What is Service Learning?

An important part of the Kensington Woods experience and curriculum is the idea of service. All students at Kensington Woods participate in service learning projects through a variety of formats: through course units, whole school projects and individual projects like Senior Exhibition. These service learning projects are a form of experiential education where learning occurs through a cycle of action and reflection as students work with others through a process of applying what they are learning to community problems and, at the same time, reflecting upon their experience as they seek to achieve real objectives for the community and deeper understanding and skills for themselves.

Service-learning helps students build academic skills while strengthening communities through service. A growing body of research recognizes the benefits of service-learning as an effective strategy to:

Improve Academic Achievement
When explicitly tied to academic standards and learning objectives, service-learning positively impacts student outcomes on measures of academic achievement, including standardized test scores.

Increase Student Engagement
Service-learning engages students by helping them make critical connections between classroom lessons and real-world applications.

Build Civic Skills
By giving students the responsibility to identify and meet pressing needs, service-learning builds civic skills and commitment in young people that last a lifetime.

Strengthen Community Partnerships
Service-learning brings students into the community, and the community into schools. In this way, students develop a sense of belonging and responsibility, and communities view youth as valuable assets.

Day of Service

Kensington Woods Day of Service is an annual event where Kensington Woods students, faculty and parents donate their time and energy to make their community a better place. Participants spend the day volunteering at a variety of local non-profit agencies. During the 2017 Day of Service, Kensington Woods students, parents and teachers joined together to donate 900 hours of service by volunteering for 12 different organizations around the area. Those organizations included: Livingston Land Conservancy, Art Road Nonprofit, 2|42 Community Church, Huron Meadows Metropark, LACASA, Bountiful Harvest, Light of the World Academy, Howell Teen Center, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Pinckney Community Library, Secunda Art Museum as well as Kensington Woods Schools.

Day of Service provides students authentic experiences in service, developing character, work collaboratively and a chance to give back to the community, all part of the school’s mission. As part of the learning process, students learned about the organization they worked with, creating promotional materials and videos to share with the community to encourage others to support the local organizations.

View student created videos about their experience below and view more on our YouTube channel!