Service Learning
Life’s most urgent question is what are you doing for others?Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Service learning has been at the heart of this school since its inception; a tradition that stretches back to Miss Fine’s School and Princeton Country Day School.
The Service Learning program at Princeton Day School thoughtfully and intentionally nurtures our students to become responsible global citizens. Service learning erases the “us” vs. “them” approach by facilitating authentic opportunities for developing empathy. At Princeton Day School, we support our students as they investigate issues to gain a deeper understanding of various problems. They collaborate to develop action plans and build reciprocal partnerships, which lead to a greater sense of their agency in the world. The “us” vs. “them” becomes a collective “we”.
Service Learning Team at PDS: Tarshia Griffin-Ley, Elizabeth Monroe, Beth Hatem, Margie Gibson
A Sampler of Service
Fall
Schoolwide: Pay to PJ Day benefitting Hurricane victims in Texas and Florida
Upper School: Trail Cleanup and Loaves and Fishes
10th grade: Lunchmaking for Low Income Families benefitting Rise Food Pantry
Schoolwide: Food Drives benefitting HomeFront and Family Guidance Service Center
Winter
Lower School: Wrap In benefitting foster children in partnership with the One Simple Wish Foundation
Middle School: Skating Party "tickets" to build an emergency service fund
Lower School: Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service
Spring
Schoolwide: Empty Bowls, Trail Run benefitting the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association
Schoolwide: The Great Giveaway - a school supply drive
Service Learning News

Jessica Clingman's 5th Grade Science class shares some fascinating facts about how animals think. Inspired by their studies on animal cognition, they held a bake sale to benefit Chimp Haven, the national chimpanzee sanctuary, and raised $1,900 for the organization!

Service Learning Director Margie Wallace Gibson '84 reports on this year's May 19 Trail Run at the Watershed Institute in support of clean water. For the past three years, one of the ways PDS has explored service learning and shown support for the Watershed is to build a team of runners from the PDS family, including faculty and staff, students, parents and alumni, for the annual 5k and 10K Trail Run and Festival. More than 90 PDS runners have participated in the trail run and festival for three consecutive years,; this year, the PDS team won the award for greatest number of participants representing an organization!

This year, PDS students set out to reimagine the food drive in order to have a greater impact. Working in conjunction with HomeFront, the school decided to combat food insecurity by holding a food drive when their food pantry is most in need.

On May 4, 2019, PDS will host "The Time is NOW," a conference organized by the National Organization for Women club. NOW club co-heads Raina Kasera '19, Nina Kanamaluru '19, and Léa Namouni '19 recently discussed their plans and hopes for this exciting event:

PDS will host its second annual "Empty Bowls" benefit event on April 11. Launched by visual arts instructor Eric Rempe last year, the Empty Bowls benefit event provided more than 22,000 meals to Mercer County area neighbors in need.