School and community service. Those two do not usually occur in the same setting, but this year’s service learning project is trying to change that. Service Learning, which started last year, is designed to bring community service into the classroom.

Service learning connects class curriculum to project-based real-life skills through community service. Like last year, the end-of-the-year service learning project will take place the morning of Day on the Green on May 22. Each grade will participate in a different project that will provide a better understanding of how their topics impact the community. Freshmen are learning about the environment, sophomores are focusing on discrimination, juniors are discussing poverty, and seniors are concentrating on economic disparity.

History teacher Courtney Goen leads the teacher committee and is the advisor of the student-run Service Learning Club. The club, also known as LEAP (Learn, Engage, Act, Partner), and is led by presidents seniors Remy Afong, Johanna Rapport and Sofia Siqueira. The club meets every Thursday during lunch in room 15 and is open to all grades.

“Right now in the club we are thinking about what the big end-of-the-year project could be and also what we could do at each of the mandatory tutorials and what we want everyone to take away,” Siqueira said.

The three remaining mandatory tutorials devoted to service learning will be on Feb. 24, April 28 and May 18 and are designed to help students prepare for the final project this May.

“In the mandatory tutorials, we are trying to provide more opportunities to give context of the themes, how they impact us and what we can do to help empower students,” Goen said.

Although none of the projects have been finalized, the teachers and students have been working together to figure out the best way for students to learn about their topics for the final project.

In line with their theme of environment, freshmen will be going outside to garden, landscape and beautify areas on campus and in Piedmont Park.

Sophomores, with the theme of discrimination, will be instructed on how to teach discrimination to elementary school classes and run an assembly.

Juniors, focusing on poverty, will run a drive to collect items for care packages, then  they will make sandwiches for homeless communities in the Bay Area.

The seniors, who are studying the topic of economic disparity, will be leaving campus and volunteering at locations such as St. Vincent de Paul and the Alameda County Food Bank.

“One of the key parts of service learning is student involvement,” Rapport said. “The only way it will succeed is if students voice their opinions in a respectful way that can help improve the curriculum.”

Junior Anna Morris joined LEAP after Rapport urged her to attend a meeting and now focuses on developing the sophomore project. Morris, who is passionate about bringing awareness to discrimination, is also president of Feminism Club.

“I hope to shed light on issues that students may not know a lot about but are important in the world so they can learn how to be in other communities that are not as privileged,” Morris said. “I want to make sure that people can be aware of when discrimination is going on and know how to stop it.”

Because service learning is still in its first full year, it has not yet been well established as a regular part of school. Goen wants to show how it fits into what students learn in the classroom because in the past, they have been unsure of how it connects to school.

“Service learning as a term feels like an additional thing,” Goen said. “We are trying to build on what we already do as just another way of approaching how we learn.”