Service Starts and Ends at Home: Designed by Huskies

Experiential Learning
Service Learning

8 Aug 2023

One of the best things to come out of the pandemic was the chance to rediscover what we value and rethink about the way we express that value. Service has always been a priority at HIS.

Service Starts and Ends at Home: Designed by Huskies

Huskies Service Projects | Huskies Service Week

by Jared Pangier

Photos and videos provided by the students

The school was founded by a group of missionaries back in 1958 and even after it expanded and grew secular we never forgot the most important four-letter word.
HELP.

When we help others, we make a positive dent in the world.

Service at Hokkaido International School comes in different forms. In elementary school, students are encouraged to explore the needs of the community, which has led to recycling programs, awareness campaigns, visits to the local nursing home, and hallways filled with information on how we can better protect our environment. In the past, secondary school service culminated in a week-long service trip to a foreign country, building a house or repairing a community bathroom. But as the pandemic swept in, removing our opportunities to travel abroad, we began to rethink the direction of our service. While our past service trips brought positive memories for many of our students, the truth was that not all could afford to attend. Traveling costs a lot of money and each family situation is different. Also, the past service trips were often organized entirely by outside organizations, removing the need to research the community need or even to reflect on the learning that happens through a more enriching process. The pandemic forced us to reflect on this fact as we put together a professional learning community to research other ways of doing service, resulting in a newly imagined service program at HIS: one that is student-centered and values the iterative process of service learning.

In the school year 2021-2022, this reimagined program stayed local. Secondary students created service learning that would be brought to the elementary students, which had the secondary benefit of connecting students of all ages. And as the pandemic restrictions were lifted in late 2023, we opened up our service program even more to allow for service projects to serve needs beyond the walls of HIS.

Please enjoy the introductory videos of our student-led groups. All projects started and ended with students, who designed the projects and worked through the service learning process. And then, check out a few of the follow-up videos as students reflect on their action and their growth.