Giving Back - Service to School and Community
Riverside Presbyterian Day School works to instill the core value of servant leadership in each generation that attends our school. The School, along with Riverside Presbyterian Church, shares the joint mission of preparing students to look beyond themselves to the needs of the School community, the Jacksonville community and beyond. It is the intention of the School to prepare future community leaders who give of themselves wherever they reside.
Serving the School Community
Beginning in the Early Learning Center, students at RPDS give thanks daily and participate in devotionals. In the lower school, opportunities to serve in the Jacksonville Community include participation in school-wide events such as the DESC Thanksgiving food drive and the Caring Tree Christmas project. Parents are critical partners in the success of these school-wide projects, modeling servant leadership with their participation in the events.
Opportunities for service in the upper grades expand as the students mature. Each Sixth grader participates in a Service Rotation, which consists of Chapel guides, Kindergarten Aides, Safety Patrol, and Library Aides. These leadership opportunities serve as the framework for the students to serve the school community. Chapel guides participate in the Thursday Chapel worship service under the direction of the RPDS Bible teacher and Joint Church/School Chapel committee. Kindergarten Aides work in the ELC before the start of school each day building relationships with the youngest students on campus. Safety patrol works car pool lanes each morning and the Library Aides assist in organizing library materials. Ideally, students should complete their years at RPDS gaining an understanding and appreciation for the needs of others.
Fifth and Sixth grade students are given the opportunity to serve the School Community by participating in Student Council under the direction of RPDS faculty. Elected representatives publicize the DESC food drive and organize other fundraising during the school year, most recently joining with the Red Cross for hurricane relief efforts.
Serving the First Coast Community
Preparing students for the opportunity to serve in the Jacksonville Community is a process that begins in the ELC and is supported by classroom and guidance faculty and is woven into the curriculum. Highlighted in the process are two programs jointly designed and carried out by the School and Church, Pathfinders and Project LEADS.
Pathfinders is an offsite program for Fifth graders which emphasizes teambuilding within the students’ peer group. The intent of the program is to focus the students on the positive outcomes that can be accomplished by working together and to take the focus off themselves as individuals. The program utilizes experienced youth leaders, faculty and volunteer parents in a series of role playing activities to teach the students to rely on each other for support and to begin to orient their perspective beyond the school community.
Project LEADS is a program for Sixth graders carried out in partnership between the School and the Church. The Directors of Community Life, Community Missions and Christian Education arrange for guest leadership to introduce the students to Community Service. For most of the students, it is their first opportunity to participate in a community service project in which they identify a need, develop a plan and complete the work as a team. Project LEADS utilizes adults modeling servant leadership to instruct students in how to become servant leaders themselves. The program is successful on many levels with students, parents and volunteers benefiting from the opportunities provided. Students often comment after the program that they just didn’t know about the needs in the community or how to serve before Project LEADS and are grateful for the opportunity to participate.
