The 23-24 school year was only the second year under the updated Upper School service program, rehauled by Sarah Kelly, the Upper School Service Coordinator. Writers for The Falcon reflect on the most recent service day and on this year’s service experience.
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Ozzy Spiker
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Cobbs Creek and help clean the trash that was polluting the park. What began as an uncomfortable and gross experience quickly became a fun and exciting service day once the group began to work together. As we went further into the park, we began to realize our impact on the community, motivating us to work harder and continue to clean the space. A highlight of the service trip was when we found a basketball hoop destroyed and abandoned on the side of the road. After working to free the basketball hoop, we carried it back to the parking lot where we passed a local community member. He was excited to see that we were able to take the hoop away that was sitting abandoned across the street from his house. Leaving the park that day, I realized how service day makes a real impact on the communities we work in.
Patrick Ryan
During the pandemic, service days were put on hold. I feel that their return is a massively good thing, and I think there are ways they can be even better. The work that Sarah Kelly, the Upper School Service coordinator, has done to build relationships with local service organizations has helped service at Friends Select greatly. A change I would like to see, though, is a greater emphasis on outside-of-school service. Currently, students are only expected to complete a few external service hours, and I think the system should switch.
Leah Pessin
April 25th was the fourth Upper School service day of the year. Each student gets assigned to a service group based on preference and logistics. This was the first time I got the service group that was on the top of my list: Friends Childcare. As it is the most sought-after service, seniors mostly get assigned to it. To be honest, it was totally worth the hype. Everyone in the group got assigned a different classroom, and I ended up with the almost-two-year-olds. I spent the day reading picture books, painting in scribbles that can only be described as “modern”, and playing chase on the playground. I greeted my own preschool teachers and even got to see some pictures from way back when. By the end of the day, I was definitely tired and had gained an appreciation for all the hard work of daycare teachers.
Talia Mono
I got to go to Friends Childcare, and it was my favorite service day I’ve had. I got to help out the workers in the “Carebear” age group and the babies were so cute! I fed them bottles of formula and held them. Later in the morning we took the babies for a walk in the multiple strollers Friends Childcare has. While on this walk, we visited the Free Library of Philadelphia. Overall, the day was super fun and I really enjoyed this service option. For the year as a whole, I don’t always enjoy service day as much as I enjoyed the most recent one. However, it does feel good to know that I’m helping people by doing these acts of service like packing boxes or cleaning public areas.
Esmé Michaeloff
I went to Small Things, which is the only service group I’ve been in. Small Things distributes food, hygiene, and other household items to the community. This time I went to a warehouse in Roxborough. There, we organized and boxed food. We often return to school with armfuls of flowers. The only thing is to remember to bring a jacket because the warehouse is always cold.
Carl Heyne
Service hours should either be removed, or there should be additional days for service, so that there are either no in-school hours or no out-of-school service hours. While the mix psychologically encourages people to complete their service hours, it makes things confusing. Another change I would like to see is a better system for who goes in what group. I noticed that there were people who didn’t get their first choice group, but people who didn’t actually submit a group request got into said group. That said, the service days I experienced were great experiences, and somehow managed to make cleaning up literal garbage enjoyable.
Sam Goldwert
I think that service days are important for the community as they help build empathy, collaboration, and problem-solving skills outside of the classroom. However, I think that many people feel the negative impact of missing a full day of school, especially when it takes away valuable class time during a time of heavy workload. Additionally, I think that MobileServe, our current method of tracking service hours, is not intuitive and makes tracking service outside of school very frustrating.
