Without knowledge, one cannot make an informed decision.  Without education, one cannot be properly informed.  This education does not consist of merely information taught by teachers in a school.  It does not consist merely of skills taught by parents at home.  It consists of both and.  It consists of these sources as well as what one is taught by everyone they encounter.

            One way I believe I can change the world is by loving everyone.  Loving is one way of educating.  I believe this is one of the best ways of educating.  To love someone is to show that person that they are loved.  To show them they are loved is to show them they have worth.  When someone knows they are worth something, that they matter, they are more likely to spread that love.  With this generally comes an increase in community involvement.

            I believe schools need to get their students involved more in their community.  There is a variety of ways of doing this.  When I was in high school, I was in National Honors’ Society.  We were required to do a certain amount of hours of community service.  We were required to help out at the blood drives that took place at our school.  Other than that, we were free to do any other type of community service we wanted to do.

            When community service is required for something, one is more likely to make the time to do it.  I enjoy doing community service but cannot find the time or do not make the time to get involved in community service things outside of the clubs I’m involved with at Aquinas.  I do not really go out of my way to do anything outside my specific communities such as Aquinas.

            I believe getting students involved in their community should not just be a requirement of the National Honors’ Society.  I believe it should be a requirement of the school, a graduation requirement.  With so many opportunities and such a great diversity of people to help, things to do, and places to go, there should not be much of a problem in completing these service hours.

The hour requirement would not have to be very much: enough to get the students involved in their community, but not enough to overwhelm them.  The point of being overwhelmed will vary for each student but a median could be found.  I think we had to do thirty hours of community service for National Honors’ Society.  This seems like a reasonable amount of hours to be required to serve one’s community.

Opportunities could be presented.  If a volunteer opportunity arose, as part of the National Honors’ Society of our school, we were informed.  This was one way we were helped in completing our community service hours.  Another way we were helped is by having volunteer opportunities at our school, such as the blood drives.  Things can be done to help the students with their task of completing service hours for the community.

There are a lot of volunteer opportunities throughout every community.  Tutoring is one opportunity.  Tutoring can take place within the school the student attends or in another school.  I have encountered many opportunities to clean up trash along the roadside or along the riverside.  This could be an Earth Day activity.  It could be done among the school grounds or elsewhere.

Food drives, clothes drives, and fundraisers are good ways to help the community while having fun.  Events could be held with an entrance fee of things such as a canned food item, or a donation can could be set out.

I remember having a school wide Christmas party during at least a couple years of my high school career.  It took place during a school day.  The first half of the day we had shortened classes and the second half of the day was the Christmas party.  There was an entrance fee of one canned food item.  There were many activities going on all around the building.  These activities included a movie, a dance, board games, basketball, as well as many more.  These activities even included a picture with Santa for a small fee.  It was a very good way of getting the school to help in the community, even in a small way, while being able to have a lot of fun.

A similar event was put on at Aquinas.  The Catholic Life Club put on an event we called the Harvest Hop.  The entrance fee was one can of food or nonperishable food item.  For every item brought, that person was given a ticket, which could be entered into any of the multiple prize drawings.  There was also a donation can.  All donations went to Kids Food Basket.  There were many activities going on throughout Knape Hall.  Some activities went on continuously such as board games, a scavenger hunt, paper bag decorating for the beneficiary, and more.  Other activities occurred only at certain times such as a relay race, a pie eating contest, and more.

Our FFA group at my high school chose a spot around the school and cleaned it up.  Our plan was to plant flowers and trees there.  We mainly just cleaned up the area and weeded and put woodchips around the already existing trees.  We began to make the area look nice.  Something similar could be done.  Each class could be assigned a portion of the school grounds to work on.  Woodchips, flowers, and trees could be added as well as other things such as benches.

            The idea is to get the school involved, as a community, in their community.  By getting the school involved as a community, as a team, they learn to work together toward a common goal, they learn teamwork.  By getting them involved in their community, they learn to look beyond their needs and at the needs of others.

There are many ways to get involved as a community in the community.  The activities that can be done may vary depending on where the school is located, but something may be done nonetheless.

By us helping in the community, we show that we care, we show love.  When we show we care about someone, we show them that they matter.  They are then more likely to spread that caring on.  By starting small, doing what we can do, and using the skills we have been given, we are able to, in domino effect, make a huge difference.