Recently, a bill in Executive Committee was passed to allow seniors, starting with the Class of 2021, to forgo their final exams, and instead, having to fulfill a 15-20 hour community service requirement. This bill has yet to be passed by administration, but it was passed by the students.

While this change is both a nice gesture towards seniors and a way to benefit our community, it also brings into question the overall place of community service in the Masters environment.

At Masters, we like to see ourselves as strong proponents of community service, with MISH’s regular morning meeting time and continued presence throughout the school. Every year, each class has a service event planned by the four MISH representatives in each grade, and all students and faculty are encouraged to donate a dollar on community donation days. All of these are clearly positive components that clearly help the community. However, despite all of these traditions, something that we unfortunately lack is a service requirement to graduate, which has been implemented at many other schools, both public and private.

In the mid-1990s, numerous high schools in the United States began mandating community service for students as a requirement to graduate. This was in an attempt to involve students with their surroundings more and make service part of their high school experience. This addition was met with mostly positive feedback from students, due to the fact that it benefitted both the students and the community involved.

As the bill passed by the Executive Committee states, many high schools around us have some service requirements for seniors. However, there are also schools that require service for all ages. At The Poughkeepsie Day School, a private institution in Poughkeepsie, NY, 20 hours of community service are required every year. Students have participated in projects spanning from hands-on labor to planning benefit concerts. It has been received well, with students praising how they are able to gain perspective about the world around them, while also getting some work experience.

Here at Masters, and in Westchester overall, we have rather fortunate living conditions, with 10 Westchester towns being listed in Bloomberg’s “America’s 100 Richest Places”. Living under these circumstances, it is too easy for many of us to lose sight of the world around us. The privilege that lots of us are fortunate enough to have can act as a blinder, and we run the risk of tuning out all of the struggle that exists all around our community. This is why it is imperative that all of us contribute to community service and benefit our community. Stronger service requirements will not only help students gain perspective but require them to give back to the community in which they were raised.

Currently, at Masters, most community service is optional, with the same group of people making appearances at every bake sale or charity walk. An argument supporting these optional events is that community service must be voluntary to be meaningful and that every student has opportunities. However, this leads to a lack of contributing anything from those students who aren’t as interested in service.

Community service serves an important role in a well-rounded education. When service is mandated, its benefits can reach the entire school. Community service is an important source of education, one that branches outside the classroom, and it should not only be more accessible to students, but required.