One of my most deeply
held beliefs is that if we graduate students from Rivers who are great
academicians, great athletes, or great artists, but who are not great human
beings, then we have failed as an institution. Key to achieving that goal is
instilling in our students a genuine sense of caring for their fellow man,
whether it is helping a fellow student with a math concept or running a campus
road race for financial aid.
Sure, we have a
minimum requirement for community service for graduation, but so many of our
students go far, far beyond those 30 hours. Beginning in Middle School,
leadership and community service are linked together as a natural extension of
our definition of leadership – to be your best self and positively influence
others. Middle School leadership days are often structured around service
activities. That intertwining continues in the Upper School, where a key
component of the Grade 10 RISE program is for each student to reflect on what he
or she feels passionate about and then initiate a service project to address
that issue.
Fifteen juniors just
spent the first week of winter break in New Orleans participating in a
rebuilding project in that still-devastated city. One of our juniors has actually
founded her own non-profit organization to help bring education to young
African girls – I don’t know many adults with that kind of drive. There are the
Middle School programs in conjunction with the Natick Service Council, the
Special Olympics run by our tenth graders, the Rivers Givers fundraising efforts
to support local youth and teen outreach programs – the list goes on and on.
What I’m most pleased
by – and what makes me believe we are doing something right – is the genuine
enthusiasm I sense in our students. They are becoming the caring human
beings we need for the future.
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