NEWS & MEDIA

By Nick Yates, ISB Communications

The International School of Beijing's (ISB) commitment to service learning was on vivid display last Wednesday at the High School Clubs and Service Fair. Dozens of student-led organizations dedicated to charity and engaging with communities outside of the school hosted stalls aiming to raise awareness of their cause and recruit new members.

One attendee especially keen to learn about the clubs was Jo Binns, ISB's new Service and Experiential Learning Coordinator. The school has shown its commitment to further improving service learning with the creation of this role, and it has found the perfect recruit in Ms. Binns. She is an ISB veteran, having taught here for eight years to 2015, when she left to complete a Master of International Development and work with an organization combating human trafficking in Laos.

Her job from the start of this academic year will be to pull together the school's many service-learning projects and integrate them within the curriculum and co-curricular activities. At ISB, knowledge and skills are considered vital, but teachers know that at least as important as those knowledge and skills are character development and a commitment to serving others. ISB students volunteer and raise money for numerous charities, and now Ms. Binns will be ensuring the whole thing is organized and that there is a firm set of principles for all the clubs at the fair to follow.

"There's real momentum behind service learning at ISB, but we have to have conversations about what it means and also try to form a school-wide program," said Ms. Binns, who helped coordinate the High School's Nightingale Charity Club during her last stint at ISB.

She wants there to be a progression, with students developing skills through service learning in Elementary School that help them in Middle School and then building on that through High School. And she wants there to be a precise balance between benefit for the students and benefit for the people outside the school they're working with.

"Service learning shouldn't just be about going into a community and doing a project, it should be about research beforehand and reflection afterwards.

"I want to help students and teachers think through the experience and make sure it is meeting a real need, not just a perceived need. Even international aid organizations often get it wrong – they go into communities without asking what the most pressing priorities are. If kids think they're doing good when they're not doing the most good they can be, then it gives them a false sense of what they've achieved."

What was clear at Wednesday's fair was the enthusiasm and potential Ms. Binns has a chance to harness. Clubs ranged from those focused on environmental issues like Greenkeepers, to Mental Health Matters, to housebuilding volunteer group Habitat for Humanity.

The students running these clubs were full of stories about what they have got out of being involved and what the people they have been helping have got out of it.

The ISB branch of global charity Roots & Shoots follows its mission statement of "To foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs, and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place."

Its members go on weekly visits to a local animal shelter, and to the Love & Hope Center, a vocational school for underprivileged teenagers, and they support these non-profit organizations through fundraisers.

Grade 12 Roots & Shoots member Jewellee L said, "What attracts me to service is the satisfaction – the feeling that you are more than 'just another high school student.' Good service requires not only time and passion, but also planning, organizing, execution, creativity – all of which I enjoy doing and find exciting when done successfully.

"I've been volunteering at the Love & Hope Center for three years now, and what calls me back every year are the students. I can see with my own eyes how Love & Hope's education changed their students. I once knew a shy girl who came to the center two years ago from a rural part of China. Now, I know the same girl as a curious, hard-working student who has more confidence in herself. Seeing students like her grow as a person gives me satisfaction as a teacher and friend. Volunteering outside the small world of ISB has been really rewarding."

Louisa S, Emily D and Anson W are involved with the music branch of Empowerment Through Self Esteem Education. They empower students from local schools by teaching them how to play piano, violin, and guitar or ukulele during lessons every Sunday. They're planning to teach more music theory this year to make the learning more sustainable.

Louisa, Emily and Anson said they had developed a lot of empathy through teaching. They have all grown up learning music, but have had to work on engaging students with less of a background and natural passion in these art forms.

Schools around the world are increasingly offering service learning, but few have a dedicated member of staff in charge of this area. ISB's appointment of one shows how it is willing to invest in what it believes is right for students.