Each week our students participate in Learning Outside the Classroom, a hallmark of the University School approach to learning. Students participate in 30+ field trips a year to experience everything from an artistic performance to touring a landfill, and visiting a religious place of worship to participating in a community service project. These outings provide our students the opportunity to link what they learn in the classroom with real world experiences, and they help our students become more engaged citizens in our community.

While Hurricane Irma had weakened to a tropical storm by the time she reached the Lowcountry, there was still quite a bit of debris to clean up afterward. Community service is an important element of our Learning Outside the Classroom experiences, giving our students the chance to learn about empathy and have a direct, hands-on impact. Hibben United Methodist Church graciously shares their campus to house our school, and cleaning up after the storm also instilled a sense of ownership and responsibility within our students.

Kessler Kreutner-Eady shares:

Though Irma spared us the brunt of her wrath, we still felt repercussions all throughout the Lowcountry. On a cool, crisp Wednesday morning, we donned our gloves and started up the two borrowed leaf blowers. We split ourselves into teams in the parking lot. From taking the vines off the sides of the gym to picking up twigs in the playgrounds everyone was able to contribute.  My team was assigned to clean the Hibben Parking lot. We filled many yard debris bags with twigs and leaves.  Our pile master, Jack Bryant, made sure to keep our debris piles and recycling in order the whole morning.  My team really enjoyed having competitions over who could rake the most leaves, or who could carry the most yard debris bags, etc. After cleaning up the campus we enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment. We were also glad to help Hibben with the efforts and enjoyed our encounters with Pastor Ray.