Service Learning | Living Our Mission

Above all else, and as stated in our mission, Gilman School seeks to help boys grow into men of character. We believe that the qualities of honor, leadership, dedication, and service to others must be emphasized and reinforced through all aspects of the School community.

The opportunities for service learning at Gilman are diverse and include (but are not limited to) the following:

Collecting non-perishable food items for the Donald Bentley Food Pantry and toys and clothing to benefit Metro Kidz and Our Daily Bread Employment Center.
Helping harvest produce at First Fruits Farm for food banks throughout Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
Making peanut butter sandwiches for distribution at Manna House.
Reading books as part of the Lower School's annual Read-a-Thon to raise, on average, over $25,000 each year for various charitable organizations.
Shooting baskets in the Middle School's annual Hoops for Habitat fundraiser.
Helping organize and run the Upper School's annual American Red Cross Blood Drive on campus.

Service learning activities are not limited to current students, either! Each year, current parents and families and alumni organize special events with each other or with students in order to maximize their impact across generations.

Objectives, Requirements, and Opportunities by Division

At Gilman, boys of all ages participate in service learning activities. In the Lower School, the seeds for service learning are planted, and boys learn to recognize the helpers in the community and themselves. Beginning in Middle School, Gilman requires that students complete 20 hours of service learning during their three years in that division. In the Upper School, students must complete a minimum of 50 consecutive hours of consistent involvement in one service learning project outside of Gilman as a requirement for graduation.

Upper School

While stressing rigorous academic preparation, Gilman acknowledges that the ultimate preparation of the student is for humanitarian service. The Upper School Service Learning Program provides the students the opportunity to experience involvement with and service to others.

Every Gilman student must perform service learning as a requirement for graduation.

Goals of the Upper School Service Learning Program

To help the student to become more aware of the larger community.
To help the student become conscious of and sensitive to those in need.
To provide opportunities for the student to share his gifts and talents with and for others.
To help the student begin the process of evaluating his own values, perceptions, attitudes, and feelings towards those in need.
To provide the student with an opportunity to grow in ways which are not provided by classroom or athletic endeavors.
Every Gilman student must perform service learning as a requirement for graduation.

Upper School Service Learning Requirements

Must be performed outside of Gilman School in one activity or organization for a non-paying position or with an approved service program on campus.
Must be completed during a fourteen-month period for a minimum of 50 hours.
Must be performed after January of the freshman year and completed by August 1 of the senior year.
Must be performed for a disadvantaged community whose culture/circumstances differ from the student's.
Must be evaluated and approved by the parent(s), the organization's volunteer coordinator, and the Assistant Head of School for Community, Inclusion, and Equity (CIE) prior to involvement or selected from an approved listing of service learning agencies as submitted by the Assistant Head of School for CIE.
Completion of the service will require the student's written reflection on and reactions to the service learning experience, as well as the organization's evaluation of the student and the student's evaluation of the organization.

Student Responsibilities

Obtain necessary approval from parent(s), the organization's volunteer coordinator, and the Assistant Head of School for Community, Inclusion, and Equity (CIE).
- Juniors: The commitment form is due by May 31 each year.
Submit the Commitment Form to the Assistant Head of School for CIE before commencing the service project.
Submit evaluation forms to the Assistant Head of School for CIE to complete the requirement for graduation.

Civic Engagement and Service Learning (CESL) Grant Program

The Gilman Civic Engagement and Service Learning Program (CESL), a grant program for Upper School students to promote community involvement and social action globally and locally, provides two grants per year for boys in grades 9 through 11 to pursue service learning projects over the summer.

The program aims to teach civic literacy, promote civic engagement, and develop social entrepreneurs by stimulating student awareness of local and global issues and encouraging students to lead volunteer efforts that will affect positive, measurable, and lasting change.

The CESL projects are generated by student interest and community needs. Students research domestic or international service learning opportunities or design their own projects; grants will be awarded through a competitive application process.

Selection is based on a student's commitment to the issue, ability to articulate the impact of the proposed project, potential for student growth, program budget, plan for sustained service to the target community, and plan for enriching the Gilman community through the service learning project.

Course: Urban Education

The Upper School Urban Education Course includes real-world experience working with students from low-income households at William Paca Elementary School.

In late winter-early spring, the Gilman students are instructed on how to tutor the Paca School students for standardized tests. Then, once or twice a week for four weeks, they travel to Paca to tutor the students in their classrooms, gaining first-hand knowledge of what an urban education entails. After the tutoring ends, they return to their classroom at Gilman to study education policy and the politics surrounding urban education. The tutoring allows them to inform their in-class learning with their experience in a real urban classroom.

Ongoing Project: Lunches for the Food Insecure and Unhoused

Lunches for the Food Insecure and Unhoused is a weekly student-run program in which students make sandwiches for people experiencing food insecurity and/or homelessness.

An Upper School student leader purchases all the necessary supplies and organizes 10-15 boys to take time from their Wednesday afternoon study halls to make the sandwiches, which he then transports to Our Daily Bread Employment Center for distribution. Additionally, Flik, Gilman's food service partner, donates their daily surplus, which also is transported to Our Daily Bread.

Ongoing Project: Christopher Place Employment Academy

Christopher Place Employment Academy is a program run by Catholic Charities that provides men experiencing homelessness with 18 months of transitional housing, job training, interviewing skills, job placement, and assistance in finding permanent housing.

On the first Friday of every month, 10 Gilman students and their parents prepare the evening meal, serve the residents, and eat dinner with them. Gilman's involvement in the program began in 2018, and while there was some rotation in student participation, a core group of boys attend almost every month.

