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Advisories attended the Service Fair on Nov. 30 in shifts, with 9-10 grades attending the first 20 minutes, and the 11-12 grade attending the last 30 minutes. Junior Zach White said, “I think it's really good to see all these services outside of the ones you normally work at or hear about. [A lot] of people, if they do volunteer, work at one service that’s usually like helping out at homeless shelters or at nursing homes, so it's cool to see the other opportunities available to help, like all the environmental ones seemed really cool to me.”

The Upper School held its first ever Service Fair on Nov. 30 to connect more students to a variety of service organizations around the Twin Cities.

“The hope of the service fair is to combat against the idea that service is just for sophomores, and to help engage students in all grades in service,’’ Community Action and Service advisor Mollie Ward said.

“We’ve always had an interest to do something like the Service Fair but didn’t know if it was even a possibility for us to do,” co-president of the CAS club Ashley Jallen said.

Students were presented with an opportunity to participate and learn from service throughout their four years in high school. The service fair was similar to the clubs fair, because many different organizations gathered to share information about what makes their organization unique and encourage students to join in their work.

The service organizations attending included (Click on the links below to be taken to audio on The Rubicon Soundcloud or video on The Rubicon YouTube Channel for interviews with the organization:

• Mano a Mano (SC) and (YouTube)
• One Heartland
• Hallie Q. Brown
• Project for Pride in Living
• Neighborhood House
• The Sanneh Foundation
• Carondelet Village
• Audubon
• Friends of the Mississippi
• St. Paul Parks and Recreation
• CommonBond Communities
• Friends of the Boundary Waters
• Canoe Area Wilderness
• MN Community Solar
• Urban Roots
• iMatter (SC) and (YouTube)
• Free Arts MN

Although the event took longer to put together than predicted, it was worth the potential benefits: “We really believe that service does not only better the community, but it also makes you feel happy,” Jallen said.

After the fair, sophomore Izzy Dieperink said that, “I think [the Service Fair] provided information to the whole school about the organizations they can get involved in that they wouldn’t necessarily hear about.”

Sophomore Elea Besse agreed with Dieperink, adding that “ I also think that a lot of people at our school want to get involved, but they don’t necessarily know how, and I think that the service fair is a good way for them to find stuff that they’re passionate about or that just looks interesting and fun.”

Both Dieperink and Besse thought that The Sanneh Foundation was really interesting and they might want to volunteer there, because tutoring is something that interests them.

“I think [service] is important because we all want to help people but we don’t really know how to reach out, and so it is helpful that [the organizations] reached out to us and showed us how we can help people. I also think that everybody can spare free time in their weeks to just help out a little bit and make a difference,” junior Drew Fawcett said.

While not all students may have found an organization that sparked their interest or that they were passionate about, the service fair helped to encourage students to reach out to any organization and help out.

Junior Zach White said, “I think it’s really good to see all these services outside of the ones you normally work at or hear about. A of people, if they do volunteer, work at one service that’s usually like helping out at homeless shelters or at nursing homes, so it’s cool to see the other opportunities available to help, like all the environmental ones seemed really cool to me.”