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Student Leadership

Community School's curriculum weaves leadership and service learning together to provide a solid character foundation for our students.

Beginning in our earliest grades, children develop confidence, responsibility, empathy, and a commitment to serving others through meaningful, age-appropriate experiences. As they grow, students take on increasing leadership roles, build relationships across grade levels, and discover how their actions can make a positive impact both within our school and in the broader community.

Learn more about each of these programs below.

A group of children and an adult stand in a grassy clearing surrounded by trees, with one child holding a hula hoop.
Two smiling boys crouch in a sandy playground with a large, abstract climbing structure behind them.
A group of seven children, dressed in white tops and dark bottoms, pose for a photo in front of bleacher seating.
Four children stand outside holding cardboard boxes labeled %22Picture Books%22 and other items, with a brick building and a stop sign visible in the background.
A group of children and an adult stand on a gravel path in front of a brick building.
Two young girls smile at the camera while crouching in a sandy playground with blurred trees and playground equipment in the background.

Leadership

Community’s leadership training starts in our earliest grades through a combination of public speaking and learning the best ways to interact with others. Students are given numerous opportunities to take leadership positions in the classrooms and speak in front of groups.

Two programs provide a wonderful way for older and younger students to interact. The Family Groups program, beginning in first grade, builds groups comprised of a child from each grade with a teacher. Groups remain the same year to year. Starting in third grade, students become a “big buddy” to students as young as JK and are role models for their younger buddies.

Leadership opportunities culminate in sixth grade, when students carry out a variety of responsibilities around the school—running Thursday assemblies, raising and lowering the flag each day, helping serve lunch tables, and more. Community graduates are highly represented in leadership positions at their secondary schools.

Service Learning

Community School’s Service Learning program focuses on good citizenship and an awareness of the community at large. The emphasis is on giving time and energy rather than monetary donations. As students assist others, they also build leadership skills. They learn about strengths and needs in the local community, collaborate with peers to come up with possible solutions, and gain an understanding of how another person’s experience might be different than their own.

Each grade level participates in a service project. Recent examples include nursery students making animal treats and blankets for a local animal shelter and fifth graders collecting books to donate to local nonprofit organizations. Additionally, all Community families are invited to volunteer at our MLK Day of Service, an annual event that honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.