AP students learn community service along with coursework

Starting with the 2019-20 school year, Vestavia Hills High School’s AP U.S. History students started taking their learning outside of the classroom, taking part in service opportunities at their school and in the community.

Amy Maddox, who teaches the course, said the school began linking the AP course with the WE Service program, which seeks to help students connect community volunteering with American history.

Students write essays focusing on how their chosen volunteer project connects with history, Maddox said, like how planting a garden connects with environmental movements throughout history.

Maddox said she focused on teaching students about areas of history such as reformation movements in the 1820s and 1830s, educational reform, women’s rights, prison reform and other moments in time that can connect with present-day volunteer opportunities.

Many students took part in Laura Casey’s efforts to help plant a garden at the high school for the life skills classes. Students worked to pull out bushes, clean up the patio and help create level ground, Maddox said.

Others partnered with RISE at the high school, the Ronald McDonald House and other organizations, Maddox said.

Once students have completed the course, it shows up on their diploma and the same report that shows their AP test scores.

“We’ve always had students who were engaged in the community,” Maddox said. “It’s exciting to see them make the connection.”

Seventeen junior students completed the program last year, including Anushka Patel.

“It was a new experience,” Patel said.

Patel, a senior, helped build the garden for the life skills class last year and saw it as a way to give back to her school and community. While she hasn’t been back to see it due to her being a remote student this year, she said she was glad to be able to share her love for the environment and the peace and tranquility it brings and glad to help others see that. For her paper, she reflected on the environmental movement in the U.S., and then she reflected on her experience.

“It’s really satisfying for me personally,” Patel said. “It was such a rewarding opportunity.”

Another senior, Ariel Zhou, volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House, and he helped them fundraise more than $5,000 at Bowlapalooza, where the organization held a bowling and spirit night.

Zhou said she was already working with the charity, and said she enjoyed giving back to the community.

“I like organizing things and events,” Zhou said. “It was really fun to do.”

Zhou connected her work to how educational systems have worked to get students involved in their cities throughout history and tied it to the rise of nonprofits and services.

“I really enjoyed it,” Zhou said.

Maddox said students saw the value in the projects.

“Just to be a part of that continuing story, that was valuable,” Maddox said.

Throughout history, people have done good in their neighborhood, and it was exciting to see her students take part in that, Maddox said.

Maddox said it was exciting to see students make that connection. While the numbers are not known for this year, Maddox said the program is back for the 2020-21 school year.