Service Learning Camp Teaches Selflessness

7/25/2018

Lower School teachers Debbie May and Barbara Royse have been teaching students in grades 4–7 how to give back for nearly 10 years in Service Learning Camp. Three summer sessions led to a different location each day.

Grade 3 teacher Barbara Royse founded the camp, knowing what a caring community she had at Ensworth. “We’re in a school community that loves giving back,” she observes. With Service Learning as an official part of the Ensworth curriculum across grades K-12, the camp was a natural fit to continue over the summer.

Variety in the types of service projects became a key to its success. “Some children love animals. Some children love children,” Royse says. “Some children want a task, so we try to expose them to as many different opportunities and hope that they’ll find a passion that they’ll take home and involve their parents in. We have had some kids that have become volunteers in the community because of doing this camp.”

May chimes in: “They find their passion and carry it on. It’s so wonderful to see the kids get so excited about giving back. Every place that we’ve gone, they’ve said that they can’t believe how comfortable these kids are. They sit down, they engage with them. We said to them that they want to be treated like anyone else.”

The benefit to the camp isn’t limited to just the campers and those they serve. “The parents are so positive about the experience,” Royse says. “They talk about how happy their kids are when they come home. To take a week out of a summer that’s usually all about ‘me’ and spend it doing something for somebody else, the parents really appreciate having that opportunity.”

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