Center for Leadership

Service

Preparing students for a lifelong commitment to learning and social responsibility is at the heart of the St. Luke’s experience and our Center for Leadership programming. The School’s motto, Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve inspires students to strive not only for academic excellence but also responsible citizenship and service to humanity.

Kate Parker-Burgard, Center for Leadership Director

Our school motto, “Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve” is at the heart of who we are as a school. We believe that character is developed when actions are done in service to the greater good. By using one’s strengths, service locations become laboratories for developing leadership as students gain confidence and develop their identities as people who can help.”
 
In the Middle School, each grade focuses on a theme for the year. Throughout these programs, our students are exposed to different organizations and become oriented toward a service mindset. With the comfort of their classmates they discover places and ways in which they might want to continue serving on their own.

As our students mature, our community service program grows with them. In the Upper School, we offer a variety of grade-wide and school-wide service activities, but we also ask students to take on individual service engagement. Our Upper School students are in the midst of forming their identity. We want students to ask themselves, “What matters to me? What strengths or skills do I have to offer? How can I contribute to my community?” Through their initiative and our support, students pursue service in areas that interest them as well as develop their sense of responsibility and leadership.

Current Service Opportunities

  • Join Elderly Residents of New Canaan Inn for "PenPal Tea"

    With increased limitations on visits to senior residences, our neighbors in New Canaan Inn are inviting your letters to help brighten their day. Please consider sending a note someone there and when the letters are collected, NC Inn will host a small tea party and they will read your letters to them. Address your notes to "Dear Friend" and send them c/o Barbara Jeffries at New Canaan Inn, 73 Oenoke Ridge, New Canaan, CT 06468.

  • Helping Others During the Corona Crisis

    As we practice social isolation to help slow the spread of the virus, there are many ways we can stay connected to our communities and be helpful. In addition to the suggestions found in the Leading Voices blog, our friends at Waveny Cares suggested ways we might help their residents during this time: "We would really appreciate communication via Facebook and Twitter..... if the school or individual students could "like" our page and send us messages of encouragement, photos and video clips that we could share with our residents that would be marvelous!" In return, the staff at Waveny will post the replies that they receive. Students might consider gathering via Zoom to plan out a group greeting that can be recorded and shared--it could be a really fun community-building project. If students are interested in creating cards or starting a penpal relationship with an individual at Waveny, you can write a letter and address it to "Waveny friends" c/o Stella Clark, 3 Farm Road, New Canaan, CT 06840.
    One other idea is to make thank you cards and send them to your local first responders (EMT, firefighters, police) and/or hospital workers. They are working extra hard these days and so many of us are so grateful that they are a part of our community--let's make sure they know how thankful we are! 
    If you have any questions about these ideas or want to share more, please send an email to Kate Parker-Burgard: parkerk@stlukesct.org

  • Person to Person is Running a Virtual Food Drive

    Here are great ways to provide wholesale, fresh food options for people who are struggling to make ends meet during this challenging time. 

  • Make a Difference Day at New Canaan Nature Center

    Saturday, April 25 (8am-10am) is Spring Make a Difference Day, a volunteer grounds cleanup day at New Canaan Nature Center. Lend a helping hand to your local community and pitch in today! Please bring suitable work gloves & be prepared to get dirty as you will be working on trails & grounds maintenance, as well as preparing the gardens for summer.
    For more information or to volunteer, please contact Michelle Hips,(MHips@newcanaannature.org) Director of Environmental Education.

  • New Canaan Nature Center Summer Teacher Naturalist in Training Program

    Students ages 14-17 volunteer for their summer camp in the morning and in the afternoon engage in Leadership Training opportunities that include engagement in service-learning projects, leadership and personal growth lessons. Click here for the application.
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Duncan Edwards, Executive Director, Waterside School

St. Luke's kids are different. They connect, they care, they work, they seem eager to learn, and most important, in every imaginable way, they display the greatest respect for our children."


St. Luke’s School is a secular private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving 25 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.
377 North Wilton Road New Canaan, CT 06840
(203) 966-5612 | admissions@stlukesct.org