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Watkinson School

Tag: service learning

  • Watkinson’s Dominican Republic Service Team

    Watkinson’s Dominican Republic Service Team

    For the 11th time since 2010, Watkinson School will send a team of students, teachers, alumni and parents from Watkinson School, and medical professionals from UConn Health to the La Romana region of the Dominican Republic. Through mobile medical clinics, building hurricane-proof houses, and improving schools, Watkinson School’s DRST aims to improve the quality of life for the displaced Haitians who live in the sugar cane work camps of that region.

    A SMALL PRIVATE SCHOOL DOING BIG WORK

    During the week of Thanksgiving, our team ventures to La Romana to help improve the lives of families living in the bateys. While in the Dominican Republic, the group partners with El Buen Samaritano Hospital. Through this partnership and funding from many gracious donors, we are able to build hurricane-proof houses for numerous bateys, build infrastructure for the local Joe Hartman primary school, provide a traveling medical clinic that sees over 800 patients, and distribute food to residents of the bateys.

    Building Hurricane Proof Houses for Batey Papita and Batey 50 is the main project of our service trip. Both Bateys are privately owned; therefore, the government does not provide hurricane-proof housing. Our service team has built many hurricane-proof houses for older adults and families with young children on both Bateys. Before teams like ours built homes for them, residents lived in homes they cobbled together from found sticks, cardboard, tar paper, corrugated tin, and weathered, discarded pieces of plywood (before and after shown in photo).

    Also, our mobile medical clinics allow families to be seen by a medical doctor and patients receive treatment for ailments from basic colds to high blood pressure and diabetes. Each patient that is seen is given a three-month supply of vitamins and medications. In addition, they receive a pair of shoes and a food kit. Each year the team encounters individuals with severe injuries who cannot get to the hospital because many bateys are in rural areas away from the city. With our mobile med clinic, we can bring them to the hospital and pay for their medical care.

  • Watkinson Private Middle School Students Visit Trinity Academy

    Watkinson Private Middle School Students Visit Trinity Academy

    On Friday, Jan. 17th, Watkinson’s Private Middle School students traveled to Trinity Academy on Sigourney St. in Hartford to share lessons about Dr. King through art, poetry, and history. Our students became the teachers as they worked with the younger children, grades 1 through 4. In addition, a small team of Watkinson students and teachers prepared lunch for over 100 people. At the end of the morning, we all gathered for a community meeting of sharing and singing Civil Rights songs including “We Shall Overcome”  to remember and honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King. 

  • 6th-Grade Entrepreneur

    6th-Grade Entrepreneur

    On February 1 from 11-3, our Watkinson private middle school student Olivia C. ’26 will be selling hair scrunchies and flour sack dish towels at the West Hartford Town Hall. She’s part of West Hartford’s first-ever Pop-Up Kids Market, for which Watkinson is a community sponsor.  All the money she raises will go to the Crosby Fund for Haitian Education.  Olivia has been sewing for years and when her sewing teacher told her about this opportunity she applied immediately.  Her business is called “Stitching 4 Education.”  She is sewing to pay for the education of Phens Oltin and Sophia Melissa Altidort, two Crosby Fund students who she and a friend started sponsoring 2 years ago with their birthday money.

    Make plans to come to see Olivia and representatives from Watkinson on February 1!

  • Watkinson Sending 10th-Anniversary Service Trip to Dominican Republic

    Watkinson Sending 10th-Anniversary Service Trip to Dominican Republic

    The team is comprised of 33 travelers from Watkinson School, the University High School of Engineering, and UConn Health. Myriad sponsorship opportunities are available to support our 2019 Dominican Republic Service Team.

    Watkinson School will send 33 travelers to spend a week in La Romana, the Dominican Republic from November 23-30, 2019. Working alongside their hosts from the Good Samaritan Hospital, the travelers will spend their week running medical clinics, distributing food, and building hurricane-proof homes for the displaced Haitians who live in sugar cane work camps, also known as bateys. Over the course of the previous 9 trips, Watkinson School has brought more than 350 travelers to the region, built 8 hurricane-proof houses, treated more than 6300 patients, gave out more than 5000 pairs of shoes, and distributed more than 8000 food kits.

    The group is comprised of 24 private high school students aged 13-18 and 9 faculty members and parents.  This is the tenth annual service-learning trip Watkinson has sent to this region. The Watkinson faculty who will travel with the team this year are Jenni French, Rick Gemme, and Arielle Martins. In addition to Watkinson students, this year’s trip has travelers from Hartford’s University High School of Science and Engineering (UHSSE) and UConn Health.

