Service Learning Program

In the 2021-2022 school year, we began to move our mission of service to become integrated with our curriculum in our new Service Learning Program. As students learn about a particular social issue in a Religion, Social Studies, ELA or Science class they are called to action in Mercy. Depending on the grade level, students are actively involved in the brainstorming, planning, and running a service project to benefit an organization that addresses that societal need. 

Each grade incorporates the Works of Mercy, as exemplified by Catherine McAuley and the SIsters of Mercy, with areas of the curriculum to engage students in outreach projects. A self-reflection journaling is incorporated into each experience so that students more fully integrate the learning and mission.  

Some examples include: 

• Kindergarteners are reading about giving from what you have in order to bring comfort and warmth to others in the book “Two Gloves” and then collecting gloves stuffed with lip balm and tissues for the sisters at McAuley Convent. 
• In Art class, the 4th grade is learning how to sew, making mittens or scarves for the elderly at Mercy Neighborhood Ministries. 
• In Social Studies and Science, the 5th grade learned about how tornadoes are formed and why certain areas of the country and those with fewer resources are more severely impacted.  The students organized a bake sale and many baked at home to support this drive.  Other students used their skills to create a short promotional video while others used math skills to run. The students' goal was to raise $1,000 from the sale and donate its proceeds to the American Red Cross relief efforts for victims of tornadoes in the south. 
• Focusing on the importance of literacy and education, the 6th grade will be reading a selection of fiction and nonfiction works that portray the disparity of access to adequate schools in inner cities. The students will plan and run a fundraiser to donate to a Mercy sponsored school in Philadelphia that relies on private donations.   
• 7th grade students learned about the environmental impact of our choices and the importance of being good stewards of our planet.  They participated in a grounds cleanup and leaf collection at a spiritual retreat center run by the Sisters of Mercy that offers restoration, renewal, and reflective space for people in recovery. 
• In order to better understand the needs of the people in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, 8th grade explored the the causes and effects of poverty as they used their talents to organize, promote and conduct a fundraising to purchased hundreds of Christmas gifts for St. Vincent Parish.