A New Opportunity to Bolster an Old Value

Scituate High School’s continued commitment to community service is reflected in the fifty hours of volunteer work required for graduation. For some, this requirement can seem like a daunting task; for others, it is the least they can do to make a difference in the surrounding community. In the last several years, trips and clubs such as ASP (Appalachia Service Project), the SHS Mexico and Guatemala Service Trips and the Interact Club have provided opportunities for students to help those in need. While many of these outlets for community service are still available, a new one has emerged at SHS.

Jake Kovach, a French teacher at SHS and advisor for the Community Service Club, has created a new community service trip to Louisiana. Kovach and fellow chaperone Charlotte O’Driscoll, a SHS science teacher, will be taking a group of Scituate High students down to Baton Rouge, where they will contribute to the St. Bernard Project, an organization formed after Hurricane Katrina. Students will be repairing homes damaged by the previous summer’s flooding. While initially the group was supposed to head to New Orleans, an influx of other volunteer groups led to a change in the itinerary of the trip.

Kovach is no stranger to these community service trips, as he became co-advisor of the Mexico Service Trip alongside Kerri Hallihan, a math teacher at SHS, about two years ago. While Hallihan has been running trips to South and Central America for 8 years now, she decided to take a break this year, and Kovach was there to fill the void. In fact, a community service trip last year with family and friends to New Orleans gave him the inspiration for this current undertaking.

The trip to Baton Rouge is set to include around 11 to 12 students with two chaperones. One of the students involved, freshman Lucy McKain, was excited to have the opportunity to help the community in Baton Rouge. McKain said she joined the trip because she wanted to be able to help people and build houses. “It’s a good bonding experience because I don’t know everyone very well,” she said. McKain explained that she was most excited about “seeing the faces of the people after we build the houses.”

The process of setting up this new community service opportunity hasn’t been easy, as Kovach described the experience as a “juggling process.” Finding an organization that can provide meaningful service work, booking flights through a travel agency in Marshfield, discovering housing by calling retreat centers in Baton Rouge, and renting vans has been a time consuming process. A three to four month delay that prevented the trip from being presented in front of the school board cost the trip valuable time  and money: Kovach was unable to book flights earlier, which resulted in higher airfares. These prices caused a relatively high interest level among students to result in a smaller amount of actual participants.

While Kovach was excited about the impact the trip could have, he did express the sentiment that it is also important to engage in community service close to home. He proclaimed, “Doing service work in a different region, in a different country, is a phenomenal experience. It’s really learning two things at once. But doing service work locally, there is plenty to be done.” Vice-Principal Brian Duffey, who has been involved with the trip, had a similar outlook. He stated,“There are community service options within five miles, within two miles, within 20 miles, within 30 miles.” That being said, Duffey reflected upon the importance of trips, such as the upcoming one to Baton Rouge, as he said, “Any time we can provide students an opportunity to get outside of what they know, maybe their comfort zone, and see things that are different for different people, it kinda widens the worldview. I think it increases empathy, it increases gratitude, and it also gives people a deeper sense for what people go through that could be different from them and then to give back.”

Despite the excitement surrounding this trip, future trips to Louisiana seem unlikely in the near future. Kovach cited his commitment to the French Exchange trip next year and Hallihan’s likely return to international trips as reasons for the discontinuation of this trip.

Community service has long been a value instilled into the students of Scituate High, but the new service trip to Baton Rouge provides more opportunities for students to make a difference in areas that need it.