The Lovett School promotes service learning through many programs in the Upper School.
SING (Service Initiation for Ninth Graders), which focuses on service learning through activities with planned curricular support, places ninth graders and advisors in service sites around the city of Atlanta over a two-day period. Another class experience, RAFT (River Awareness for Tenth Graders), is similar in its approach, yet with an emphasis on ecology, conservation, and sustainability. The school has also partnered with CARE and the Paideia School to create the CARE Future Leaders Program (see video, below). The program was initiated in an effort to increase awareness among today’s youth and troubling issues that impact the daily lives of people around the world, particularly in developing countries. In the Spring, the students travel to Lovett's Siempre Verde site in Ecuador. Prior to the trip, students participate in an internship at CARE headquarters in Atlanta. Many academic courses provide rich opportunities for service learning. Urban Experience, On a Mission from God, New Testament, and others offer students an in depth look at the purpose and meaning of service, as well as an introduction to the many inspirational people who have made service and philanthropy the focus of their lives and careers.
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Community Service
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- Atlanta
Community Foodbank Founder and President Bill Bolling had lunch with
the Upper School Student Service Board while visiting Lovett on January
11. In addition to meeting with the Service Board, Mr. Bolling met with
students in several classes and spoke at an assembly.
Lovett
is committed to increasing opportunities for students to participate in
service projects. In order to provide leadership, structure, and
organization to these efforts, an elected Student Service Board (SSB)
oversees fundraisers and service projects. Two students from each grade
are elected during the spring. The SSB works closely with the student
government to promote events and encourage student
participation. The Lower School Student Service Council (SSC)
is made up of third, fourth, and fifth grade volunteers. Approximately
100 students get involved each year in projects, such as aluminum can
drives to support Habitat for Humanity, a Warm Clothes and Necessities
Collection for Atlanta's homeless, and bake sales for various
charities. Students help to select the projects and many have focused
on organizations that help animals and their owners. SSC members
regularly participate with the Upper School students in CAP
(Confronting Atlanta's Poverty) by making sandwiches for distribution
to homeless folkes each Saturday in downtown Atlanta. For more
information, please contact Martha Osborne, SSC coordinator, at mosborne@lovett.org.
Lovett students are involved in several partnerships and long-standing service projects:
- Lovett
is a campus chapter for Habitat
for Humanity. Each year, our students, along with those from
other independent schools around Atlanta, build a Habitat home for a
family in need.
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Confronting
Atlanta Poverty (CAP) was founded 10 years ago by a Lovett
student. Each Friday afternoon during the school year, students gather
to make approximately 200 sack meals for the homeless and then deliver them to The Garden Women and Children's Shelter.
- Lovett
students serve as volunteer tutors to children at the AGAPE Community
Center. Each Tuesday, a group of Lovett volunteers help elementary
school-aged children with their homework and projects. Lovett also works with the AGAPE on a Thanksgiving food drive. As relationships
develop over the school year, Lovett students become friends and mentor
with their AGAPE charges.
- There
are a number of other service clubs and organizations on campus that
plan season and one-time service opportunites.
- The
Vestry
exists to encourage students in their relationship with God,
to assist and participate in chapel services, to gather offerings for
charity, and to carry out service projects.
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Student Internships
The Student
Internship Program seeks to place interested students in
internships that will allow them to explore a wide range of careers and
interests. Following an application process and interview, selected
students will be matched with an internship based on the student’s
career interests and time availability. Past internships have included
careers in business, photography, art, finance, historic preservation,
fashion design, conservation, law, event planning, film, and
language.
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Mission Trips
During
the 2009, 2010, and 2011 spring break, dozens of members of the Lovett community (parents
and students) traveled to the Dominican Republic and Honduras for Lovett’s
Mission Trips. The group worked to help a community of Haitian refugees
in Barahona, one of the largest cities in the Dominican Republic.