When the Community Council was conceived two years ago, its purpose was to create a student-run service-oriented community. The purely hours-based requirement was abolished in favor of a more collaborative system in which students could work together to help the community.
However, as the year comes to a close and about 200 students, says Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church, have yet to fulfill their requirement, it is clear that the experiment has failed.
However, as the year comes to a close and about 200 students, says Director of Student Affairs Jordan Church, have yet to fulfill their requirement, it is clear that the experiment has failed.
The current system discourages students from becoming involved in charitable causes by themselves. In its place is a culture that encourages getting the requirement over with by doing a one-time afternoon project like a beach cleanup. Depth and meaning in service is sacrificed in favor of togetherness.
The lack of faculty sponsorship is one of the main reasons the Community Council has failed in its purpose. Students who want to organize a group event are required to find a faculty sponsor. However, it is the same small cadre of adults who agree to supervise time and again, resulting in a dearth of support for these events. If service is compulsory for students, it should also be for all staff and faculty. If it is to live up to its name, the Community Council must involve our entire community, not just students.
We do not blame the members of the Community Council for the large number of students who have not completed their requirement. Frequent e-mails were sent out advertising upcoming opportunities, using humor to entice potential volunteers. Itâs like the proverbial horse to water: you can lead a student to service, but you canât make him serve.
Furthermore, the senior class is in the middle of a throwaway month. APs are over and we are attending very few, if any, real classes. Why not use the month in between the conclusion of APs and graduation as a chance for students to become involved full-time in a charitable cause? We would learn far more from such real-world experience outside the Harvard-Westlake bubble than from the current skeleton academic schedule. As much as we cringe to give sports rival Loyola credit for anything, they have a more enlightened community service program similar to what we are proposing.
Students should be encouraged to find a program they love early in their time here and stick with it all the way through. The spirit of service the school so staunchly seeks can be instilled through a commitment to a charity over a long period of time, not one afternoon once a year.
The Community Council was formed to get rid of the culture of finishing the community service requirement in as little time as possible, but has in fact exacerbated the problem. The council need not necessarily be abolished, but the way our school approaches community service needs a fundamental rethinking.
