Students lead service projects across Nashville
by Juanita I.C. Traughber, communications director
During the Community Action Day address, Katherine Y. Brown encouraged High School students to “be their own cheerleaders” to change the world.
Previously called Community Service Day for 22 years, student leaders Sam Horner ’20, Victoria Christianson-Galina ’20, and Clayton Jelsma ’19 renamed the student-lead Community Action Day because “its purpose is to form relations with our surrounding communities,” they said, which is more than a one-day do-good project.
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On Monday, Nov. 5, High School students began the Community Action Day in the Auditorium, hearing from humanitarian Katherine Y. Brown. She encouraged them to follow their passions to change the world and not seek validation from other people.
“If you don’t walk in your purpose, there is a missing piece of the universe,” Brown said. “If something doesn’t exist, you can create your own. The point is you can really make a difference.”
She began walking door-to-door to teach underserved Chicago residents CPR and later began an organization to increase awareness of pulmonary hypertension as well as a global leadership academy. Although each venture is now a successful program, when sharing them as ideas, she was faced with pessimism. Her response was always, “Let’s do it anyway,” she said, encouraging students to “be your own cheerleaders. Carry your own pom-poms.”
Before sending peers off to 45 sites across the city, Christianson-Galina urged classmates to consider “all of the ways you can broaden your community engagement beyond this experience.” Students took buses to neighborhoods across Nashville and walked to the nearby Edgehill community to create crafts with the elderly, organize food pantries and school supplies, read to elementary-school students, serenade senior citizens, work in gardens, and spruce up nonprofit buildings by cleaning and painting. As students returned to campus, they reflected on their volunteer experiences in small groups and later enjoyed ice cream on the Sperling Cafeteria patio.
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Contact
Edgehill Campus
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
2000 Edgehill Ave.
Nashville, TN 37212
Phone: 615-321-8000
Fax: 615-321-0889
Email: info@usn.org
River Campus
1200 County Hospital Road
Nashville, TN 37218
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.
University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.