It's easy to see that Lexi Fields is devoted to the Galloway School and its students. Not only does she have 80 of them --freshmen through seniors -- in her journalism, economics and elective classes each day. She also happens to be a Galloway graduate and has taught there for eight years. And while Lexi is expecting a second child of her own in March, that hasn't stopped her from imagining even more for her beloved school. That's why on December 1, she welcomed 40 nonprofit charities to the Galloway School's 1st Annual Service Fair. The Chaddick Arts Center was all abuzz that afternoon from 1-4 p.m. as students aged K-12 learned about the world of social responsibility, volunteerism, cause marketing and how they might be a part of it all.
Q: How did you come up with the "Service Fair" idea?
LF: I've planned the Community Service days for our 9th-12 graders for the past few years and wanted to move more towards "Service Learning." I thought a fair would be good way to jump start that by getting all constituencies at Galloway interested in learning more about specific organizations.
Q: How did the Service Fair work?
LF: We sent each level of learning (Upper Learning, Middle Learning, and Early Learning) to the fair at different times. We gave each level a form to use as a guide if they so chose, which asked kids questions about service.
Q: What did you hope to achieve by having the Service Fair?"
LF: I wanted to honor Mr. Galloway's legacy by creating a community wide, enrichment event. I hoped kids and their families would sign-up to volunteer with organizations that interested them. I thought teachers might find curricular connections to organizations so that we can expound on our service learning efforts. And I hoped as a community that we would see how many wonderful organizations are in our backyard giving back to the greater Atlanta community.
It's our students at that are unique here at the Galloway School. And I'm just glad to have been able to light a fire under some of them.
Q: Is Galloway unique to emphasize community service to its students?
LF: I wish I could say yes, but I think schools and students all over Atlanta are doing amazing things to help encourage participation. What Galloway does well is give students diverse opportunities to do it themselves. We don't require community service hours for graduation, and personally, I think that is wonderful. We want students to intrinsically feel motivated to give back, not to do it because they have to. The fair was one of those opportunities to dangle the carrot in front of our students, and then we'll wait and see what comes of it.
Q: Have students shown interest in any of the organizations since the fair?
LF: Yes! Already I've had students email to thank me (which I find so genuine and special) but mostly to tell me how excited they are to start volunteering. As one of my seniors left the fair, she said excitedly, "I'm going to "Adopt-A-Grandparent" after school. Her name is Cappa Cheatham. It's our students that are unique here at Galloway, and I'm just glad to have been able to light the fire in some of them.
Q: How did you know what nonprofit vendors to invite to the Service Fair?
LF: As a school, we have a relationship with many of the organizations that attended. A couple were Galloway parents even. As this is the 40th anniversary of Galloway, my goal was to have 40 organizations attend. (A goal we met!) So I did some cold calling as well and got a great response.
Q: What sort of feedback did you get you get from these nonprofits?
LF: So far I've heard only wonderful things from our participants. They've said that our students were engaged, excited, and respectful. I heard many organizations say they have long lists of volunteers now. And I was happy to see the organizations networking amongst themselves. It seemed that we were able to create a venue for these groups to get to know one another, share ideas and brainstorm on related projects. I just love that that happened! It was an unintended consequence, but a true community sharing event.
Q: What sort of feedback did you get from the students/teachers/parents?
LF: One parent expressed this was something we needed to do a long time ago. The Emmons/Paulson 5th Grade homeroom told me that they've divided their kids by pods and asked them to come to a consensus on one of two organizations they'd like to support. One group primarily supports people and the other group supports animals. The class will take a vote to choose the organization they'll help.
Q: Will there be a 2nd annual Service Fair?
LF: I hope so. We'll send out a survey to participants soon so we can get more specific feedback from them. I think we might make it longer next year so that there aren't quite so many kids going through the fair at the same time. It would be beneficial to have more of a service learning component to the event for our Upper Learning students. Perhaps they could go back to their advisories afterwards to reflect on the fair and what service means.
Q: What advice would you offer schools wanting to set-up a Service Fair?
LF: I'd recommend they get support from their fellow educators and administrative staff. I had wonderful help from a few teachers and a great parent volunteer (Kate Dinerman, Liz Giarraputo, and Amy Smith). The organizations we worked with were also wonderful and really helped things run smoothly.
Q: With your leadership and experience at the Service Fair, would you be willing to answer questions other schools might have to do a similar program?
LF: Sure. They can contact me at l.fields@gallowayschool.org
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