Experiential Learning

Service learning encourages Brandeis students to think critically and make choices as they collaborate with one another, their teachers, and various non-profit organizations. Students of all ages develop projects that foster connections to their local communities and deepen their understanding of the needs in the world around them. Service learning initiatives at Brandeis include:

• All-School Volunteer Day—students in kindergarten through eighth grade engage in a day of service, with students participating in a variety of age-appropriate service projects. For example, students create birthday cards for Project Open Hand, make sandwiches and put together lunch bags for St. Anthony's Foundation, spend a week collecting clothing and shoe donations, tend to a local community garden, and work with Meals on Wheels and the SF-Marin Food Bank on a food drive.
• Middle School Service Elective—a group of middle school students, trained by the Jewish Coalition for Literacy, works one-on-one with elementary school students at a Title 1 public school. Students reflect on their experiences as tutors and talk about the role of education and literacy in Judaism.
• Better Together-eighth grade students visit senior citizens at the SF Campus for Jewish Living, volunteering and getting to know the residents' life stories. 
• Connection with Partner Schools in Israel—students communicate about social justice and environmental issues and projects with students at Hagomeh and Eynot Yarden schools.
• SPCA Puppy Dog Tales - First graders participate in this SPCA program where they practice reading out loud to canine classroom visitors. At the end of the year, the class hosts a read-a-thon to raise money for the SPCA.
• Seder Sacks - students create "Seder Sacks" for Jewish Family and Children’s Services’ holiday outreach program, packing essential Passover foods for those in need.

Recognized on a national level by inclusion in the book The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber, this project is designed to help students gain deep knowledge of the Jewish mitzvah of giving tzedakah and about the different needs that exist in their community and the world. Seventh grade families pool together resources that would otherwise go toward purchasing b'nai mitzvah gifts for each student and instead create a class fund to be used for philanthropic purposes. In recent years, the fund has reached $30,000! Armed with the knowledge they’ve learned in class and in talking with many organizations, seventh graders make educated philanthropic decisions, all through a Jewish lens. The project culminates with the students allocating grants to nonprofit organizations that they themselves have explored and championed throughout the project. This is a key seventh grade project that integrates all academic subjects with our Judaic studies curriculum and our students' personal experience and values, to impact the world at large in a very real, tangible way.

In December 2016, our Brandeis Tzedek Program was featured in Ron Lieber's Your Money column of the New York Times. Click here for the article. Lieber describes our program as "best school-based giving program I’ve ever encountered."