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Out Into the World: BBA Kicks Off a New Year of Service Learning

Jill Perry Balzano

Ten steps down the trail to the yurt the pitter patter of rain in the treetops picked up.  Some looked up at the canopy and pulled up their hoods, but the 9th graders in BBA advisor Jen Lalor’s group didn’t slow down on the trail to their service learning project at Merck Forest and Farmland in Rupert.  

Arriving at the yurt, it was clear that the rain was going to stick around, but Merck Education Manager Cara Davenport didn’t miss a beat greeting and orienting students to the tasks at hand: renaturalize an area used by summer camp students, paint the inside of the yurt, and most intensively, grade and level a sloping campsite area.  Yellow helmets were passed around, hand tools discussed, and then everyone was busy--and no one really mentioned the rain.

Last Friday, all Burr and Burton 9th graders participated in a service learning experience that brought them to 25 partnering organizations in the community.  Projects ranged from digging potatoes and cleaning garlic to Battenkill River clean up to wrapping presents and making signs.  

Facilitated by 9th grade advisors, senior student-mentors, and representatives from partnering organizations, students spent the entire morning out in the community working together to help others.  BBA Service Learning Coordinator Jillian Joyce describes the thinking behind the day: “It’s a way to build relationships in advisories and have our 9th graders realize the impact they can have on the broader community. That’s a wonderful aspect of BBA’s mission; it includes service and the idea that our education should go beyond ourselves, out into the world.”

Joyce recounts that though service has long been part of the school’s mission and a graduation requirement, it became more fully embedded in the curriculum in the mid-2000’s when BBA hired its first service coordinator.  Though the program has evolved in form, it’s focused on sending 9th and 10th graders out into the community on coordinated service projects.  

Up on the mountain, the rain has stopped, and Merck Executive Director Rob Terry considers the impact service learners have on his conservation and education based nonprofit: “I think of it as a continuum of opportunities . . . we try to offer as many broad-based experiences like this one as possible, and then the goal is to build deeper relationships out of that with some of the folks who come up into the space and develop a passion for it.”

Terry describes how recently two BBA students who first connected with Merck’s mission on a sophomore service day were able to work with their teachers and Merck staff to develop summer internships: “We had two long-term interns from BBA this year; one worked alongside our conservation manager, getting a broad view and opportunity to engage across the different areas of the conservation program; a second student worked supporting research on hybrid American-Chinese Chestnut with the American Chestnut Foundation.”

For Joyce, it’s exciting to see how service work can help students relate to learning in a new way, “[Students] start getting positive feedback in a different way, other than grades . . . but showing up and accomplishing something and having others value your work; it can be a hook for kids to create a new interest.”

At the yurt, Lalor’s advisory is wrapping up their projects. 9th Grade Mentor Matt Grabher '22 says that the group did well, and that’s evidenced by the change in landscape: the renaturalization is complete, the yurt’s interior has fresh, white walls, and the formerly sloping campsite is now level and boasts a new fire ring.  

Grabher notes that on service days, there’s usually a bit of fun mixed in with the hard work.  He smiles, “we work for a few hours, and then we get to check out some other things like the farm and see the animals.” A few moments later, students sling backpacks over their shoulders and head up the hill to do just that. 
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