In a village in southern Yunnan Province, high school students set to work alongside villagers digging trenches for the cistern and pipes that will bring clean water into the village. In Xiamen, middle school students scour the beaches for litter anddebris, leaving behind them trash-free stretches of coastline. Back inShanghai, third and fourth graders gather with teachers and upper-level students to help teach English to their school bus monitors and ayis.

These types of activities are not exceptional at Concordia International School Shanghai. They’re not to satisfy required hours or one-off projects that students do for “extra-credit.” They are just a few of the many opportunities that Concordia students participate in on a regular basis because they are passionate about serving.

“Service is at the core of who we are as a school and as a community,” says Concordia’s Alumni and Corporate Relations Manager Lindsay Eliason. “It’s always been part of what we believe.” (To learn more visit www.concordiashanghai.org/about-concordia/what-we-believe.)

 Concordia incorporates transformative opportunities into the curriculum to broaden student awareness of individual social responsibility and to provide opportunity for leadership in global issues, and students have responded by getting involved. “We don’t track service hours. We learn about how we can serve, and then we choose to serve as a way to share our many blessings with others,” says 12th grader Quincy Larson. “But we’realways changed more than those we are serving — it’s infectious!”

Service in the classroom

Integrating service into theclassroom allows students to focus on more than just content mastery by exposing them to authentic and meaningful learning experiences. Concordia’s Director of Curriculum Jennie Munson states, “Where applicable, we incorporate service as an engaging, student-centered way to build on our core curriculum.”

In the Elementary School, third and fourth grade students complete a social entrepreneurship unit based on author Katie Smith Milway’s One Hen Project. (To learn more about social entrepreneurship and Katie Smith Milway, visit www.onehen.org.) Students develop business plans, apply for micro-loans from the Concordia’s business office, and create products to sell within the community. They repay their loans and donate the proceeds to the charity of their choice. Elementary School teacher Debbie Burns says of the students who participated in last year’s project, “They learned that they really can make a difference in our world!”

Concordia’s High School has pioneered the Global Perspectives in Public Health class, where students study the many facets of public health and its applications worldwide. Students learn skills such as needs assessment and grant writing and apply their knowledge in the field on a visit to a rural village in China. “In Global Health, we do not stop at simply discussing and analyzing the major issues facing us today, but we act for the betterment of others,” says High School teacher Rachel Key.

Earlier this month, Concordia welcomed renowned service learning expert Cathryn Berger Kaye, who led workshops and spoke to the community about the importance of service within education. Character development through service was among the topics discussed by Kaye, who stated, “Service learning is a great way to allow students to gain a sense of who they are.” Concordia students are showing who they are by being conscientious world citizens who care deeply about the welfare of others. (Visit cbkassociates.com.)

Service throughout China

Whether students express a passion for charitable outreach, environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation orwater stewardship, they will findopportunities at Concordia with which they can get involved.

The Middle School Service Club, in particular, empowers students to serve the community in a variety of ways. Throughout the year, students organize orphanage visits and coordinate fundraisers for Concordia’s charities of the month. Middle School teachers and guidance counselors work withstudents to organize bi-monthly trips to Chongming Island to work, teach, and play directly with the boys at the WILL Foundation, a center for disadvantaged children. (Learn more about the WILL Foundation at willfound.org.)

Students at all grade levels work together to support projects through Concordia’s flagship charity, Youth Empowering Progress (YEP). The efforts of the YEP Club focus mainly on educational and human-care projects in rural China and have raised funds for scholarships and clean water projects throughout Yunnan.

In the fall, high school students travel to different areas of China during Interim, an educational excursion in which service is a vital component. “Each of Concordia’s High School Interim courses has been developed to include a service project,” says Director of Student Life Karin Semler. “Students are eager to engage in the local culture and service is usually the highlight of the week!” Several High School Interims have been designed to further the reach of the YEP program through the Concordia Welfare & Education Foundation. (CWEF is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving lives through health and education — learn more at www.cwef.org.hk).

Service through leadership

 Concordia’s commitment to the community is to inspire and develop the next generation of active global citizens to be principle-centered leaders and team members addressing the needs of their world today through diverse, life-changing experiences. “Service at Concordia means we give and don’t take,” says Head of School Gregg Pinick. “Our students and community are embracing the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than themselves by serving one another and by participating in a variety of opportunities exploring service to our host country.” Concordia students are growing into servant leaders who are creating positive change today—they do not have to wait until tomorrow to lead.

Through service programs designed to develop the minds and characters of students, the entire school community is passionately committed to bringing about positive change. One only needs to tune it to discover how they can make a difference. Join the Movement!

Through purposive and meaningful reflection, students devise a deeper significance and understanding of their actions.

Angela Cheng reflects on her experience working with orphans during 2013 Interim. The 10th grader writes, “This was the first time I fully understood the magnitude of giving; to sacrifice time and energy for the wellbeing of another provides a purpose otherwise unattainable to an empty life centered upon oneself.”

“I like helping with the trips to WILL each month. We clean the house or the garden and play games and go bike riding. I especially like when the boys visit our school. We hang out with them and show them things we do each day and they get so excited!” writes sixth grader Tyler Guagenty of his experience helping at the Will Foundation.

Reflecting on his visit with one of the families who benefited from the proceeds of their social entrepreneur unit, fourth grader Aidan Guitterez writes, “I went to Heart to Heart to see the baby we helped. She was happier after her heart surgery and that made me feel happy about all the work we did.”