TESSERACT MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
DEVOTE DAY TO HELPING THE COMMUNITY
PHOENIX, ARIZONA—November 17, 2011—Friday, November 18 Tesseract School’s middle and high school students will devote their school day to helping others for Tesseract Community Outreach (TCO) Day.
Twice a year, TCO Day enables Tesseract’s middle and high school students to select organizations they would like to spend their day helping. Tesseract’s middle school students will spend Friday removing graffiti and cleaning alleyways at Golden Gate Community Center; writing welcome letters for new families at Welcome to America; remodeling a tortoise enclosure and helping to build a new alligator enclosure at the Phoenix Herpetological Society; sorting donations at UMOM; and making Thanksgiving centerpieces for the lunch room at St. Vincent De Paul. Tesseract’s high school students will sort food, create emergency and holiday food boxes and distribute food at St. Mary's Food Bank and visit and play games with the residents at Kivel Campus of Care retirement home.
“Part of Tesseract's mission is teaching students to lead lives of purpose and to become ethical and compassionate citizens,” said Jared Utterback, Tesseract’s high school Mandarin educator and coordinator for this year's TCO day. “Service to the greater Phoenix community is a key aspect of helping us reach this goal. Each year the TCO days provide opportunities for them to stretch and grow as they help others.”
Through the school’s service-learning program, of which TCO is a component, students in preschool through high school learn the importance of being an involved member of both the local and global community. They are exposed to a wide range of organizations and projects, enabling them to develop a broad base of skills for problem solving and citizenship. Age-appropriate service projects and activities take place on Tesseract’s lower school campus and its middle and high school campus. Students also travel to the organizations to assist with on-site projects.
“By providing students with a variety of projects and non-profit organizations to work with, they have ownership of this day and their actions,” noted Utterback. “They are able to see all the different ways they can help make a positive difference in the lives of others.”
About Tesseract:
A leader in education in the Valley, Tesseract School prepares students to excel in college and beyond, lead lives of purpose, and become ethical and compassionate citizens with a global perspective. Tesseract’s innovative educational approach engages students in learning, enabling them to master the basics and become critical thinkers. As a non-profit, independent private school for students in preschool through grade 12, resources are directed to recruit and retain outstanding educators and continually enhance the school’s two campuses in Phoenix and Paradise Valley. For information visit www.tesseractschool.org or call 480.991.1770.
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