WHAT DO PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THE SLP EXPERIENCE?

Thank you Service Learning Project, for being an amazing, invaluable partner to me as school principal, to our students who are at the center of the work, and to our teachers. This partnership is key. 

Oftentimes we are asked – by the Chancellor and our superintendents and those who are making policy in our school – to bring learning to life for children, to go beyond the core curriculum. That could be a challenge when a school doesn’t have all the necessary fiscal resources and tools, or teachers may not have the ability. It’s not that teachers don’t want to, but they may not have the ability or the time, to really bring the learning to life in ways that are meaningful to the children, and to meet them where they are in their development. 

That’s where SLP comes in. SLP is an organization that works side by side with our teachers to bring the curriculum to life for students. And beyond that, SLP empowers children by amplifying their voices, choices, and agency, making them active participants in their own learning. SLP engages students by helping them identify, “What’s important to me as a youngster in this world? Both in my immediate world, and in the external world.” It also supports teachers in connecting the curriculum to these meaningful topics, ensuring that learning connects back to what matters to the kids. 

SLP facilitators come into our classrooms and consult with teachers and students to uplift the intrinsic interest of our children so that they can affect positive change at the school. This program truly does inspire positive change, whether within individual classrooms, throughout the school, or even in the broader community.

Sandra Noyola, recently retired Principal of PS 147 in Bushwick, Brooklyn

Anytime we can make a learning experience come alive for students in an authentic way, we give students the message that the things they learn in school are relevant, important and transferable. This opportunity for our students to lead an initiative and get floor time from high level stakeholders is a life changing event. Through Service Learning Project, students are empowered to take an active role in being the change they wish to see. It doesn’t get any better than this!”

Melanie Savio, 4th Grade Teacher

“It’s so important and critical, particularly in today’s world, for our students to realize they have a voice and are able to make a difference in their community.”

Wendy Cobb, Principal

“In the Fall of 2014, my son was a 5th grader at PS 261 in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. It happened to be the first year that Liz Pitofsky brought her Service Learning Project to our school. Over twelve weeks, all five fifth grade classes (approximately 150 students) participated in the program and I do not think it’s an exaggeration to say that it was a highlight of their elementary school educations. As a parent on SLT, I was lucky enough to observe many sessions and all I could think is that we hit the jackpot.

Simply put, in one program, SLP manages to encompass so many elements of real, meaningful learning: research, analysis, problem-solving, critical thinking, communication and team work. And because it is all in service of a real world issue that the students themselves have chosen, the work seems to engage on a truly deep level. They care. First they become little experts and then, they become agents of change, sometimes even impassioned crusaders. And maybe the best part is that all along, they are having fun.

Topics chosen by our students included animal kill shelters, healthier school lunches, and bias in the NYPD. The kids who investigated animal kill shelters emerged with an “Adopt Don’t Shop” newsletter, which they distributed throughout the school. My son’s class looked into healthier school lunches and their project culminated with a power-point presentation to our Principal, where she learned that the DOE actually has an existing option for a healthier lunch and she learned the steps to request it for our school.

I saw the students engaged in their topics on multiple levels: academic, social and personal. They learned, in the most real-world terms, that active learning can make change in their schools, their communities, in their own lives. What an exciting realization, one that I firmly believe will inform their world-view well beyond the fifth grade. In the end, students, teachers and parents all became converts of SLP. I am now working with my son’s middle school to bring it to there, they should be so fortunate.”

Rachel Cohen

“My son had the privilege of experiencing SLP’s Residency Program in second grade. The students organized an environmentally focused campaign, situated within the school itself. The breadth of experience the kids had was amazing: interviewing the school janitor, sending out a survey they developed, preparing a poster campaign, sending home a letter to all of the parents about food waste… the kids really felt empowered to address sustainability from multiple angles and were engaged with the idea of instituting lasting change. The SLP project instigated a student-led ‘Environmental Club’ that remains in effect now, three years later. The generosity of the SLP model and its commitment to being a catalyst for change and student empowerment is extraordinary.”

Kara Gilmour