Community Engagement
By SUSIE URSTADT ‘20
Community service is a part of most high schools across the U.S. In D.C. and Maryland, district and statewide laws require all public school students to complete a certain number of community service hours in order to graduate; in Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire, New Jersey and more, community service hours can be turned into class credits. In Massachusetts, however, there are no laws requiring students to complete community service. Nonetheless, at Milton, a large part of the student body still participates in Community Engagement (a name adopted in 2016 to promote the idea that in helping others we both give and receive).
Many Milton students agree that Community Engagement is both meaningful to people in need and fun and rewarding for the students who take part. Eleni Mazareas ‘21 says that she enjoys community service because “it’s so nice to give back to places and people that give us so much.” Willa DuBois ‘20 says that she enjoys “feeling like a part of the greater Milton community,” and that Community Engagement gives her a chance to “get out of the Milton bubble.” Community Engagement can also be a great way to make new friends, especially for new students who are still finding their way around Milton. Additionally, Ms. Geyling-Moore addresses the dreaded college application and concludes that “yes, while students may sign up initially so that they can put Community Engagement on their college applications, many students come to love Community Engagement.”
This year, the Community Engagement team has a few updates. They published the first edition of their newsletter: an idea that Ms. Geyling-Moore says the board has been considering for a while. The newsletter includes new service opportunities, student testimonials, and a section about the community service co-heads and board members. Most of the students I talked to were not previously aware of the newsletter and said that they just went to the fair and signed up instead. According to board members, they plan to publish semiannually or triannually.
Also new this year is Mr. Anantawan’s Music Inclusion Program, which he founded last spring. According to the website, www.miprogram.com, “the MI program will address one aspect of educational and social inequality in this country by creating an accessible orchestral learning environment for all of its participants, regardless of ability. We seek to design and implement an inclusive model of orchestral (strings, wind, percussion, and assistive music technology) education that removes barriers of access due to the confluence of disability and socioeconomic background.” Mr. Anantawan will be co-directing operations with music therapist Gwyndolyn Jones at the Henderson Inclusion school.
The Community Engagement program is a great part of Milton and everyone who is interested should consider joining. Sam Bateman ‘20, one of the co-heads, says “Community Engagement is essential to our education because it provides perspectives about the world and our place in it that we can’t get from classroom learning alone.” Happy volunteering!
Image Courtesy of milton.edu