Cary Academy’s mission of being a learning community dedicated to discovery, innovation, and collaboration often drives us to look for ways to improve on our practices. Propelled by both our mission and our strategic plan to make students’ learning more personalized, flexible, and relevant, we are excited to share a new vision and structure for service learning at CA.

You probably know that service learning has always been a part of CA, with both students and staff organizing opportunities to help people in our community with a range of needs. We have hosted and carried out blood drives, food drives, Giving Trees, and supported many wonderful community partners. In our new structure, much of these kinds of service will continue, but for many years we have sought ways to tie that good work to the broader learning that takes place in our curriculum and co-curricular programs.

This spring, student leaders in Beta and Key clubs, with guidance from Service Learning Director Maggie Grant and teachers Michelle Wendell and Jason Lingle-Martin, have been hard at work developing Delta Service Club, CA’s new in-house organization designed to engage students in external community service, learning, and reflection.

Delta Service Club will replace Beta and Key as the Upper School’s umbrella service club, and it will be home to various student-driven service learning projects and initiatives.

As rising senior Emma Brown puts it, “The club’s name is inspired by the dual definition of DELTA.”

Signifying change, as well as the location where water flows from a river through many channels into a larger body of water, it represents the way that Delta Service Club members will take a shared passion for community support fostered on campus out into the world in myriad ways. By engaging in the process of service learning, students will create change in the community and, importantly, also find change occurring in themselves.

The mission and intent of service learning at Cary Academy is to engage students in service that is impactful and transformative. We will

  • learn about social issues and community needs ;
  • seek out partnerships with community experts and organizations ;
  • engage in direct service, indirect service, and advocacy ;
  • actively reflect on service experiences, social issues, and privilege to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, our community, and our social responsibility ; and
  • treat all individuals with dignity, respect, and unconditional positive regard.

These changes are strongly tied to Cary Academy’s strategic plan.

The Service Learning program and Delta Service Club will encourage students to seek out partnerships with community organizations and intentionally nurture those relationships. Much of that work will be done in committees organized around themes, with each committee providing students opportunities to learn and practice collaboration, initiative-taking, and leadership.

Students will be challenged to learn from their neighbors and fellow community members and will consider new perspectives, all while examining their own. Through research, hosting community experts, and interpersonal interactions, students will identify community issues and needs, and collaborate with partners in direct and indirect service and advocacy activities.

Service learning incorporates multiple stages: preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration. Engaging in the service learning process through Delta Service Club will facilitate authentic engagement between students, the community, and each other. It will allow students to engage in dynamic learning experiences that can be transformative in the way they view themselves, their school, and the broader community.

Even as the strategic plan was in development a few years ago, we understood that authentic engagement would sometimes mean that students would be called on to step outside their comfort zones. Service learning may feel risky at times—it requires that students develop greater self-awareness as they consider issues of equity, privilege, and opportunity through engagement in the community. Ultimately, this is what we hope for our students at Cary Academy and what we know they are capable of.

All students are invited to participate in Delta Service Club and other service learning initiatives at CA. We hope you will join us!