Overview of the ISM Service Program
Our Philosophy
The service learning program at ISM adds harmony to our community by bringing together students, parents and teachers from all three ISM schools; all united by a shared vision. The diverse array of service learning activities at ISM is unified by a common theme: “Education for All”. This theme was chosen because, as a school, ISM is perfectly suited to focus on education and child advocacy. Moreover, Education for All addresses the root causes of poverty, which is arguably the most important issue facing humanity today.
Our service learning activities are placed in the context of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which helps motivate students because they feel they belong to something of consequence; that they are part of a global movement of enormous importance to the world. And the SL program is linked with curriculum to enable each student to act on the knowledge he or she gains in the classroom.
Many of our programs provide students with the opportunity to interact (over a relatively long-term) with disadvantaged children living near our school. By interacting with the same ‘poor’ children several times per week, and throughout the school-year, our students form intimate and real friendships with them. And this changes everything! They no longer see poor kids as them, an anonymous subset of society but instead as us - fellow human beings who like to laugh, play, eat and strive to get ahead in life.