Community & Service

Community and Service

AIS Choir performs at the Aikwang Festival.

Our Community Service programme is an important element of every student’s life at AIS. It strives to develop the students' personalities and plays an important part in helping us to fulfill our mission and vision. We want our students to understand the importance of making the world a better place. As students engage in service projects, they gain invaluable knowledge and understanding, refine important skills, and develop attitudes of empathy and compassion.

Keeping our mission and vision in mind, our service learning programme is designed to not only focus on serving the community, but to also guide our students in their development as contributing citizens in our global society. We aim to challenge students to develop our personal goals and dispositions by participating in outdoor activities as well as to challenge themselves to develop new skills through our After School Activity programme.

What do we mean by 'community'?
The word 'community' has layers of meaning:

The school community of children, staff and volunteers who work together each day.
The wider community that includes Okpo, Geoje Island, Gyeongnam province and the regional schools with whom we have regular interactions.
The global community.

What is community engagement?
For children, engagement with the community includes a wide range of activities from supporting a school team or participating in an event, through to joining the choir or writing for the student newspaper, and beyond to being a student council representative who may plan and carry out a community event. In other words, there is a progression of learning from buying a cake at the bake sale, through to being the organiser of the bake sale.
Kojedo Aikwangwon is one of the local organisations supported by AIS. Aikwangwon is a residency for mentally and physically disabled children and adults, and is also an educational institute for students from all over Geoje Island. Students are given the opportunity to give their time on Fridays to play with residents, or help with everyday chores. For more information on Aikwangwon, please visit their home page or Facebook page.

What do we mean by 'service'?
Service is a type of community action that is specifically intended to be for the benefit others. We engage students with real-life situations and help them carry out actions that they can take which will be for the benefit of communities.

Community and service activity is organised on many levels at AIS:

AIS as a whole
Individual Classes
Groups such as Student Council, Houses and the PTA
Individual Members of staff and the student body.

Aims

To link children's learning to community issues and community action.
To develop understanding of social problems locally and internationally.
To foster an understanding of civic responsibility and participation.
To promote active citizenship.
To encourage solidarity with people who are in need and who require assistance.
To develop and share skills with others in the wider community.
To develop strong ties between students and their community which will foster valuable and long-term relationships.
To foster an appreciation of the work charities do.
To reinforce and model the values of the AIS Personal Goals.

Guiding Principles
Community and service activities should:

Meet genuine needs and involve tasks that both the students and community deem worthwhile.
Have real outcomes so that students can see the result of their work.
Present challenges, placing students in new roles, in new environments, and calling on new skills that stretch their capacities.
Require personal responsibility and decision making, in which the students are "in charge."
Involve collaborative effort with adults and peers.
Provide opportunities for reflection on experiences.