As the report outlines in the executive summary, “A healthy and fair admissions process cannot simply encourage students to devote more time to others: It needs simultaneously to reward those who demonstrate true citizenship, deflate undue academic performance pressure and redefine achievement in ways that create greater equity and access for economically diverse students.”
In the first set of recommendations for “community engagement and service,” the authors call for the following:
- “Meaningful, sustained community service;
- Collective action that takes on community challenges;
- Authentic, meaningful experiences with diversity; and,
- Service that develops gratitude and a sense of responsibility for the future.”
As I read the descriptions for these recommendations, I could not help but think of Bosque’s core values of community and integrity. We want our students to work on building a close-knit community for their peers and their families and to serve the greater Albuquerque, New Mexico, national, and international communities. At Bosque, our program is named “service learning” rather than “community service” for a reason; while service is certainly laudable, we want our students to understand the needs that require the service in the first place, so they can be empowered to make their world a better place.
Whether it’s through our Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP) and studying the threats to the riparian forest along the Rio Grande or the Horizons Albuquerque at Bosque School program that is attempting to redress New Mexico’s drop-out rate, Bosque students are addressing “community challenges” in a “meaningful” and “sustained” way. In addition, Bosque’s Sofia Center for Professional Development is devoted to providing meaningful and purposeful professional development to educators throughout New Mexico so education can improve for all children.
In middle school, service learning is woven into the curriculum so students can learn about environmental sustainability, access to nutritious food, and issues of literacy. An 8th grader reading to her Head Start buddy is doing something sweet and kind, but perhaps more importantly, she is advancing the cause of literacy in a state where far too many people cannot read. She is gaining an understanding of the issues involved in order to be well-informed, and she comes to understand the power she has to make a difference in her world.
When our upper school students participate in one of Bosque’s many student-led service learning groups, they are developing “gratitude and a sense of responsibility for the future,” as witnessed by the many alumni who carry on with their commitment to service learning in college and in their adult lives. Just the other day, I wrote a letter of recommendation for one of our alumni who wants to work with the international global health organization Partners in Health, which she learned about at Bosque. I also spoke with an alumnus who is working on animal rights issues at his college campus and whose motivation stemmed partially from his experience in high school.
Similarly, when our young women and men participate in one of the school’s many student-led organizations devoted to diversity, equity, and inclusivity, they are grappling with difficult issues, and we hope they are having “authentic, meaningful experiences with diversity.” When our students discuss a work of literature in an English class that reflects the experience of someone different than themselves or they debate a social justice topic, they develop a deeper understanding of our country’s struggles for equity for everyone. It’s all the better that they are also preparing for the kind of work they will encounter on college campuses, and they are having the kinds of experiences that college admissions officers find attractive.
At Bosque, we are teaching these concepts (even if the college admissions world was not catching up to what we have valued for two decades) because we have always believed in scholarship, community, and integrity. We can appreciate, though, that our students who “practice what Bosque preaches” will be well served in the college application process if the colleges and universities actually take this study to heart and make changes. How exciting that our students might be recognized for not only doing well in their classes but for also doing good for their communities!
