High School Service Learning

The high school Service Trips at Green School are meant to follow the “Learn It, Prove It, Do It” model recreated by former teacher Jade McGraw in 2016 from an earlier, more straightforward iteration. With a framework around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, this model aimed to connect students to sustainability projects in service to Indonesia. The model connected the Jalan Jalan program with Service Trips. By leveraging the weekly Jalan Jalan class time in the six weeks building up to the Service Trips, students could identify a need in a local community or an Indonesia community outside Bali. They would the class time to plan and prepare for an impactful Service Learning Trip. Students would also be using this time to complete the “Learn It” and “Prove It” component of the trip by learning a new skill that would be required on the trip and proving their skill acquisition in the local community before “Doing It” in the real world on their service trip.

When I made the transition into the high school learning neighbourhood in my final year at Green School, I was excited to be a part of the service-learning trip (SLT) planning and guiding. I was looking forward to bring the “Learn It, Prove It, Do It” model to its full potential across all SLTs. In early 2020, we had seven different service trips lined up. These included working with local farmers in their subaks, marine conservation in Rote Island, coral conservation with the Biosphere Foundation in North Bali, working with social enterprises in the Simeulue Islands, and revisiting Malang, East Java and the remote communities of Raja Ampat. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 none of these trips came to fruition.

By the time the decision came to cancel service trips for the year, our aligning Jalan Jalan classes were already underway. Some of the students wanted to remain in their Jalan Jalan to explore ways we could support the communities we intended to visit despite being unable to physically attend. I was one of three teacher leaders for the 2020 Raja Ampat Service Trip, and four students from the group of thirteen decided to continue the work of service to the community of West Weigo. You can learn more about the Jalan Jalan class prep. pre-COVID19 and how we sustained the course and student learning during forced distance learning in the slideshow below.