7th Graders Demonstrate Service

"Splish Splash, Rummy, Wroof, Wroof!"

These are just a few of the sounds that seventh grade students at Randolph Union High School heard while completing their Service Learning Projects. For over 10 years seventh grade students have been required to volunteer their time in the community to learn about themselves and their community.

This year seventh grade students volunteered at a range of places, from the Randolph Area Food Shelf to the Joslyn House. Many students who completed the required six hours found themselves continuing to volunteer.

But the service project isn’t just about volunteering. The students were also responsible for writing a paper that explained what they learned about the community as well as what they learned about themselves.

Each was also required to perform a three-minute speech to their peers and to create a visual display that would demonstrate what they had done.

On Thursday evening, May 31^st the seventh graders lined both sides of two corridors in the junior high, displaying their visuals to the community. During that time nine students performed their speeches for the public.

Some who attended commented that they enjoyed learning how influential the experience was for many students. Quite a few parents of the students were highly impressed and surprised with the ability their sons or daughters demonstrated to speak in public. The evening was a great success for both students and parents.

The program was supervised by teachers Courtney Giknis and Ashley Newon. The two teachers call themselves "GLAD COW" in honor of the courses they teach— geography, language arts and "diverse cultures of our world". Both felt that the evening was a great success.

Students displayed and explained their visuals and read their speeches with great ease.

"One truly amazing and valuable lesson that was obvious to the students and community was how important it is work together," Ashley Newton commented..

(Our thanks to Ashley for putting this article together for Herald readers—Ed.)