Service learning is an approach to teaching and learning that integrates community service with classroom learning. It results in meaningful projects where students’ efforts benefit their community while they gain experience in civic responsibility and teamwork, and deepen their knowledge of core curricular themes.
At Meridian, service-learning projects help our students make connections with different communities, increasing their knowledge and understanding of the world around them. Projects have included collecting clothing and supplies for homeless children in partnership with Wellspring’s Baby Boutique, volunteering at the FamilyWorks Food Bank, and starting vegetable seedlings for low-income gardeners.
Teachers develop myriad ways to engage students in a wide range of integrated learning opportunities. Grade-level projects have included sustainably disposing of student food waste, helping improve salmon-spawning habitats, raising awareness and funds to support wildlife at the local zoo, and learning advocacy skills through letter-writing campaigns to state representatives. Service projects employ language arts, social studies, technology, science, and math and support our core curriculum through experiential learning.
In building strong communities locally and globally and by encouraging students to embrace their connections to the world in which they live, Meridian promotes responsibility, compassion, and active civic engagement.
At Meridian, we believe that the challenges of our world require culturally competent, well-rounded, critically thinking individuals who are empowered to inquire, investigate, innovate and impact their communities.
The Meridian School promotes diversity of thought and identity by bringing together community and curriculum to open minds and hearts, connect awareness to actions, and celebrate the contribution of the individual to the community.
