Page 7 - Priorities #25 2004-January

Photo by Howard Share
Far from discouraging students from “double- counting” a service project—getting school credit for something they would be doing anyway—Ms. Inkmann thinks the intersection is ideal. For example, many students use their scouting projects to satisfy the Priory’s requirement. The point isn’t to impose additional hours, but rather to be sure that every student explores the potential of service, she explained.
Students get their ideas from club and church activities, from lessons and sports, from a meaningful personal experience, and from family commitments. Students who don’t find inspiration in those venues can turn to one of the service fair organizations
or follow up on ideas in the community service calendar. It is posted on the school Web site.
Urban Ministries, which provides services to the mid-Peninsula homeless population, is a popular service site for Priory students. Many students tutor or support reading programs at Portola Valley, Los Altos, and Belmont libraries. Other popular venues include Rebuilding Together home renovation, Red Cross, Safe Rides (transportation for young people who have been drinking and think they should not drive), Pets in Need, scouting, and Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula, and BOK Ranch (a stable with a therapeutic/recreational riding program for handicapped children).
Under the watchful eye of a nurse, a child at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital checks out the tutus of sophomore Laura Koenig and fellow dancer Rachel Matthews. Laura and other performers from the Nutcracker ballet gave mini-performancesat librariesandhospitals.
“The process can start anywhere, but my hope is that eventually many of our students will become
a bridge between the people who have, and those who need. Ghandi said we all can ‘be the change’ we want to see in the world, and that is the model we are trying to create here,” Ms. Inkman explained.
In the Pistritto family, Ritu’s interest in
keeping productively busy when she arrived
from Switzerland (where her two sons were born) eventually led to shared community service with Alex, a junior. Ritu did not take up a job, but with
a university education and plenty of passionate interests, she definitely needed an outlet that would blend with her young family’s schedule, she said. Through the Internet, she found and followed up on literally dozens of volunteer opportunities in San Francisco and San Mateo County.
When Alex started ninth grade, it worked out naturally for his mom to help him find an interest, then stay and work alongside (“Not always
directly with, though - I want him to have his own satisfaction and independent strength of reaching out as well”). Alex’s preliminary interest in working with the homeless and seniors led to a San Francisco soup kitchen, a temple in Livermore, and the senior center in Belmont, and then to a wide range of other projects in a variety of fields.
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