Community Service

Program Description:

Linking Learning to Life provides community service opportunities to students at Hunt Middle, Edmunds Middle and Burlington High School. Students at each school are encouraged to volunteer with area non-profit organizations. Many of these experiences may also be linked to school credit and/or coursework. Additionally, an annual community service fair is held at Burlington High School involving approximately 30 are non-profit organizations.

What is it?

Burlington High School

Students at Burlington High School are required to complete 10 hours of community service at a non-profit organization each school year. Linking Learning to Life plays an integral part in coordinating the Community Service Program at BHS, in partnership with students in a Social Studies class and a Community Service Advisory Board. Linking Learning to Life also helps make volunteer experiences more accessible to BHS students through individual consultation, daily homeroom announcements, a community organization database and bulletin board postings.

Edmunds Middle School

Students at Edmunds Middle School offer over 3500 hours of service to the community each school year. Several 7th/8th grade teams have ongoing community service programs, in which small groups of students work during school hours in partnership with over 30 different community agencies. Projects are extremely varied: students glean food from the Intervale for the Food Shelf, provide office support for Lund Family Center, fix bikes for refugees at Bike Recycle Vermont, and read to young kids at the Sara Holbrook Center, to name just a few projects. Other service projects include: an oral history project in which middle school students work with seniors in the community, a school-wide math service-learning project, and various community-based learning activities for individual students.

Community Service connects students to the community they live in. By fostering this connection early, and establishing a habit of volunteerism, it is more likely that these youth will become active, adult citizens. Community Service is important in teaching students what cannot be taught within the classroom, such as civic responsibility and character education which promotes compassion, cooperation, and care. Most importantly, community service introduces youth to the community they live in by providing positive learning experiences within its inner framework.

Who Does it Benefit?

Service programs offer students a greater knowledge of their community and develops a greater confidence in their role as citizens. Volunteering provides early workplace skills as well as exposure to many different careers, as students work within non-profit organizations. Students benefit by the meaning that comes from doing real-world work. Community Organizations benefit from the genuine contributions made by students to the work of their organizations, and from the connections made with the schools in their community.

For More Information:

Please contact Ande Tagliamonte, Career Direction Center Specialist, Burlington High School (802) 865-5320 ; Dov Stucker, Community Outreach Coordinator, Edmunds Middle School, (802) 316-1463 ; Jennifer Sutton, Community Outreach Coordinator, Hunt Middle School, (802) 316-1462