Community Engagement

Community engagement is an integral and long-standing element in the Trevor curriculum. Through service and engagement, students develop a sense of responsibility for their community and become empowered citizens who can better the world. Our program strives to integrate knowledge and understanding with compassion and social responsibility, while promoting connection with others through a diversity of ideas and experiences. 

Trevor students play an authentic role in the community through a range of projects and commitments addressing local and global issues. This approach to community engagement requires students to think about how they would like to participate and become active members in their communities, what issues are important to them, and how they can use their skills to have an impact.

Our youngest students are actively engaged in a variety of community activities. Throughout the years, our Kindergarteners have worked with Animal Care Centers by making pet toys. First graders have spent time caring for Central Park. In 2nd Grade, students have focused on human rights and social justice, including a visit to the United Nations. Through their study of the Lenape, 3rd grade students have learned about the importance of their elders and used that knowledge to become Elder Buddies with members of the Jewish Home and Life Center. Fourth- and 5th-grade students have participated in a variety of projects including toiletry drives for individuals living in homelessness, assembling lunch bags for Holy Apostles and NY Common Pantry, and reading with students at Cassidy’s Place.

In our Middle School, students focus on the theme of Belonging and Impact. What does it mean to belong to a community? What impact do they want to have on those communities? How will they make change in the world? Students participate in a variety of local engagement activities including partnering with and volunteering for Cassidy’s Place, Harlem Grown, Concrete Safaris, Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, Community Kitchen, and New York Common Pantry.

Our Upper School students participate in two school-wide service days every year. Students in 9th grade focus on social justice within their advisory and investigate their role in our community through the Ethical Foundations course curriculum. Students in 10th grade participate in a trip to Washington D.C. focused on community, culture, history, and volunteering. Our 10th- and 11th-grade students are encouraged  to come together and create ways of engaging in an impactful way within our local community. In place of submitting service hours, we task each student to develop a long-term community engagement project ranging from delivering meals to homebound elderly and creating hygiene kits for homeless shelters to tutoring students. Twelfth-grade students are encouraged to incorporate community engagement into their Bridge projects.