Nativity School of Worcester supplements a school year’s worth of education with a required summer session. During July, Nativity Worcester faculty, staff and students return for three weeks of classes, field trips, and a comprehensive service-learning program. During service-learning, students reach out to the city through an integrated academic and community-service-oriented program.
During the Summer of Service 2022, fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-graders performed community service at three different sites in mixed-grade group; each site focused on a specific service area. These sites included ACE, where students learned about refugee and immigrant communities in Worcester. The students also had the opportunity to work with Stand Up For Kids, where they helped collect donations of food and toiletries for unhoused youth. The third site the students visited was the Twice as Nice thrift store in Auburn, the proceeds of which funds school supplies for students in Jamaica.
For the fourteenth consecutive year, the eighth- grade students had the opportunity to work on the Highland Street Foundation’s Youth Philanthropy Initiative. Students working on this project learned about philanthropy and nonprofit organizations in their service learning classes. They reflected on their own personal values to determine what community services they deemed most important for the people within Worcester. The students then chose how to disburse the $5,000 of grant funds to these three organizations. This year, the eighth graders worked specifically with: Dismas House, the Women’s Initiative, and The Village.