The mission of the Boys’ Latin Community Service program is to increase students’ understanding of community issues, provide opportunities for hands-on experience, and enhance student learning through instruction, experience, and reflection. The community service program is committed to educating and engaging all members of the school community, including faculty, parents and alumni. The program strives to instill a collective sense of awareness, compassion for others, and responsibility toward the broader community. Through this, it is our goal to fulfill the school’s motto, esse quam videri.
Multiple opportunities to engage in community service and service learning are offered throughout the school year, ranging from collections of blankets, hosuehold supplies, personal hygiene items and Thanksgiving turkeys, to planting trees, cleaning local watershed areas and neighborhood beautification projetcs. Upper School students have access to 6-8 saturday community service outings as well as summer opportunities which have taken students to nearby Baltimore neighborhoods as well as New Orleans.
Service Learning Day
A new tradition began in April, 2009 on the Boys’ Latin Campus when we hosted our first Service Learning Day. The whole day was set aside for all of the students, grades kindergarten through twelve, to work together on service projects with a single theme. The event was so well-received that a second Service Learning Day was planned for April, 2010, and plans are being made for 2011!
April 17, 2009. Service Learning Day focuses student attention on the issues of homelessness. On a bright and beautiful day, the students at Boys’ Latin heard from Donald Whitehead, who shared his journey from homelessness to his current position as Assistant Director of Beans and Bread Center in Baltimore. Mr. Whitehead made a visual impression as well as he shed the clothes from his homeless days to reveal his business suit, which is what he wears today. Later that morning the students broke into small groups by grade to participate in activities designed to explore the issues associated with homelessness and hunger. Next the students were grouped with their “service buddies” –one from each division—to create lunches or kits for the various branches of the St. Vincent DePaul Society of Baltimore. The groups brought the school, welcome, transition kits and lunches to the field for a short wrap-up before they loaded the kits into the truck for transportation to the various centers sponsored by St. Vincent DePaul. The students enjoyed working with boys from the other divisions to make a difference!
April 16, 2010. Service Learning Day goes beyond our campus to improve the environment. Once again students in grades kindergarten through twelve met as a group to participate in a themed day of service. The boys in kindergarten through third grades remained on campus to build 20 bird and 21 bat houses for use at the Carrie Murray Nature Center and create mini compost columns for use in their own homes. Students in grades four through twelve boarded busses to work at various sites around the greater Baltimore area. By the time they returned to campus, they had planted 160 trees in Baltimore City parks, dug 25 post holes for a new deer fence at Cylburn Arboretum, Removed 20 bags of garbage and many loads of branches and leaves from the Baltimore Harbor and the Ft. McHenry Conservation area, pulled 20 buckets of weeds at Cromwell Valley Park, prepared 20 plant boxes for use with city school children at Great Kids Farm, rebuilt 50 feet of trail at Carrie Murray Nature Center, collected 10 bags of trash around Lake Roland, and removed invasive vines from about 100 trees near Lake Avenue. The students met with their buddies from the other divisions to eat lunch, share stories about their morning activities, and write letters to state and federal legislators explaining what they had done and why the environment is important to all of us.
Upcoming Community Service Events
Planning for the 2010-11 year's events inn underway; please visit this page again soon for community service event information.
Volunteer Resources
In addition to the following list of service learning opportunities, students can find placements that match their interests and schedules using the following web sites:
www.volunteermatch.org
www.volunteersolutions.org
www.baltimorecountyonline.info/go/volunteers
www.shareyourself.org
Resources for Community Service Internships
www.actionforchange.org/getalife/internships.html
www.studentjobs.gov (federal internship information)
www.internshipprograms.com
www.internabroad.com
www.idealist.org allows you to search for internships at nonprofits such as environmental groups
www.volunteerinternational.org lists volunteer opportunities