At Lauremont School, we intentionally emphasize service as an integral component of our school’s vision: inspiring a culture of innovation, service and creative inquiry one student at a time. This is in part why the IB Programme is a natural fit as the foundation of the Upper School, as it similarly places a strong emphasis on taking action and making connections within and among one’s community to actualize student learning.

One particular area of the IB Diploma Programme in which students are required to engage in a service project is the Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) component at the core of the IB’s mission. In this project, senior students must plan and execute an experience in one of the CAS strands but must also directly tie their project to a service outcome. This year, there are many examples of student initiatives that are trending toward highly successful outcomes.

One such example is being led by Zoe D. in Grade 11 who is looking to start an online newspaper series (Rights & Realities) focusing on issues faced by the disabled community, primarily due to the legal system in Canada. In this newspaper series, Zoe has started to reach out to communities online and is planning to publish her articles through Substack every two weeks on Wednesday. Her initial research led her to make a connection with a legal magazine for feedback and guidance in anticipation of putting pen to paper to write the first of her articles.

The opportunity to write with empathy and clarity about the issues faced by the disabled community in Canada, as well as connecting with and receiving guidance from experts in the working world will have a profound impact on Zoe’s learning. It is exactly these kinds of experiences that Mr. Walker, our Outreach Coordinator, challenges our DP1 students to pursue as he works one-on-one with them to accomplish their CAS project outcomes. As part of Zoe’s process, she will be required to reflect on her learnings and experiences along the way as well as show evidence of her planning and samples of her work. We look forward to watching this project blossom and grow across the remainder of this year.

Another CAS project led by Adelyn C. and Adrienne L. is an initiative to build connections with the organization Variety Village. After visiting Variety Village in their Grade 9 years, Adelyn and Adrienne gained a passion and interest in adapted sports. In particular, they were interested in wheelchair basketball. As players on the Lauremont Senior Girls Basketball team they wanted to use this experience and knowledge to see how it can be applied to wheelchair basketball.

The girls are in the process of working with Variety Village on either hosting a wheelchair basketball event at Lauremont School or bringing their passion to working directly with the teams that play out of Variety Village’s site. As they work to plan their event, it is easy to appreciate the benefits that they will accrue from the experience. From project management, to learning about and working with a not-for-profit sector organization, to marketing and promotion, Adelyn and Adrienne stand to grow tremendously as individuals. 

Vladan E. decided to align his CAS project with his personal interest in History. Vladan participated in Lauremont School’s first ever trip which followed Canada’s footsteps in the World Wars. Students from Grades 9 to 11 visited Berlin, Amsterdam and France during the March Break to learn about Canada’s impacts in the World Wars first hand.

Vladan states that, “this trip was simply an amazing experience. I could definitely relate to the European atmosphere due to my descent, and I feel that others who were new to Europe definitely got a great experience showing what life in Europe really looks like. I really got to reflect on myself, in terms of strengths and weaknesses of exploring new areas of the world and introducing myself into new environments. I got to see how good I am at reflecting on experiences like this. I felt like I have unlocked a new sense or perspective of life and how I learn. I learned that I have to be interactive when I learn, which now knowing, will help me prosper in the future. I have a better understanding of what steps I must take in order to learn and grasp concepts. I most certainly recommend a trip like the World Wars trip to anyone discovering themselves and the way that they process the environment around them.”

Now back at Lauremont School, Vladan is going to work on helping the school prepare for the 2025 Remembrance Day Assembly. He will be able to add his first hand experience to help bring the assembly to life through the voices of our students. 

Finally, Bairavi A. decided to align her CAS project with a family connection and link it to her passion for the sport of Ringette. Bairavi wanted to give back to the sport that has given her so much, having played Ringette for many years with the Markham-Stouffville Bears. She knew immediately that she wanted to align her CAS project with Ringette. Bairavi planned and organized a “Ringette for All” initiative where she introduced the sport of Ringette to children with varying abilities.

Bairavi had a total of 18 participants across a 3 month period many of whom were students with special needs, including a student in a wheelchair, a student with autism and others with various mobility issues. She wanted to introduce Ringette to show these students the value of engaging in such a rewarding winter sport. Bairavi hopes to continue to run this initiative for many years to come and see if she can expand her participation numbers further.  

While the CAS programme beginning in Grade 11 is integral to helping our students engage in service learning, there are also many other initiatives throughout the MYP and DP years that have the same objective. Each of our Advisory groups, for example, has been tasked with completing a service project within the school community. As well, many of the curricular units in the MYP programme have action components which aim to actualize student learning.

Further, through the Ministry of Education’s community service hours diploma requirement, all of our Lauremont School students are engaged in giving back their time to volunteer inside the school, in their local communities, or even further afield. Taken together, it is our aim to successfully inculcate in our students the need to give back one’s time, energy, and ideas to one’s community regardless of stage of life. We know definitively as well that a great many important life skills are learned when we engage in these important community service experiences, especially the value of empathy. As the Dalai Lama once said, “Compassion and empathy are not luxuries; they are necessities for human survival”.