Service Learning

Sacred Heart education builds on Madeleine Sophie’s vision of revealing God’s love for the world by providing youth with an exceptional education.

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Justice Tuesdays are an opportunity for our 8th-grade students to visit our community partners and participate in service learning opportunities.

Sacred Heart teaches you to be a good citizen and a good person.
Mesgana Woldeyesus, SHS parent

We believe that by offering young people the tools to grow spiritually, think critically and serve compassionately, they will transform society for the better wherever they live. At Sacred Heart, Service Learning is an integral part of social-emotional and character development.

Goal III calls all members of our school community to commit themselves to a social awareness which impels to action. Through this Goal, Sacred Heart educators are called to immerse students in diverse global perspectives encouraging critical consciousness and cultural literacy as well as an impulse to serve the common good.

The school, drawing from Catholic Social Teaching, educates students to analyze and work for justice recognizing our interdependence. All community members are encouraged to engage in direct service, advocacy, outreach and partnerships to work for justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Laying the foundation for a life-long commitment to service, Sacred Heart offers various opportunities for students and families to get involved, whether through food, clothes, or toy drives or via direct service.

Social justice is studied at every grade level, and we seek to actively increase "social awareness which impels to action." Both in the classroom and outside of it, students gain perspective on social ills and an understanding that it is everyone’s responsibility to care for one another and for the natural world on a local, national and global scale.

Social awareness and community service are firmly established in the school’s identity and in its daily life. Students engage in age-appropriate activities, which include direct volunteer service as well as efforts to raise funds and collect goods for donation.

Community Engagement & Opportunities

All Students at SHS

Students take part in Free Dress Days, Spirit Week Penny Wars and Bagel Sales to raise money for the school’s select group of service partners. Additionally, they participate in Howard Area Community Center winter gift program, in which students are encouraged to work with their parents to raise or earn the money needed to buy the gifts and necessities requested by hundreds of client families.

Primary School

Lower School

Students make sack lunches or snack packs for Inspiration Corporation to feed people who are homeless, promote shoe, coat and toiletry drives throughout the school; collect and sort donations, learn about children facing serious illnesses or who are homeless, make blankets to share with our Community Partners, and clean up in parks and beaches near school and maintain the raised bed gardens in Berger Park.

Middle School

Students possess the opportunity to participate in SOAP (Service, Outreach, Advocacy and Philanthropy), a group that provides leadership on charitable and conservation efforts, 7th and 8th grade students go off-campus once per month to perform ongoing direct service at one of our Community Partner sites, and students clean up campus of Misericordia (home for people with developmental disabilities) after the organization’s annual Family Fest.

Adult Community

Parents join faculty and staff in organizing and supporting students’ efforts and modeling a personal commitment to social awareness and community service. Active parental involvement is especially important to food/clothing/toiletry drives, off-campus Middle School projects, as well as other opportunities to serve throughout the year. There are a few weekend family service events.

Network Summer Service Programs

For decades, the Network of Sacred Heart Schools has offered wonderful opportunities for students to learn and serve in an intense program alongside students, faculty and staff from other Sacred Heart schools. Through the Network, we are happy to be able to offer our students a chance to live out Goal III in a memorable way. These programs are open to current students in grades 6 and 7 and current 8th grade students that will be attending a Sacred Heart Network school in the subsequent Fall. For more information, click here.