Service Learning

At JCHS, Service Learning isn’t just an activity, it’s a way of engaging with the world.

Over their four years, students gain the knowledge and skills to offer effective and meaningful service in our communities, grounded in dignity and understanding.

Through guided reflection, skill-building workshops and all-school assemblies, students deepen their awareness of contemporary social justice issues as well as the dynamics of bias and oppression. They graduate as global citizens, committed to using their time and talent to make our society more just and equitable.

Our Four-Year Service Learning Program

Service Learning is integral to the JCHS education experience. Each class has different expectations and requirements to satisfy. Service Learning is graded pass/fail, and the successful completion of each school year’s requirement is a prerequisite for graduation.

In the 9th grade, students deepen their understanding of the history and contemporary landscape of the Western Addition neighborhood. In the fall, students meet with “changemakers” in the neighborhood to learn more about the particular challenges and strengths that residents encounter, and how service organizations are addressing them. Through local, walking field trips, they explore the Western Addition and Fillmore neighborhoods. Then they participate in hands-on service activities and set intentions for the kind of relationship they hope to have with the local community. In the spring, they learn about various strategies for social change and explore how they can personally participate.

In the 10th and 11th grades, students commit to ongoing service with the agency or program of their choice. They can choose to work with an agency with which JCHS has a formal partnership or pursue their own. Through consistent service, students have the opportunity to forge deeper relationships, learn about a particular area of need, and build professional skills. Students are responsible for completing 52 hours of service learning.

At the beginning of each school year, students review a list of possible service positions with their advisors and choose the best fit. Alternatively, students might plan service activities through social justice-oriented clubs.

Many 12th grade students integrate service-learning into their senior Keystone Projects. Their senior year culminates in a grade journey that explores how we can have a Tzedek (“justice”) oriented relationship to the places we visit and live in.

Adi Alouf ’13
Director of Student and Jewish Life 415.694.5772 x207
aalouf@jchsofthebay.org