Being community-minded at SPS goes beyond our campus and extends into the local communities around us, and even the greater world beyond.
In support of our mission, “to educate students to build purposeful lives in service to the greater good,” St. Paul’s School offers an extensive Community Engagement Program as well as pop-up opportunities for the entire SPS community to support worthwhile causes and nonprofit organizations.
Through community engagement you will not only help address critical needs within local communities and populations, you also will be able to grow as a leader and expand your capacity for empathy and understanding of the people and places around you. It’s real-life learning in realtime.
Students work closely with the community engagement director and their advisers to plan how and when they will participate in the program, which includes several different options that will vary from year to year. Recent opportunities are noted below.
Sample Service Opportunities
FIRST LEGO League
SPS students work with younger students from Rundlett Middle School to solve STEM-related challenges and build a functional robot.
Service Learning Team: Middle School Mentoring
SPS students work with local middle school students providing homework assistance, academic activities and games, companionship and role modeling.
Service Learning Team: Food Justice & Insecurity
SPS students will learn about food justice and insecurity in America for two days a week on campus. Students will then spend Wednesday afternoons volunteering at a local food bank.
SPS Capitals
SPS hockey team members teach skills to community children.
Friends Youth Mentoring Progam
Opportunity for rising Fifth Formers to mentor underprivileged children from the Concord area. Program options include an on-campus Monday night program and a Thursday afternoon program at Mill Brook School. This is a two-year commitment.
Missionary (MISH) Society Officer
Opportunity for rising Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Formers interested in leading the School’s student philanthropic and service organization.
Spring Service Trip
Opportunity for students to participate in service programs during Spring Break or other school breaks.
Independent Service Project
Students volunteer in a nonprofit organization that meets the community engagement program criteria and, upon completion of the project, write a reflection essay. Independent Service Projects require application and advance approval.
Accumulated Service Experiences
Students use a variety of community service experiences with nonprofit organizations to meet their Community Engagement requirement. Reflective essays are required to tie the experiences to the community engagement outcomes. Approval required.
Each fall, Fourth Formers get to work and give back to the community, including a nonprofit farm that leases SPS fields.
Students turned out in the spring for a Wiffle Ball Tourney to raise money for the Crisis Center of Central New Hampshire.
