Introduction

The Service Project is an integral part of Gray Stone Day School’s graduation requirements and is patterned after the Senior Project® program owned by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Eagle Scout Project of the Boys Scouts of America.  It is a performance-based opportunity that provides students with a vehicle to demonstrate what they know and are able to do for others as they prepare to graduate from high school. Though the project culminates in the graduation year, seniors should be prepared with specific skill activities beginning in their ninth grade year.

The Service Project’s four major components are:

• Research paper
• A related project
• A portfolio that traces the development of the project and serves as a summary and reflection of the student’s experience
• A presentation to a panel of community members

Research Paper—This paper requires students to develop and demonstrate proficiency in conducting research and writing proficiently about a chosen in-depth topic.  A Service Project Steering Committee at the school sets parameters to guide the length, format, sources, writing style and other characteristics related to acceptable topic selection, research practices, and writing styles.  Mr. Hodges is in charge of this part of the project and will provide all the information. He will decide the appropriateness of the paper in relation to the project and will grade your paper and apply this score to your English grade.

Portfolio—This notebook contains reflective writings and logs and other forms of student documents demonstrating his or her process and progress. The journal will be monitored by the project advisor and graded by the panel of community members.  This is documentation of the whole process of both the service and the research paper.  The student must keep track of everything he has done to complete the whole project. (Example: Diary type journals, photos, logs, timelines, etc.)

Service—A service is selected, designed, and developed by the student. This service can be selected during earlier years but must be an active project during the junior and/or senior year. The service will benefit the school, community, or world. The service should challenge the student, allow him or her to show applications of learning and leadership, and reflect that the student has spent substantial time completing it. A minimum of 15 hours is required but one should plan to spend more time than that if the project is to be well executed. A project adviser and/or a school based committee will approve the initial plans for the service project. Each student will document his or her progress in a journal or log that will be monitored regularly (see portfolio). Students should choose one person to be a guide to help them with their projects.

Oral Presentation—A formal, oral presentation encapsulating the entire process from the topic selection to project completion and self growth will be given before a review panel of judges composed of community members. The formal presentation is followed by judges’ impromptu questions. The student's presentation must be a minimum of 7 minutes and no more than 10 minutes.

Examples of Service Projects:

• Projects that deal with community needs related to health, poverty, social issues, or the environment.
• Another popular kind of community-based activity involves the students in documenting local history or culture through interviews, archival research, and photography. Projects like these connect the students more deeply to their communities and help the community at large to maintain a sense of history and identity.
• Other good service-learning activities involve students helping other students through student mentoring and peer or cross age tutoring. These can take place within the school building.
• Others require getting students out into the larger community.

Some projects may be one-time activities, while others occupy the whole school year or longer.

What makes a Service Project Meaningful and Effective?

A project that helps a student see how they impact their community and helps to develop leadership qualities as well as applying skills learned in school to real-life situations

The project allows the student to:

• Meet a recognized need in the community
  A student works to identify pressing community needs and devise and participate in projects that address those needs. The Corporation for National Service categorizes community needs as related to health, education, environment or public safety. Students might engage in direct, indirect or advocacy projects.

• Achieve curricular objectives through Service-Learning
  Service-Learning provides an opportunity for classroom knowledge and skills to be applied and tested in real-life settings.
• Reflect throughout the service-learning experience
  Through reflection activities in the form of discussions, journaling, performing, writing, etc., students come to more fully understand the connection of their schoolwork to the service work performed. Reflection helps students explore the cycle of: What & Why? So What? Now What?
• Develop student responsibility
  High quality service-learning allows the student to take leadership and ownership over the projects performed. The student learns important school, work, and life skills such as working as a team, organizing and scheduling activities, and problem solving when given increased responsibility for the success of projects.
• Establish community partnerships
  Service-learning experiences provide opportunities for the student to learn about the community, explore career possibilities, and work with diverse groups of individuals. Quality projects involve community organizations as partners.
• Plan ahead for Service-Learning
  As with all effective projects, an action plan must be created which features specific objectives to be achieved through the activity.
• Equip the student with knowledge and skills needed for service
  To effectively engage in a project, the student must understand the issue being addressed. As part of preparing to engage in Service-Learning, the student is often required to conduct research, read articles, and listen to guest speakers. The student also needs to learn project specific skills, as well as explore issues related to citizenship and civic engagement.