Internship Placement Program

Each year, students choose from among hundreds of individual volunteer opportunities to complete their minimum of 60 hours of community service volunteer activities — from working in soup kitchens to assisting senior citizens to helping turn out the vote. The Community Service office serves as both a clearing house and referral agency for these volunteer placements. Our founder's philosophy states that education must be informed by hands-on experience, and our mission mandates community service work as part and parcel of an Ethical Culture education. Therefore, the Community Service program enjoys support from all parts of our school (i.e. board of trustees, administration, parents, and students).

Our local community welcomes our presence and encourages the continuing participation of our students in their midst. This attitude contributes greatly to the success of our program. We have expanded community service work by aiding more than 50 schools nationwide to initiate or extend their own existing programs (names available upon request).

Twenty-four years ago, we initiated the direction and originated the model of Fieldston's present Community Service Program. Simultaneously we developed what came to be the extensive Community Service Fair model, which was adopted by private and public schools nationwide. The Community Service Program became the "action arm" of our Ethics department. The newly redirected program made it possible to do our ethics work rather than merely theorize about it.

Work in service to others has long been a tradition in the Ethical Cultural Fieldston School. Because it is believed that there is much educational value in work — the opportunity to cope with non-academic settings, to have new experiences, and to be of genuine use to others — community service credit is a requirement for graduation. The community served may be defined in many ways: The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Riverdale, a Manhattan neighborhood, a home for older adults, a Westchester town, or a hospital. Service means a contribution to the welfare of others and is often unpaid. (Note: a salaried positions which otherwise meets these guidelines are acceptable for credit.) Some service jobs are primary: The students provide services directly to people in need, such as answering correspondence for a blind person or tutoring a child with learning problems. Other service jobs are secondary: The student performs routine tasks, such as filing, book sorting or envelope stuffing, to aid the work of a service organization or to give adult professionals more time to do what they are trained to do. Both kinds of service are worthy, and are for community service credit. Students receive credit for answering the telephone at an emergency food distribution center, but will not receive credit for telephone answering at a retail shop. The organization should be clearly non-profit. Therefore, jobs which may be interesting, educational, strenuous, pre-vocational, or lucrative but do not provide an obvious benefit to anyone but the jobholder are not acceptable for credit. Even helpful jobs, such as managing a team or serving on a stage crew, which may have many social, educational, or otherwise positive extracurricular values, do not earn credit.