Blythe Everett and Misty Jordan - Community Service

Blythe Everett, Headmaster at The Marvelwood School in the USA, is joined by the school’s Round Square Coordinator, Misty Jordan, for the latest episode of Talking Heads to explore the importance of community service. They discuss how Marvelwood dedicates Wednesdays to service learning — making up academic time with Saturday school because of the value they place on these experiences. The conversation highlights how service brings the Round Square IDEALS to life for students, with a particular focus on the RS Discovery of Compassion.

Transcript

Blythe Everett

Welcome to the Round Square Talking Heads podcast. I'm Blythe Everett, head of school at Marvelwood School in Kent, Connecticut in the USA. Today, we're going to do something a little bit different. With Round Square's permission, I've invited my longtime colleague, Misty Jordan, who also happens to be our Round Square coordinator here at Marvelwood, to join me today. So welcome, Misty. 

Misty Jordan

Thank you so much. that Round Square is so important to me, as well as to Marvelwood. So I'm so excited to be here to talk about something that's so close to my heart, and that is our community service program. 

Blythe 

You know, Misty, looking at the notes that we made for this podcast, it really hits me how much the landscape has changed literally and figuratively since I started here 36 years ago. 

Misty 

Absolutely. Even in just my 20 years, our community service Wednesdays still feels like our most radical tradition. When I tell other friends who also work in schools that we have classes on Saturdays so that we can dedicate Wednesdays for community service. They think we are crazy. 

Blythe 

Well, it is a bit crazy though, isn't it? But it's really the only way to prove to the students that service isn't an extra or an obligation. It's really the core of who we are. I always go back to the early days of Marvelwood, the 1960s, long before either of us were here, and how community service started as just being good neighbors. Our school is located in a very rural location in New England, and our students began by shoveling snow in driveways, helping a farmer with their livestock, raking leaves, and just visiting some of the older folks in the town. It wasn't really a program back then, it was just what you did. 

Misty 

What's so amazing to me is that back in the early 70s, over 50 years ago, is when we began that more structured program that we have today. That was when we decided to take a day in the middle of the week and have the whole school, including the teachers, begin volunteering. And somehow everyone who comes here buys in and doesn't grumble too much about making up that academic time on Saturday. 

Blythe 

That's right. And the 70s was actually when Marvel would first join Round Square. I wonder if that decision was influenced by our dedication to service or if we really decided to lean into service and expand it after we joined Round Square? I'm not really sure, but do you know why they decided on Wednesdays? It was because there were more opportunities on a weekday to go into schools and businesses than there were on Saturdays. 

Misty 

And it's absolutely still true today. Do you remember back in 2020 during the pandemic when we switched to Saturdays because all of our volunteering was online? So we tried it and it was really hard. 

Blythe 

Yeah, it sure was. That feels like a really long time ago now. 

Misty 

We are able to be back out in our community again. 

Blythe 

I think it's really bold to prioritize service like this, but what I'm particularly proud of is that we aren't just chasing hours. We don't care about a number for a transcript. We're caring about a long-term placement and building a habit of service that stays with a student for life. It's not just a graduation requirement. 

Misty 

And it is not just for our students. A huge part of our program is that the faculty are volunteering alongside of them. It changes the dynamic when a student sees a teacher that they admire actually doing the same work that they're doing. 

Blythe 

Exactly. It's not a do as I say thing. It's a let's go out and get our hands dirty together thing. And we've seen time and time again that the service a student does often leads them to further study or even a career path sometimes. 

Misty 

Oh yeah, it's been so incredible to see kids who have a passion for their service placement. Sometimes they're interested in becoming a teacher. Sure. So they spend a day once a week in a primary school classroom, or they have an interest in medicine and they volunteer at a local hospital. 

Blythe 

And don't forget the many kids who have gotten their EMT license while at Marvelwood or volunteered for our town's own ambulance and fire department. 

Misty 

I'm not sure how we did it back in the 70s, but I know when I'm talking to families and new students in the summer, we talk for a long time about what kind of placement they would find most rewarding. It's such an important part of our program that it's catered to Yeah, I agree. 

Blythe 

That's part of the, probably the most important part. It really makes it meaningful for the kids. 

Misty 

And we have lots of faculty who come up with ideas that they feel passionate about. I know when I started 20 years ago, I asked if I could start an adopt-a-grandparent program at a local nursing home, and I ended up running this wonderful program for many years, and it was all because I missed my grandparents after they passed. 

Blythe 

I love that kind of personalization. I also love the requirement that we have for our 12th graders before graduation. 

Misty 

Oh yes, our seniors just got back from from their senior service trip. So along with our Wednesday service for the entire school year, our seniors take their final exams early and they spend their last five days before graduation on a service project. 

Blythe 

And while their service through their four years at Marvelwood is within our local community, this project takes place in a larger community, someplace different from ours, so that we can open their eyes and show them that service doesn't only happen in our own backyard. We've gone to many places over the years, like we've gone to rural Maine, Washington, D.C., New York, and the one this year is in Burlington, Vermont. 

Misty 

I also really love that it gives them time together to work on a meaningful shared project. And at night, they have time to reflect on their time together before they walk across that graduation stage. It's such an amazing capstone to their time at Marvelwood, and it speaks to who we are as a school. 

Blythe 

I think that as a school, again, we really work hard to make sure our students have captured all of the round square ideals. And I think actually each of those ideals is born out of our service program. 

Misty 

I never really thought of it that way, but I think you're right. Why don't we take a deeper look into that? So out of our community service programs, we obviously hit the S in ideals for service. And naturally with service, and going into the community, we have to recognize that leadership comes with that. 

Blythe 

Sure, leadership often, when a student begins their service journey, they have to listen and learn. But as the months and years pass, they begin to lead that program and they actually orient the new students in. 

