The Santiago College Community Service program is an essential part of our school. Its objective is to train people who are committed, informed and involved with the different social and cultural realities of our country and world. It aims to develop in our students the sensitivity to the needs of the environment, the skills to respond to them and the ability to be agents of change.
Students are encouraged to make a social commitment through various instances, such as:
• Service in the different programs of the International Baccalaureate (IB)
• Whole school campaigns in which the entire community participates
• Temporary campaigns resulting from emergencies
• Visits to different institutions
• Participation in the Breakfast Team
Community and Service Coordinator: María Leonor Alonso
The Community Service program allows our students to make their creativity, talent, time and work available to those most in need and, at the same time, enrich themselves from close contact with people who have different realities.
Throughout their time at school, students participate in different experiences depending on the level they are in. In Infant School, instances of community service learning are privileged within the school. In Lower School, the first outings begin, with visits to socially vulnerable kindergartens in the borough. Starting in Middle School, the experiences are in different places, adjusting to the work plan of the respective curricular programs.
Additionally, the Social Service Team, made up of representatives and former students of Santiago College, works constantly through different actions to support the school’s internal and external community.
In short, the focus is to make our students feel the intrinsic need to help others at all times and in all areas of life.
In IB programs, service is carried out through the Service-Learning methodology, which seeks to ensure that students put what they have learned in the classroom at the service of community needs. This is adapted according to the age of the student.
a. Primary Years Program (PYP): Action
The Primary Years Program (PYP) is aimed at children from 3 to 12 years old. In this transdisciplinary program, students investigate and build lasting and meaningful learning, developing skills and positive attitudes that invite them to reflect and act. The holistic development of the person is promoted through an emphasis on intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth.
In the PYP, action is a central element of the learning process. An action can be a change in attitude, a future action plan or assuming responsibilities towards oneself, others or the environment. This is the basis for the service to be performed in the following two programs (MYP and DP). In the PYP program, then, the service is expressed through a concrete action that must be applied as a result of the learning of each of the units of inquiry.
b. Middle Years Program (MYP): Service as Action
The Middle Years Program (MYP) encourages the development of skills and attitudes, intercultural understanding and global engagement. It focuses on students ages 11-16. At this stage, the focus is on service as action. The students carry out a Community Project, which involves detecting the needs of a community and responding to them through interdisciplinary work.
This instance allows students to put themselves in the place of others, broaden their perspectives, make a diagnosis of the deficiencies that exist in other communities and generate concrete actions that provide solutions to them.
With service as action, students become agents of change beyond the internal community.
c. Diploma Program (DP) and Creativity, Action and Service (CAS)
The Diploma Program (DP) is aimed at students in their final years of school. For the DP, learning is contextual, which implies that learning must allow the student to connect with their interests and with the real world. One way to do this is by linking what is learned in the classroom with learning through action and service. This is possible through one of the core elements of the Diploma Program: Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS).
CAS enhances the personal and interpersonal development of students, through experience-based learning. In addition, it provides spaces for self-determination and collaboration with other people, fosters a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment of work, and complements the academic demands of the DP.
CAS areas:
Creativity: Creative thinking that results in an original performance or creation.
Activity: Physical effort that contributes to a healthy lifestyle.
Service: Collaborative and reciprocal commitment to the community in response to an authentic need.
During the last two years of the Diploma, students have to carry out experiences and projects that are challenging and of interest to them, addressing the three CAS areas. Students must achieve seven learning outcomes and demonstrate them through reflections, which are the means for the experience to be transformed into learning.
Santiago College carries out different campaigns that extend throughout the year and that involve the entire SC community: students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade, teachers, support staff, administrators and parents.
These campaigns seek to create a permanent habit of social help and awareness of the environment in both students and the entire community. These are:
Emergency campaigns
Additionally, when the country has experienced crisis situations in the past, such as earthquakes or fires, the school has developed emergency campaigns focused on contributing to the specific situation.
Campaign coordinator: María Leonor Alonso / malonso@scollege.cl
Additionally, there is a group of adults linked to Santiago College which develops different initiatives of service to the community. This group is called Acción Social / Social Service and is made up of former students and parents of the school, among others.
The Breakfast Team project was born more than twenty years ago. The Team is made up of students from 1st to 12th grade, who take turns bringing breakfast to those who most need it.
They began by delivering the breakfasts to a Hogar de Cristo hostel. Later the destination was changed to the surroundings of the Emergency Public Assistance Hospital (also known as the “Posta Central”), specifically on the corner of Curicó and Portugal.
Sandwiches (prepared by 8th grade students), tea, coffee, clothes and other items are distributed by this team, led by founding teacher Susana Rojas.
“We who are in a privileged situation, because we do not lack shelter or education and we have a family that welcomes us, have a greater responsibility to those who have nothing. That is the philosophy behind the people who take to the streets, giving ourselves to our fellow human beings who need us,” highlights Susana Rojas, founding teacher of the initiative.
To date, many students and former students of the School have participated in the Breakfast Team.
Contact: Susana Rojas / srojas@scollege.cl
