventh and eighth grades, FHCDS students have developed their skills such that they can extend their influence in a variety of ways, and with multiple audiences. Middle school students have formed an Energy Task Force to help lead their peers, and the community as a whole, to reduce energy consumption.

Honorable Mention

The Lovett School
Atlanta, GA

Lovett School’s community service sustainability work is led by “The Green Team,” an upper school group of students that have developed and supported numerous activities and initiatives on campus. Some of these green activities include a school-wide terracycling program, composting on campus, monitoring food waste, and holding e-waste drives. The transportation subcommittee has staged walk to school days, and carpool days, involving 1122 students and faculty!  They’ve also activated Carpool Finder software on their school website, and instructed parents on how to use the system. Community Service Coordinator Angela Morris-Long also notes that, “Lovett’s Strategic Plan calls for the school to pursue environmental sustainability… Lovett students are learning from their surroundings, practicing sustainability, and making respect for the environment second nature.”