NDB offers students the opportunity to explore their interests in courses offered in and out of school. This takes place from Feb. 17 through Feb. 20. One of the courses offered is Service With A Smile, where students get to experience a wide variety of community service.
English teacher Rosalynn Cambe is one of the teachers leading this Intersession. She shared her insight about what makes this Intersession special. “…what makes it special is, it allows for students to have an opportunity to do service hours. And I know a lot of students like to take it to help fulfill hours for school, but also, it also gives us a chance to give back to the community. And because we offer varied types of service activities, it exposes kids to just different types of service,” Cambe stated.
She further added on, “… the idea is that it doesn’t matter how small of an act of kindness that you do… I truly believe in just helping others in as small a way as possible that we can, and hopefully that causes ripple effects of just positivity and support in the community.”
On the first day, students arrived on campus and listened to a presentation from the president of the GLIDE Foundation in San Francisco, Mary Glide. They got to learn about its history of the non-profit and ways to get involved in their community. Afterwards, they got to enjoy snacks with their friends while creating no-sew blankets which will be donated to GLIDE.
For their second service event, students got to visit Jasper Ridge Farm from 9 A.M. to 11 A.M. They got to do a wide variety of tasks such as pulling out weeds, sweeping and organizing shelves and cleaning the stalls. At the end, they got to meet animals such as chickens, miniature horses, sheep and goats.
Students were originally supposed to go to Saint Gregory’s School for their service event but unfortunately all Intersessions both on and off campus were canceled due to the power outages and the stormy weather. Students had the choice of whether or not they wanted to participate, depending on if they were on their way there. The students who decided to participate created posters for future events.
On their final day, students went to the Samaritan House in San Mateo. They arrived at the site at around 9 A.M. and got straight into work helping pass out the food, making boxes or packaging groceries.
Sophomore Bridgette Broidy shared, “This helped me learn that I really enjoy working with animals and just in general, I really enjoy volunteering. And I feel like when you’re learning in a classroom, you can’t really be exposed to that.”
Intersessions such as Service With A Smile continue to serve as an important factor of the NDB experience where students get to step out of the classroom and participate in different kinds of activities such as service events to further contribute to the community.
