Service & Community Involvement

Self-worth is the greatest thing you get through giving

We all feel good when we’re doing something that matters – about the good we’re doing, about the people we do it for, and about ourselves.

Students often begin a service experience wondering why they would want to do something difficult for someone else. There’s no promise that the recipients would ever do something for them in return. During the process, slowly but surely, students begin to understand that even though the project is for someone else, there is also reward to those who give.

After local or international service projects, our hearts are full. Nothing else compares, and nothing can diminish the sense of honor, blessing and accomplishment that comes from doing something wonderfully important for someone else. The experience lives on in our hearts forever.

IMG_7166

No action is too small when the outcome is so great.

The process is a collective one, from modest gestures like delivering food and clothing, cleaning, painting, collecting trash and gardening, to major efforts like creating fresh water and sanitation systems, building schools, caring for orphans and teaching younger students.

As part of each student's phase work, they are to plan and execute a service project of her own.

We track every student’s service hours so they can reference the hours on job and college applications (often 50-100+ hours).

Service opportunities have included activities at a local nursing home and an animal shelter, raking leaves, stacking wood for families in town and writing letters to military soldiers.

A group of students serves at the Special Olympics in Whitefish, Montana, each year.

On our annual week-long campus-wide trip to Glacier National Park each July, we work on trails with the National Park Service, hike, and camp.

Our adventure program also has a focus on service, by stewarding the resources we use so extensively. We take two international trips each year that focus on local service.

108 inverted soft blue
78 soft blue
108 soft blue

There is truth in the notion that happiest are those who give of themselves.

Treatment at Chrysalis tends to be focused on the individual, as it should be. Yet we think it’s imperative to teach our students to be focused on others as well, and empower them to give of themselves. Teaching our students the importance of community involvement helps them develop into responsible, caring, confident and happy individuals.