Community Service & Travel Opportunities

Listed among our core values is the simple dictum to “care beyond self.” More than a sentiment, this is an active concept at Kingswood Oxford, one we cultivate and practice as we continually look beyond our own circumstances with the goal of helping others.

 

Community service takes many forms at Kingswood Oxford and can be completed through clubs, travel, and other co-curricular opportunities. Each student must complete 30 hours of community service in order to graduate — many far exceed the required amount and graduate with 100 hours or more, making them eligible for the Kingswood Oxford Community Service Hall of Fame.

KOSA brings Kingswood Oxford students to M.D. Fox School in Hartford for community service. This partnership goes beyond the typical drive for school supplies, as student volunteers support the schools' Pre-K-Grade 8 population throughout the summer by assisting in the classroom with reading, writing, math, and more. 

 

Kingswood Oxford student and parent volunteers also organize "Fox Holiday Store," in which the M.D. Fox students can “shop” the store and receive one brand new gift and a book. Volunteers also set up the store and act as salespeople and gift wrappers.

 

Read a Hartford Courant article about the Kingswood Oxford and M.D. Fox partnership.

 

Founded by Kingswood Oxford teacher Ronald Garcia in 1998, Team Tobatí has become a popular community service opportunity at Kingswood Oxford. Each March, students travel to Tobatí, Paraguay, where they volunteer on projects that benefit area youth. Over the years, hundreds of Kingswood Oxford students (approximately 70% of the Upper School students) have traveled internationally and completed dozens of projects that serve the medical and educational needs of the region.

 

Learn more about Team Tobatí. (link to www.teamtobati.org)

In addition to attending local Model U.N. Conferences, Kingswood Oxford students have the opportunity to attend these conferences in a foreign country with school staff members. Just recently, students traveled to Russia to attend the St. Petersburg International Model U.N., a three daylong simulation, where students problem solve vexing international issues. Before the start of the conference, students toured Moscow. Previous years students have attended conferences in Madrid, Budapest, Prague which are combined with a week of traveling with private local guides.

 

Students may study coastal ecology, sustainability, and the beautiful reefs on the island of Eleuthera, in the Bahamas from the campuses of The Island School and The Cape Eleuthera Institute. The outdoors is a living laboratory with many project-based activities and research to deepen understanding of environmental issues.