Earn HoursApproved Upper/Middle School Service Learning Opportunities

Pre-Project Commitment Form
For Students Only

Post-Project Evaluation Forms
For Students and Volunteer Coordinators

Middle School

For nearly thirty years, Gilman's students have maintained a formal commitment to service learning and addressing social issues. Service learning as a requirement began in the Middle School with the idea of providing each student "the opportunity to learn about the needs of a community and to give him a chance to make a difference."

Today, the Middle School continues to do its part; current students have dedicated more than 2,000 hours to their communities. Through service, our boys learn to develop their own unique talents while helping others.

There are a number of opportunities for Middle School students, including the annual Hoops for Habitat fundraiser, Service Saturday trips, and grade-level service projects. In addition, students are encouraged to set up individual or group service projects within their communities. The service learning faculty advisors can help with contacts and ideas. Students should also keep their advisors informed about their service projects.

By the end of his Middle School career, each student who entered as a sixth grader will have completed at least 20 hours of service learning.

Off- and On-Campus Service
Course: Pre-Algebra

Off- and On-Campus Service

Off-Campus

Off-campus, our boys have accumulated service hours by assisting food service at Our Daily Bread Employment Center, picking up trash in Druid Hill Park, and participating in and providing support for athletic events to benefit various organizations. Parents are encouraged to find such opportunities for their sons; this is an excellent chance for their sons to learn about social issues near to their hearts and to pass along a family value of service.

On-Campus

Students also have the option to obtain service hours on campus. At the start of every new school year, we enlist the help of Middle School veterans to help orient new and returning families. Assistance with schedule and book distribution is always helpful. The assistant athletic director allows students to help give out athletic equipment at the beginning of the school year, and boys may accumulate hours working with the Game Day Crew and by restocking equipment at the end of each season.

In addition, after mid-term exams, students can participate in Hoops for Habitat as players or vendors. Students earn hours for their time on this day as well. These are excellent opportunities for students to pick up a couple of hours toward fulfilling the requirement.

Course: Pre-Algebra

Middle School math teacher and Director of Secondary School Admissions Donell Thompson '91 incorporates service learning into the statistics section of his seventh grade pre-algebra class.

Mr. Thompson first asks his students to estimate the prevalence of food insecurity* in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, the State of Maryland, and the nation. Mr. Thompson then provides the class with real data on food insecurity. The class finds the variants, graphs them by district, and discusses measures of combating the problem.

For six weeks after spring break, they make lunches for individuals experiencing homelessness, which are delivered to Paul's Place. The boys participate in the delivery so they can see the neighborhood firsthand. Their final project is to write to their elected officials telling them what they, as a class, have done and asking the representatives what they plan to do. By integrating service learning into the class curriculum, Mr. Thompson makes both statistics and service learning more relevant for the boys.

*Food security is the ability of a household to feel confident in feeding family members every day without resorting to emergency food sources or other extraordinary measures to meet basic food needs. Food insecurity is the reverse.

Earn HoursApproved Upper/Middle School Service Learning Opportunities

Middle School Service Learning Forms
Available by Grade

Lower School

Gilman's philosophy emphasizes a commitment to the community and service to others. Part of the Lower School Character Development Curriculum is community outreach. At each grade level, there are specific age-appropriate activities and schoolwide projects.

Donald Bentley Food Pantry

The Lower School supports the Donald Bentley Food Pantry, which is a living memorial to Donald Bentley, a 1988 graduate of Gilman who was tragically murdered on the streets of Baltimore. Conceived and operated by students, the Bentley Food Pantry has been supported by contributions and fundraisers from Gilman and other area schools. The Lower School continues to be a large contributor.

Once a month, the boys are asked to bring cans or boxes of nonperishable food to school to be donated to the project. Added fun: boys are asked to bring in items according to a theme, such as items that are purple (grape jelly) or begin with the letters RAVENS (rice, applesauce, vegetable soup, for example) or orange or begin with the letters ORIOLES, or a specific kind of food, like soup or dessert mixes.

Manna House

The Lower School participates in the schoolwide "Lunches for the Homeless" program. Once each month, a certain grade will be assigned to supply food and prepare lunches as a classroom activity with student, faculty, and parent involvement. The lunches are donated to Manna House.

Thanksgiving Food Drive

A tradition in the Lower School is the Thanksgiving Food Drive, when boys in each homeroom will be asked to bring in a certain type of food. This food is donated to a food pantry.

Read-a-Thon

Each January, the Lower School holds a Read-a-Thon to support a faculty-selected organization involved in illnesses or disabilities that affect children. Each student is encouraged to participate. The Read-a-Thon emphasizes the reading process, learning about the disease or disability, and service learning.

Students solicit sponsors for the amount of time they read or are read to. In the past, the Read-a-thons have benefited the March of Dimes, Autism Research, Cystic Fibrosis, Juvenile Diabetes, the Juvenile Asthma Association, the Johns Hopkins Hospital Children's Center, the Baltimore Regional Burn Center Foundation, Maryland Special Olympics, and the American Heart Association.

Latest Service Learning News

See More News from Other Divisions and Departments

Meet the Service Learning Team

As a program under the Office of Community, Inclusion, and Equity (CIE), Gilman's Service Learning efforts are led by Office of CIE members and supported by divisional coordinators.
Questions or ideas? Please get in touch with Tangie Mason or your student's divisional coordinator(s).

Service Learning Program Administration

All organization and service learning requests are reviewed and approved by Assistant Head of School for Community, Inclusion, and Equity Michael Molina. Tangie Mason, Administrative Assistant for the Office of Community, Inclusion, and Equity, completes processing and inputting of all service learning requests and hours.