At Aseltine, we not only work to build a strong sense of community among staff and students, we also emphasize the importance of our students’ role in the San Diego community. For this reason, we offer our students a number of opportunities to give back to the community and encourage them to initiate their own community service projects based on their interests and talents.
Past examples of community service projects completed by Aseltine students range from community clean-ups to participating in various activities with senior citizens in their retirement communities. For Thanksgiving 2009, Aseltine students – some of whom live in group homes and residential centers themselves – cooked and bagged 75 lunches for former foster youth with "Just in Time for Foster Youth." Students prepared turkey sandwiches, cranberry sauce, vegetables, cookies, and bags of candy and packaged them in paper bags decorated in Aseltine’s fine arts program. In addition, each bag contained a note to the lunch’s recipient with a special handwritten message by an Aseltine student.
By participating in Aseltine’s community service projects, students gain a strong sense of community and social responsibility. They begin to feel empowered and confident about their abilities and their worth as members of the community and see that they can make a difference for those who are less fortunate than them.