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As Utah County students pack their bags with pens and paper this week, some Springville high schoolers will be heading to Hobble Creek Canyon.
Instead of starting the school year off in a traditional classroom setting, officials at the new Merit Academy charter school decided to take students into the canyon to do service for the community.
"It's a little bit of a non-traditional method to school," said Tobias Emory, a social studies teacher.
Emory said the goal of the first week of school is to teach students core ideas in the school's mission statement, including leadership, education and service. The first day will be spent in leadership training, while Tuesday and Wednesday will involve mulching trees, covering a gazebo and doing basic groundskeeping at Jolley's Ranch.
"It should be an exciting week," he said. "It's definitely a different way to start off school."
Emory said the school wanted to start its inaugural year with service, and it plans to continue the tradition in the future. Different service projects throughout the year, including writing letters to local service members, will help students to be civic-minded.
"We feel like this is an event that is beneficial to the community," he said.
Paul Baltes, director of the school, said officials approached the city looking for a service project and were told that groundskeeping at Jolley's Ranch was understaffed. The school group of more than 150 students will work for two days to complete any jobs the city needs done at the site.
"We're going to leave it better than we found it," he said.
Baltes said he believes service is important for students because it helps them to understand the world around them. Helping others will help students to see they are part of a community, which will help them progress in their lives.
"We want to give them every tool they need to be successful," he said.
In a survey of parents, Baltes said the project has so far had complete support. Carrie Ashcraft, who will have two children at the school this year, said she is excited for the project. Her children have been involved in service in the past, and she said she thinks it had become a part of them and what they expect to do at Merit.
Ashcraft said she believes it is important to have an educated society as well as a society that provides service to others. Involvement in service opportunities helps students to be a part of the community and learn what they should do even when they have finished with school.
"I think it opens their minds up to what education really is," she said. |
