Student Community Involvement Team

The idea of a Student Community Involvement Team was already floating around, but my school didn’t have a group anything like it. I went to the very first meeting and, along with six other high school students, was instantly committed to this wonderful group that creates and organizes volunteer projects and events to unite the school and the community. My pet project was the first we put into action, Berthoud Tutoring: For Students, By Students. We recruited other high school students to volunteer (and volunteered ourselves) to tutor other students for free once a week at the town’s library. I was the Tutoring Coordinator; I made sure the new and fragile program thrived, scheduling tutors, matching tutors with students, interacting with parents and with the library, addressing complaints, and much more. It was very difficult, but extremely rewarding to see how positively kids, their parents, and the community at large have reacted to and benefited from the program. It is still thriving today, even after I have left. We created and organized a multitude of other programs, including our town’s day-long volunteer projects for United Way’s annual Make a Difference Day (we made and donated fleece blankets and made cards to distribute to patients in local hospitals) and National & Global Youth Service Day (we collaborated with the community to set up projects at the fire station, the historical society, Habitat for Humanity, and the public library). We also put on a clothing drive, which brought in almost 1,000 items of clothing (quite a bit for a school of less than 700 students!). Student Community Involvement Team is still going strong today, after all of the founding members have left for college, and I am so proud to have helped build this special and unique group and to have done so much for my community at the same time.