The Service Learning Team has worked diligently to integrate service more fully into the curriculum, with each grade level focusing on a designated social concern within advisory groups. Freshmen are learning about hunger and homelessness; sophomores are examining differing abilities; juniors are looking at health issues; and seniors are concentrating on the environment and education.

Prior to the Day of Service on November 2, juniors and seniors spent time exploring their respective issues within their advisory groups. Based on their interests and designated issues, each advisory chose a local organization to partner with to complete their service requirements for the year. The new model for service learning provides students with structured opportunities to develop ongoing relationships with local organizations and to understand the social issues that create the need for such organizations.

Roughly 150 juniors and seniors visited 20 different service sites, including inner-city Philadelphia schools, city parks and environmental centers, AIDS organizations, homes for the elderly, food banks, and hospice centers, among others. Service activities were followed by lunch and a screening of Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth, at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute.

Paul Tierney, Upper School physics teacher, visited Royal Gardens along Cobb Creek with his advisory group. Armed with loppers, swing blades, and muscles, the group spent several hours eliminating non-native invasive plants from a small area along the banks of the creek. The invasive plants change the eco-system of the environment, crowding out native plant species and affecting bird and insect populations. Without anything to counter their growth, the non-native plants create an unfriendly and unattractive park environment for people as well. “The plants were everywhere,” said Tierney. “You couldn’t see ten feet past the brush. It could have gone on for miles for all we could tell.”

After a couple of hours on the job, the group cleared a path to the bank of the creek. “The students felt a great sense of accomplishment,” commented Tierney. His advisees were pleasantly surprised by the well-cared for homes and gardens on the street that flanked the park. “Incidentally,” Tierney remarked, “the experience broke down students’ stereotypes of city neighborhoods.” An important supplementary lesson for Shipley’s students.

Senior Austin Anthony’s Day of Service experience also dealt with the environment—the urban environment. He and his advisory group, led by Art Department Head, Chris Wagner, spent the morning working on a mural project with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Anthony said, “This was a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was so different than what we usually do, and it feels great to contribute to something that everybody is going to see.” Many students in the group are now considering working with the organization for their Senior Service Projects. “The artist we worked with was very impressed with the students,” said Chris Wagner, who is looking forward to continuing the School’s partnership with the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

In another part of the city, Jen Groeber, Upper School art teacher and College Counselor, and her advisory group spent the morning at the Cassidy School, a K-5 Philadelphia public school. Students served as teachers’ aids in overcrowded classrooms and provided one-on-one tutoring to Cassidy students. “This was so different from trips in the past,” commented Groeber. “It allowed us to make connections with real people.” Another benefit of the day of service, said Groeber, was that “Students were forced to leave behind their Shipley identities and immerse themselves in the Cassidy School. Our experience was spot-on what you want kids to experience through service learning. It was inspiring and humbling.”