Community Service at MAMS

Composting

Lettuce.

From a young age, I have been an ardent proponent of addressing environmental degradation and climate change. Taking any step possible in solving these problems at an individual level (as a starting point), is very important. That is why, at my sending school (Westford Academy), I composted the food scraps from my school cafeteria. The work could be grueling sometimes, as some of the bins I carried weighed eighty pounds or more. However, in knowing that what I was doing was helping the world, even if only a little bit, I came to appreciate and value this physical struggle. Composting has taught me that some level of personal pain is a prerequisite to learning new insights and helping others.

STEM Outreach

Nurturing a Community-Wide Appreciation for STEM

Being a STEM-oriented school, many of the community service opportunities that MAMS offers relate to STEM education and outreach. This primarily takes the form of STEM Saturdays, where students dedicate a part of their Saturday to teaching children in the community about STEM through engaging hands-on activities. These have included mirror mazes (as pictured), lava lamps, and various mini-robotics and engineering challenges. Most MAMS students (myself included) also volunteered at the Abby Kelley Foster Charter Middle School for STEM education week in Mid-October. I chose to help sixth and seventh graders make spool racers out of household materials. It was a unique experience for me, as I rarely work with young students. However, I was able to enjoy teaching them, and I was very glad to see them enthusiastically engage in the engineering process and challenge one another.

Earth Day Clean Up

Cleaning the Streets of Worcester!

As someone who did composting all throughout sophomore year, I really grew a physical connection towards helping improve the environmental conditions around me. Unfortunately, due to the busy schedule of MAMS, I haven’t had the time to continue engaging with this passion. So, when I heard that I had the opportunity to pick up trash, I was excited, as I knew I could reconnect with the physical environment around me. We spent the morning walking around a graveyard and MAMS (see the satellite image on the left), picking up whatever trash we saw. For such a small portion of land, there sure was a lot of littering. We collected a solid seven or eight bags of garbage, each of which were likely twenty to thirty pounds, if not more. On top of that, we didn’t even pick up all the trash we saw. By getting hands-on, I was able to understand just how massive of a problem pollution is. I would say this experience has undoubtedly furthered my desire to address environmental issues.

MAMS Outreach

Advertising the fruits of our program!

It would be a shame if I went to MAMS and harnessed all of its opportunities without then informing prospective families about what this program offers. After all, I was once someone looking to apply to MAMS, and I know that back then, I wanted every bit of information and insight about the program possible. For those reasons, I volunteered at events including the Director’s Meet and Greet, where Mrs. Ludes spoke to eighth and ninth grade families about the program. Moreover, I helped assist operations on the orientation day for the incoming class of junior students. As someone who is now giving the tours and speaking about the program as a whole, it feels quite surreal. Nonetheless, I still take pride in now being the one to introduce and describe a program that I spent time applying to be a part of.

Summer 2024 Community Service Plans