Each year, GFS seventh graders embark on a full-year Service Collaborative, one of the Middle School’s signature programs. This co-curricular deep dive into service learning presents students with interactive units focused on food insecurity, housing justice, and environmental stewardship. The classes are enhanced with guest speakers, journaling prompts, and group projects.  

Seventh grade is an ideal time to present complex topics to students, said Middle School English and history teacher, Hannah Jacoby-Rupp, who has also run the Service Collaborative program since its inception in 2021.

“There’s an enormous amount of empathy and curiosity in middle schoolers,” she noted. “Seventh graders are so dynamic and passionate, but they don’t always know where to put their energy—an extension of who we are as a Quaker School is encouraging them to channel this energy into asking questions and examining things.”

Every fall, the seventh graders tackle food insecurity, learning about food deserts, and creating mock grocery budgets and comparing how those would work at grocery stores versus corner stores. In early winter, they cover housing justice, and after winter break, the focus turns to environmental stewardship. 

“We do the stewardship unit third because it best illustrates how all of the topics are related: when we look at a map, neighborhoods most impacted by environmental issues are also most likely to be food deserts and most affected by housing shortages,” Jacoby-Rupp said. 

Environmental stewardship is a significant topic for the 12- and 13-year olds, who take the issue of climate change quite seriously. This year, Jacoby-Rupp divided the stewardship unit into a few different lessons, with topics like defining “environmental stewardship” and “sustainability”; climate-related challenges facing Philadelphia and GFS; and examining the life-cycle of consumer goods, personal habits, and responsibilities.

“During our first stewardship lesson, we surveyed the students, asking, What do you think you know about environmentalism? Then we had them do a carbon footprint self-assessment, which is very jarring for a lot of kids, especially in terms of where the US stands compared to the rest of the world,” Jacoby-Rupp said.

During one stewardship lesson, GFS’ Director of Sustainability, Francine Locke, was the special guest speaker. She met with the seventh graders alongside Daisy Bidwell ’25, one of the leaders of the Upper School Environmental Action Club.

“The students were quite well-versed on this topic. They are really being educated about climate change, what it is, and why it’s happening,” Locke said. “They really got into talking about how emissions are causing global warming, what the impacts are on ecosystems, and what some solutions might be—they were so engaged with me and each other.” 

Seventh grader Lina Aleti ’30 said that the environmental stewardship unit was eye-opening, and gave her an empowered sense of her own ability to help.

“I knew that there were problems with the environment, but didn’t know how deep those really go,” she said. “It also showed me how little things can also add up to make a difference. I liked learning about people who are trying to make real changes, like [Swedish activist] Greta Thurberg.”

Aleti’s classmate, Nemo Nguyen ’30, echoed her sentiment: “The more I learn about all the issues, I realize all these big problems are interconnected. I used to think you had to be high up in the political system to make a change, but I learned that we can make a difference as individuals by doing things like composting and recycling.”

In the spring, the students take four day-long trips to one of eight local organizations to do hands-on community engagement projects. 

“As part of the preparation for these activations, we first talk about: Why do these organizations need to exist? What dilemmas or deficencies are they addressing in Philadelphia?” Jacoby-Rupp said.

This year, the stewardship-focused projects include trail restoration and invasive plant removal at Fair Hill Burial Ground; clean ups through Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, and gardening at Nice Roots Farm, which is part of the SHARE Food Program. 

Nguyen chose to work on the farm as his community engagement project.

“I like to garden, and the idea of being outside seems fun,” he said. “And, I feel like it will make a big impact.”