What Does Our School Motto Mean To You?

- What does our school motto, "Not for Self, but for service" mean to you?

The significance of the motto, as I read it, is that it reminds young students of the importance of maintaining a focus outside of themselves and how their goal should be improving the community and world they live in. This is an important responsibility and privilege. I personally gave a lot of thought to this motto when I came to RCDS in ninth grade, because when you are in middle and elementary school you think about yourself more than anyone else. The school motto is an important reminder that we go to school to learn not only to improve our own lives, but to think about and work to improve the lives of those around us.

- What kind of project are you involved

Specifically, my goal was to use technology to keep senior citizens at a local non-profit nursing home, Nathaniel Witherell, engaged and connected to family and the outside world. I felt that this demographic was underserved, and was very happy to see how much the residents (and their families) enjoyed the benefits of technology.

- How and when did you first get involved with this community?

The event that led directly to my community service project was in 2016 when I was visiting my grandfather who was living at a nursing home in a different state. Seeing how excited my grandfather was to see me and my family and how bored everyone else at the nursing home was made me realize that the residents were yearning for social interaction and were not engaged with the outside world. From there, I applied for the E.E. Ford community service fellowship, pitched my project idea of using technology to improve these residents’ lives, and proceeded to work at Nathaniel Witherell the following summer.

- Tell us about a particularly motivating or challenging moment you've had in doing this