Service: Going about positive change in a negative way

Source: UWCSEA Dover

By: Vihaan Tanwar

UWCSEA prides itself on adhering strictly to a set of values and beliefs encompassed by the College's mission statement. The College refers to these values to give back to the community, while teaching the next generation of students the importance of having compassion for others, accepting responsibility, and pursuing the truth with tenacity, to name just a few. One way the College approaches its aim of collectively making the world a better place is its hands-on service opportunities and initiatives. Unfortunately, while these service projects have brought about much positive change, the system itself contains many flaws. Oftentimes, it fails to both capitalise on the importance of service and efficiently engage with students and the larger community.

One issue with the way service opportunities in high school are conducted is the mandatory, fixed requirement for the service hours each student must complete. This issue is not limited to our school; it operates at a much larger scale. In general, the mandatory nature of service at school is counterintuitive. It creates a culture wherein students view participating in service as fulfilling a chore-like requirement for graduation, rather than engaging in positive action out of a desire to learn, grow and effect change. Unfortunately, this may lead to a lack of commitment to care. This is a crucial part of service: only when students are committed to care will they engage in service that benefits communities, works towards a common goal, and teaches them values of empathy and responsibility. The system has misrepresented the point of service.

Another major flaw in service at school lies in service allocations, which may prevent students from working towards a cause they are passionate about. Not only are students not guaranteed to get their first choice of service, the system is so inflexible that certain students cannot even register to join the cause that means most to them. Only when students are given the opportunity to definitively choose their service are they empowered to take ownership of their service involvement and derive greater enthusiasm, satisfaction and fulfilment from their work. Otherwise, the system is failing students who are passionate about certain projects, and failing the very initiatives the school has promised to support.

To conclude, students having freedom of participation, complete choice of the services they contribute to, and the chance to engage more flexibly in service initiatives are all great ways for the school to educate students about and focus on the importance of service, while efficiently engaging with the larger community.