This year the Students in Action homeroom is working hard to get Padua girls involved in service. You may know this homeroom as the “Jefferson Awards Homeroom,” but this year the team has reconstructed its criteria. “We don’t want service to be about the awards,” says SIA team member Carly Block, “Yes, we will participate and apply for the awards, but our goal is to help Padua live out the “service” part of its motto.” The Students in Action team would like to teach Padua girls the importance of reaching out to others and sharing their gifts and talents with the people they serve.

Main Goals
The SIA homeroom’s main goal is to create opportunities for Padua girls to get involved in their community. With student run service trips, the students can get involved with numerous organizations. Not only does the team want the girls to get involved with outside organizations, but the team also wants them to become more involved with service inside the Padua community. To accomplish these tasks the team is broken down into two branches: Community Leaders and Service Leaders.

Community Leaders
The community leaders plan events for the Padua community. They will have one event in the fall and in one the spring. The girls working hard on the fall event. Make sure to keep an eye out for “Hunger Banquet” posters. Also, the community leaders have been working on developing a Middle School leadership conference. This conference will focus on teaching students in the 7th and 8th grades important leadership skills such as listening and communicating with others.

Service Leaders
Service leaders lead the school in service and provide Padua girls with over a dozen wonderful volunteering sites. The service leaders post all volunteer opportunities on ‘UGive.org.’ Each service leader has chosen a specific organization to support. Once students sign up, the leaders take the group of students to serve at their chosen location.

Service Trips
Carly Block is doing great work through this homeroom. She has already lead a service trip to the Mary Campbell Center and plans to take the girls back for another trip. Carly has benefited from serving at the Mary Campbell Center and she wanted to share her experiences with other Padua girls. She said, “The feeling is so powerful. When you take a group of students to volunteer with you and you get comments as well as emails back saying how amazing the experience was and how much they loved it. Many have said they had a great time and look forward to coming back again to volunteer. For me, sharing these experiences with others is what makes it all worthwhile.”

Get Involved
Students can login to their “UGive” account, sign up for a service trip that interests them, and then SERVE! Remember, “It is through giving that we receive.”