September Letter from Upper School Director

One of the highlights of the first week of classes was the launch of the new Community Engagement Program in the Upper School, led by Upper School History Faculty Susanne Eckert and Upper School Science Faculty Jason Medeiros. This new program has a particularly meaningful and unique origin story at The Bush School: it started with our students. 

Two years ago, students led a movement asking Bush to establish a community service graduation requirement for every Upper School student. They were asking the school not simply to encourage community involvement, but to hold them accountable – to challenge them, recognize their efforts, and create a meaningful expectation that they engage with the world beyond our campus.

Last spring, we piloted a small version of the program, giving students opportunities to engage with organizations and communities beyond Bush while also making room for students who already had meaningful community commitments to bring those experiences into their school lives. Nearly 100 percent of students participated with minimal prodding from adults! That response gave us the confidence to go all-in. As you will see in the coming months, our approach to community engagement captures the spirit of experiential education and “learning by doing” that is so central to our identity at Bush. 

Beginning this year, the Community Engagement Program will provide an intentional framework for every Upper School student to develop meaningful and sustained relationships with people and organizations in the wider community while also engaging in stewardship opportunities right on campus. All students will receive credits towards a Bush graduation requirement tailored to their grades. For students in grades nine through ten, the experiences will be more in-house and school-supported. For students in grades eleven through twelve, the experiences will encourage greater student agency.

As Susanne puts it:

“Community engagement is already baked into the work that we do here; this new initiative creates space and scaffolding to more systematically connect with the wider community, learn about the work that is being done and how this work addresses wider systemic issues. But more importantly, I love the idea of students feeling motivated and empowered to do something to make their corner of the world a better place.”

For Jason, the program also reflects something fundamental about who we want to be as a school:

“We are super excited to be part of a program that shows that Bush cares about something larger than itself; that the success of the larger community is something we care about as part of our mission. Students, faculty, and staff have been demonstrating this philosophy behind the scenes for years, but this brings it front and center.”

And this commitment extends beyond the Upper School. During our opening faculty and staff meetings, Bush employees began the year by spending time in the community participating in service projects modeled on the same spirit of engagement we are cultivating with our students. It was an energizing way to begin the year and an opportunity for adults across all divisions to learn, connect, contribute, and strengthen relationships with community partners.

Our hope is that when we ask students at the end of the year about their experiences with community engagement, they will say that they can’t wait to go do it again next year; that they feel motivated and empowered to try to make a connection on their own; and that they have grown in confidence and in an understanding of the role they can play to support and shape their communities through partnership, stewardship, and service. 

In partnership,

Ingrid Gustavson

Upper School Division Director