Northlake is doing its part in participating in a time of giving and serving. To do so, they held their first full week of service from Nov. 6-10.

Each day of Service Week was spent with a different grade in the Upper School going to a selected location in the community for a few hours to serve others. Also, during the advisory period, groups went out around the school to serve their own community. Service projects at school ranged from painting benches to bringing fresh-baked goods to faculty and staff.

Advisory groups are led by a teacher, and consist of a group of students from the same grade level that occasionally compete as a team in different challenges during their advisory period (usually on Fridays) throughout the year. The groups also meet to further discuss ideas from weekly Chapels.

It is the school and the student’s Christian duty to serve others, as explained by Service leader and teacher Matt Blair.

Blair helps lead Northlake’s student service hours program that runs throughout the year, Students from each grade level are required to do different amounts of service hours on their own time.

“Our goal is to serve the community,” said Blair.

Upper School principal Jenni Vega commented on the success of service week.

“I liked the focus on everything. The students were really gamed to do whatever was needed to be done, which was great,” said Vega.

Each grade level had their own unique experience, none being like the other as they went off campus to serve and experience a mini retreat at local churches. The boys and girls were separated for the retreat, and were given the opportunity to share feelings about the school year.

“What I loved was that it was different for every grade level and every group, so the boys [and girls] in one grade level were different from the [boys and] girls in the next,” said Vega. “I thought that was really good because it was real personal for each grade, which I thought was helpful. The students’ honesty and wanting things to get better was encouraging.”

Students also found the week to be a successful one spent serving alongside classmates and friends.

“It was good being able to help people and also be there with my friends,” said sophomore Jake Mizell.

Overall, faculty, students, and the community found Northlake’s service week to be a successful one. Vega shedded some light on possible changes to service week in the future.

“I think it was a little crazy with scheduling and logistics at times, so we will have some tweaks made for next year.”