Service Learning
We believe that each person ministers to one another through faith and service, thereby building and supporting the community of faith at Bishop Kelly High School. You will find members of our community involved in service work seven days a week, and even over the summer vacation!
Service Learning in New Orleans
Jesus did not isolate Himself from His followers. His mission was one of teaching, serving and living among the people. Likewise, Jesus calls us to minister to our neighbors in the everyday passage of life. In this way, we carry out God’s message and manifest His love here on earth. We are called not only to preach God’s love, but also to serve and minister.
BK’s Service Learning seeks to move the classroom discussion of the personal and social components of Christian lifestyle into real life instances of service and ministry. Service Learning is just the start of a lifetime gift of self to others. We hope to bring students into the community so they can experience living the principles and beliefs of the Christian lifestyle. The program reaches not to the school community, but also to parishes and agencies around the Treasure Valley.
Service Learning is a chance for the Bishop Kelly student to respond to Jesus’ call to feed, clothe, comfort, teach and help “the least needy of my brothers and sisters.” (Matthew 25:31-46). This call, repeated throughout history in the Church’s teachings and documents, has always been generously practiced by the faithful in the Christian community. It is now passed on to our students to carry out the work of Christ and contribute to building a better world for all.
SENIOR SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT
We strongly believe that service to others is not something we “do”, but it becomes a part of who we are. To graduate, seniors must complete at least 30 hours of community service with one community agency and complete a reflection process.
The program is designed to take the faith development offered to the student through the theology program one step further by helping the students to utilize their many gifts and talents to benefit the community in which they live. The goals of the service learning agency placements are best served by concentrating one’s hours in a single agency or site. It is our belief that a focused experience achieves the best learning experience for the student. The students have an opportunity to meet with service agencies from the Treasure Valley during the Service Learning Fair at the end of their junior year. An agency contract must be completed by mid May. The Service Learning Handbook (live link to the PDF below) explains the entire process and assists students in completing their senior service project. Please contact BK Service Learning Coordinator, Joan Colleran, at jcolleran@bk.org with questions.
Doing service is about those who we serve, not about us. I often remind students that SERVICE IS NOT ABOUT YOU! If you find yourself complaining about this requirement, try your best to put things in perspective. Service is a sacrifice for those in need, not just a checklist to get through high school! “Serve one another with whatever gift you have received.” 1 Peter 4:10
SERVICE LEARNING PROGRAM FOR UNDERCLASSMEN
Ten (10) hours of service learning per semester, twenty (20) per year, is the minimum requirement for underclassmen (freshman, sophomores, juniors). Each grade level is called to a specific type of service. Freshmen are encouraged to serve their families or neighbors; sophomores are encouraged to serve their religious communities; juniors are encouraged to serve in Bishop Kelly sponsored service projects. Up to five hours of summer service may apply towards the fall requirement and five hours over Christmas Break towards the spring requirement. Parents will be asked to validate that the service has been completed. A reflection process to facilitate learning about the experience is also conducted by the theology teachers.
BISHOP KELLY SCHOOL-WIDE SERVICE PROJECTS
Annual Food Drive
Each fall student campus ministers coordinate a school-wide food drive that takes place over several weeks. Students bring thousands of pounds of non-perishable food items to their second period class to help support the local Catholic parish food banks at Holy Apostles, Sacred Heart, St. Mary’s, St. Mark’s, St. Paul’s-Nampa, and St. John’s Cathedral. During this time students also learn about and discuss Idaho’s growing hunger problem, giving them greater awareness of, and compassion for the needs of families in our community.
2022 Frassati Food Drive Information
- Food will be collected in your student’s 1st period class through December 1st.
- Students receive points for the food that they bring in. Please download and print This 2022 Frassati Food Drive PDF for point values.
- If BK collects 20,000 points worth of food, students can wear jeans during finals week!
- If BK collects 30,000 points worth of food, students can wear sweats during finals week!
- Students can earn vouchers for bringing in food. 20 points worth of food = 1 voucher.
- Vouchers can been redeemed for classroom incentives by teachers, or for raffle tickets into our grand prize drawing.
More information on poverty and hunger:
Value of Development Index (PDF)
Bishop Kelly Pennies for New Orleans Drive
Each year the Campus Ministers collect spare change throughout Lent for the St. Bernard Project in New Orleans (more information provided in the link: https://www.stbernardproject.org/. This fundraiser provides thousands of dollars each year to those who are still rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Funds go directly to the organization, not to students who participate in the service trip. Each year, those who go to New Orleans on the service trip work with this organization and are able to hand deliver a check from Bishop Kelly.
BK Legacy Garden
The Legacy Garden at Bishop Kelly High School was a senior gift by the Class of 2009. In 2011, the Senior Class donated eleven fruit trees as their gift to BK. Andrea Symmonds was the original coordinator and put a tremendous amount of time, talent, and love into the garden. At that time, the BK Legacy Garden was a source of fresh fruits and vegetables for the local Catholic parish food banks.
The current vision for the garden area is for staff and faculty to use the space to grow food for their families or as donations to local organizations and for students to learn how to grow food through a Horticulture Club and/or Senior Service Learning Project. Any food that the students harvest would go to the local Catholic parish food banks. There are six different garden spaces and we continue to implement organic practices in the garden.
For more information regarding the BK Legacy Garden, please contact Bishop Kelly Legacy Garden Coordinator, Dana Hopper-Kelly.
Since 1999, Bishop Kelly High School has been offering a summer service immersion experience for incoming seniors as a way of completing the Senior Service Project. In years past, groups have worked in Mexico, Guatemala, and most recently New Orleans. The goal of the trip is centered on five principles: community, spirituality, service, solidarity, and social justice.
Prior to COVID, Bishop Kelly sent students to New Orleans to help with the rebuilding effort. Even today, years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city of New Orleans, there is still much work to be done. Currently, the group is working with The Phoenix of New Orleans, a non-profit dedicated to rebuilding homes that were destroyed by the failure of the levees.
Students work on a number of projects including hanging drywall, hammering nails, digging trenches, painting and pouring concrete. Students have the opportunity to meet and work alongside the people who will be living in the houses they are helping rebuild. The residents share their stories and their lives with Bishop Kelly students, bridging the gap between simply “manual labor” and “service to others.”
Students apply to be a part of the traveling team in the fall of their Junior year, and work throughout Junior year to raise funds and prepare for the trip. Fundraisers help to cover travel costs and provide necessary funding for materials needed for the projects. Traditionally the group has consisted of 25-30 students and 5 BK faculty, staff, or parents. The trip takes place in early June, between the students’ junior and senior year.
For more information regarding the experience, please contact Bishop Kelly Service Trip Coordinator, Joan Colleran at jcolleran@bk.org.
Service Learning Day
Each year, Bishop Kelly sets aside a Friday for Service Learning Day where all students, teachers and administrators serve our local community. Each first period instructor is asked to coordinate a service project that can be completed in one day. The goal is to extend classroom instruction by relieving some of the burden from an organization in need around the Treasure Valley. Examples from previous Service Learning Days include a Spanish class visiting a primarily Hispanic school to help students with class work, and a Biology class working with “The Common Ground” community garden for refugees.
For more information or to suggest an organization that could use some help from the BK community, please contact our Campus Minister, Anna McCarthy at amccarthy@bk.org.
