Opportunities for Activism
CARE: Community Action and Responsibility Emphasis
Statement of Purpose: To recognize and to promote community involvement, meaningful service, and student leadership at Marin Academy through a special designation that requires student activism and initiative.
Program: The Center for Community Action encourages students to think about problems in their communities, to question how to make improvements, to consider outlets for involvement, and to create a plan for service that fits their interests and respective schedules.
The Center for Community Action will be available throughout the year as a resource for shaping projects and the presentation. Periodic lunchtime meetings will provide a venue for sharing plans among other peer leaders.
Applicants will need to complete 2 projects over the course of an academic year. The Center for Community Action has identified the following five ways in which service can be performed to meet the requirements of the emphasis:
- Individual service projects
- School-wide initiative
- Sustained weekly volunteering
- Weekend service
- Summer service
Individual service project: Classroom discussions, guest speakers, current events, and personal experiences outside of MA may spark an idea for an individual service project. One example of this type of project might be organizing a neighborhood book drive after reading about a local, under-funded public school.
School-wide initiative: Participants will plan and implement an event to educate the MA community about a particular issue. An example of this type of service project might be the 2006 AIDS Awareness Day that involved an informative message during Assembly, an educational booth at lunch, a fundraiser, and solidarity for the cause by encouraging the community to wear red.
Sustained weekly volunteering: Students who are committed to a cause and who regularly volunteer at a local organization will serve as advocates for the organization and will be expected to articulate the organization's mission and current needs to the wider school community. For instance, a student who helps at the Ritter Center once a week will also be actively engaged in making the MA community aware of concerns around homelessness in our community, will alert MA to their current needs, and will promote MA's participation in campaigns to assist the Ritter Center.
Weekend service: Students who choose to do community service over the weekend should also serve as advocates for the organization and will be expected to articulate the organization's mission and current needs to the wider school community. An example of this type of service project might be a student who chooses to spend one Saturday a month planting native species with the Marin Headlands Institute. This student will actively recruit other students to perform environmental service and will educate classmates about the harm of invasive species.
Summer service: Students who are passionate about service but are already heavily involved in extracurricular activities during the academic calendar may participate in an overseas service trip or may complete a service-oriented internship during the summer months. Students who choose this type of service program will be expected to integrate the service experience into a local context. An example of this type of service project might be a student who travels to El Salvador to teach English for three weeks and actively raises awareness among the MA community about the needs in El Salvador. The student might also encourage others to teach English as a Second Language.