Misty 

That's funny that you say that because just yesterday I had a conversation with one of our students who happens to be the president of our senior class and she has worked for four years at our local library. She's become so fundamental to them at the library and cares so much about it that she's taken it upon herself to find her own successor, and she's been interviewing other students and then inviting her to spend a day with her at the library. 

Blythe 

Wow, I didn't know she was doing that, although I wouldn't put it past her. She's incredible, and that's amazing. Another ideal that I think that we do really well is democracy through our Wednesday CASA group. CASA stands for Cultural and Social Awareness. That's a group that's been running here at Marvel Wood since 1988. 

Misty 

I love the work that CASA does. They're such amazing advocates for our school, making sure our students have a deeper understanding of issues that are facing our world today. They are often sponsoring movies, having talks, and they present at our cultural lunches that we have. 

Blythe 

Yeah, and you know, that makes me realize they're hitting the D in ideals for democracy. 

Misty 

Absolutely. I think we also have democracy with our student government, whose motto is for the students by the students. 

Blythe 

That's a really important motto to us and to them because the students really deserve to have their voices heard. That's what we're all about here at Marvelwood. And to have choice in their school and their communication, contribution to our program really serves our school. 

Misty 

Okay, so getting back to the ideals, we have environmentalism, internationalism, and adventure left. 

Blythe 

Well, environmentalism is an easy one. Every Wednesday we have a group of scholars who meet to prepare for the Envirothon competition, but one of our most important community service programs is Avian Ambassadors. It's run by our science department chair and expert ornithologist Lori Doss. 

Misty 

Fun fact, Lori also started the CASA group back in 1988. 

Blythe 

She sure did. That woman is a wonder. She had to hand that program off so she could focus on the birds, though. 

Misty 

She did. But for all of you listeners out there, Blythe and I are neighbors on campus, and in between our houses is this gorgeous pathway that winds through the forest. Every Wednesday and many Saturdays, it's filled with our avian ambassador group who set up misting nets for bird banding. Students record their data from the birds that they band, and it goes into a national database through Cornell University. 

Blythe 

And that data allows environmental scientists to have an impact on addressing many challenges that our natural environment is facing. 

Misty 

You can tell a lot about the environment through the birds. 

Blythe 

You sure can. But before we move on from that, can I take a second and talk of how we started bird banding and how it grew out of a community need. Oh, please do. 

Misty 

This is such a fascinating story. 

Blythe 

And it's so fundamental to Marvelwood. Our school is located on top of Skiff Mountain, which is nestled along the Appalachian Trail. And it was important to us that we form an alliance with the land trust that stewards the land surrounding our campus. So 30 years ago, they found out there was a group of investors who had plans to make the land to the north and the south of our school a housing development. So they approached us and asked us to begin documenting the flora and fauna since we had access to the property for educational purposes. And this was an amazing partnership for us, and they were more than delighted, we were more than delighted, to begin taking photos and sharing bird banding data. And many students were even coming back over the summer break to continue their cataloging. And it was then that one of them found the golden-winged warbler that was breeding in the land adjacent to the land that was scheduled for development. And the warbler happened to a species of global concern. And so when we brought this data forward, they immediately put a halt on the development of the land so they could do a full environmental impact assessment. And that assessment validated many of our discoveries, including two other species of global conservation concern, which were the wood thrush and the cerulean warbler. And eventually, it helped to save the land from development. 

Misty 

That is such an amazing story. And it's insane to think about what our mountain would look like today if it weren't for our student scientists and our avian ambassadors and houses everywhere. 

Blythe 

We'll check environmentalism off our list with that one, I think. 

Misty 

That is a very big check mark. 

Blythe 

Yeah, so that leaves us internationalism and adventure. 

Misty 

For internationalism, we really have to thank Round Square. It's through being a member school that has allowed us to have so many of our students take part in our international service projects. The first time I heard about a service project was from one of our alums who had also become a teacher here at Marvelwood, and he told me about the amazing experience he's had when he was a student back in the 1980s, and he did a round square service project at a Native American Indian reservation. So since then, we have sent kids all over the world to Panama, Morocco, Africa, to Thailand, to name a few places. 

Blythe 

And for those kids, service takes on a whole new meaning when you're exposed to helping others who haven't had the advantages and opportunities that we've had here in the United States. 

Misty 

And I think that this goes hand in hand with adventure. These are great adventures our kids take, whether it is literally in our own backyard banding birds or in the community helping a neighbor, or it's out in the world on a Round Square International service trip or at the Round Square International Conference. Dedicating yourself to service is an adventure. Check that out. 

Blythe 

Our longtime dedication to service aligns Marvelwood with all of the Round Square ideals. 

Misty 

And now that we're here in June, I think we have reached the discoveries month of compassion. And while we don't count hours, I estimate that on average our students individually perform 150 meaningful service hours each school year. And that does not even include what I know many of them do over the summer and what could be more compassionate than that? 

Blythe 

Yeah, service is really a laboratory where compassion can be discovered. A student might not even know they are compassionate until they find themselves helping a neighbor or working with animals in a shelter, or even bird banding, until they all of a sudden realize the impact that what they're doing has on another's well-being. 

Misty 

Compassion is also rooted in empathy. Our community service often begins with doing for others, but it becomes compassionate when it shifts to being with others, which reminds me of the quote by Gandhi that our students see when they enter our school building each morning. It says there's a big sign and it says the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. 

Blythe 

I love that quote and I don't think we could end on a more perfect note. We hope that in listening to this podcast, you are inspired to consider ways that you can help your school see that service transforms a simple task into meaningful connection. Thank you so much for spending time with Misty and me today. Take care.