    Trip leader Jenni French commented, “Watkinson is privileged to have formed deep partnerships with the University High School of Science and Engineering and UConn Health.  Now in their eighth year, these partnerships have developed in meaningful and unexpected ways to the betterment of both the students who travel and the people we serve.”

    There are numerous sponsorship opportunities attached to the service work. If you’d like to support this landmark trip, please contact Director of Development Jennifer Destefani.

    The service trip to the Dominican Republic is part of Watkinson’s popular Global Studies program that has curricular, co-curricular, travel, and service-learning components.

  • Watkinson Private School Senior Manages Successful Eagle Scout Project

    Watkinson Private School Senior Manages Successful Eagle Scout Project

    by Harrison Richman, University of Hartford Communications Intern


    Watkinson private school senior, Oliver A., enacted a large-scale service-learning initiative as part of his Eagle Scout project. Oliver decided to partner with Chrysalis Center’s Freshplace Program, which provides healthy, fresh foods to families in need in the North End of Hartford. For those who cannot physically make it to the pantry, though, Freshplace brings food straight to their homes in sturdy, metal, wheeled carts; this is where Oliver comes in. His goal was to raise $745 to purchase 20 carts for Freshplace. After 22 individual donations by friends and family, Oliver proudly reached his goal and then some. In total, he was able to raise $1,510, which will purchase a total of 40 carts for those in need. This past Saturday he helped to assemble the carts that will be delivered to Freshplace. Oliver is a Global Studies Diploma Program student and his commitment to service-learning has also included a three-year commitment to Watkinson’s Dominican Republic Service Team. Congratulations, Oliver!

  • Preparations For SPHERE Are Underway

    Preparations For SPHERE Are Underway

    by Harrison Richman, University of Hartford Communications Intern

    Watkinson’s SPHERE Summer Program is entering its 47th summer with the goal of helping Hartford elementary students discover that learning can be achieved through varied creative and recreational activities. Each summer, Watkinson School enrolls 80-90 Hartford children, grades 1-5, in SPHERE and gives them a chance at a more focused and seasonal-based education program at Watkinson’s 40-acre Hartford campus.

    The five-week program consists of academic activities such as weekly trips to the 4-H education center, and special guest readers among classes that align with Common Core State Standards consisting of literacy, math, science, reading, art, physical education, and computers. In addition to the knowledge-based tasks, students will be able to partake in seasonal activities including the Sphere Olympics, picnics, and sprinkler Fridays.

    Having the program tied in with Watkinson means our private school students can be involved too. Watkinson students in 11th and 12th grade may apply to be counselors, while 9th and 10th-grade students may apply to be counselors in training or CITs. The SPHERE program not only gives children a chance at a better education but ALSO helps young adults in the Watkinson community learn what it takes to lead a group first-hand.

    Returning campers/students have an application deadline date of March 10th, 2019. While new campers/students have an application deadline of May 22nd, 2019. The Watkinson SPHERE program is a special and invaluable program for both the prospective counselor and the prospective student.

    The application for campers and counselors is here.

  • 6th Grade Watkinson Student Makes a Difference Following Tragedy

    6th Grade Watkinson Student Makes a Difference Following Tragedy

    by Alexa Miano, University of Hartford Communications Intern

    6th grader Julia S. heard about the tragic shooting that took place at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh on October 27th. She felt concerned about attending classes at her synagogue the following morning. This motivated her to start thinking about what she could do to help those who were affected by the shooting. She developed the idea to make postcards and collect donations that could be sent to the community at the Tree of Life Synagogue. This also inspired her idea for her Bat Mitzvah project.

    Julia started collecting donations at Watkinson and ended up making 57 postcards that she plans to send. Her family helped her collect donations; her parents collected while at work and her sister Jade, who is a 10th grader at Watkinson, helped her collect at school. To show her appreciation to those who made a donation, Julia made goodie bags filled with candy and a pin that says #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism. In two weeks, Julia raised approximately $235, and she will still be continuing to collect donations for two more weeks. When asked what she learned from getting involved, Julia said, “Fear may drag you down, but there will always be other people in the world to help bring you hope.” Julia is a great role model in the Watkinson private school community. She demonstrated her selflessness by taking action to help others, and also by bringing awareness by getting involved with something about which she became passionate.