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Campus Ministry
Christian Service Program
The Christian Service Program at St. Francis High School is an opportunity for our young women to truly live out the Gospel's call to serve others. When a young woman graduates, our hope and goal is that she leaves with a sense of justice and a passion to serve those in need.
Christian Service is a graduation requirement based on responding to the Gospel's call to serve and living out St. Francis High School's four pillars: faith, excellence, leadership, and service. Our program is designed to enable students to respond in faith through meaningful service to care and serve our world and God's people in need, including: the sick and suffering, children, the elderly, the economically poor, the marginalized, and those who are developmentally disabled or physically challenged.
St. Francis High School monitors a number of Core Service Programs and students may serve at other approved locations. Students log their direct service hours in these non-profit community organizations. After participating in a variety of service experiences, each student designs her own Christian Service Leadership Project, to be completed in her senior year.
Service in Action
Throughout the over six decades of St. Francis High School's existence, volunteer service and dedication to works of social action have been a vital part of student life.
The 2007-2008 school year is no exception...
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SFHS Service Projects 2007-2008
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| Free Dress Fundraisers |
| Cristo Rey Tutoring Program |
| Back to School Supply Drive |
| Wellspring Women's Center Toiletry Collection |
| Loaves and Fishes Family Service Experience |
| Maryhouse Feminine Product Collection |
| Lenten Rice Bowl |
| Tees for Teens |
| Special Olympics Basketball |
| Advent Giving / Christmas Store |
| Penny War |
| Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest / Socks & Glove Drive |
| Run to Feed the Hungry |
| "Leap of Faith" Letter Writing |
Summer Service Trips
Campus Ministry offers our students summer service trips through Young Neighbors in Action, a week-long Catholic service learning program sponsored by the Center for Ministry Development.
Applications for Summer 2008 were due last December. Information about service trip opportunities for Summer 2009 will be posted as soon as information becomes available.
Summer Service Trips in Review...
Student Service Opportunities
We encourage parents to visit the Christian Service eChalk group with their daughters to explore the dozens of service opportunities Campus Ministry recommends.
- Login to eChalk.
- Click My Groups.
- Click Christian Service.
- In the Resources section, select the Opportunities folder and begin browsing.
"Choose this day whom you will serve."
~Joshua 24: 15
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If a student is not sure of what service to do, come to the Campus Life Center (CLC) and visit Ms. Tanya Davis, our Christian Service Coordinator. Ms. Davis can provide many ideas and inspiration.
All students are to log their hours with Ms. Davis and write one reflection per year where they reflect on their experience of service.
Christian Service Graduation Requirements
The 2008-2009 school year marks our final year of transition from one model of service to another. Seniors continue fall under the former program that requires students to complete fifty hours of service during their four years and write reflections each year on their experiences.
Beginning with the Class of 2010, our girls have embarked upon a new journey in Christian Service. During their freshman and sophomore years, students now serve a required number of hours in a variety of service experiences, after which each student develops her own Christian Service Leadership Project. Students use the Christian Service Leadership Workbook as a tool to document their service and reflect upon their experience. Each freshman receives one workbook; they are to be kept in a safe place and used throughout all four years at St. Francis. Freshmen will log their service experiences in our Christian Service database, as well as documenting them in their workbooks.
"It is our hope that through your various experiences of service, you will be inspired to respond to the needs of others on a deeper, more personal level. We hope that you find and create a project that uses your interests, talents, and skills to help make someone's life and community better."
~Christian Service Leadership Workbook
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Reflection Worksheets, Time Logs, and Volunteer Agreements may be downloaded via the links in the box below.
An Emphasis on Service
"God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you. If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. If your gift is to encourage others, do it! If you have money, share it generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly."
~Romans 12: 6-8
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With an excited group of leaders to light the way to fulfilling all community service hours and more, the process can certainly be an enjoyable one. As a whole, the service program encourages students to enjoy community service and not do it only because it is a graduation requirement. St. Francis relies on giving of ourselves, through community service, as an essential component of the educational development it offers.
We have new programs for more opportunities for service and different strategies to get involved:
- Get involved early. Try not to wait until the day before the deadline to get the hours done. If you do them over a period of time, you will start to make a personal connection with those who you are serving. This makes the service process more fun and you will even start to look forward to that time every week. If one has to do hours, why not have a great time while doing it? So, try to immerse yourself in service and get the best experience out of it, by doing it early and frequently.
- Choose wisely. Not every agency is right for every person. The last thing we want is for you to have had a bad experience serving somewhere and be scared to serve again. Thus, we offer many opportunities with different agencies so everyone finds something they like. Try not to pick an agency just because it seems easy to get your hours done. Choose a program that allows you to step out of your comfort zone and immerse yourself in the surroundings; that way, you will know how it feels to truly serve. Also, we recommend that a good portion of the students’ service be direct service (face to face) with those in need.
- Serve with a group. Whether this group is friends or family, serving with familiar faces may make you more relaxed and therefore give of yourself more. Doing service is important and it does not specifically matter how it is done. So if you do one big service project with your family every year or go twice a week to tutor a child, you are giving and that is what counts. Serving isn’t just our way to graduate; it’s also our way of life.
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