Longhouse School

How to build a culture of service within a school? How to help students integrate an ethos of service into their lives?

Heidi, a high school senior from New York City, was one of the “youth consultants” who helped write the Longhouse School mission statement in the summer of 2025. Here she writes about her personal experiences volunteering on multiple projects. It is slightly edited to improve flow.

The point of this post is to describe a week of volunteering in the life of a high school student. Some of Heidi’s volunteering activities are organized by her school and her Buddhist religious organization; others are self-initiated by her and her band.

Perhaps this tableau can help develop a vision of this practice.

Today I read the article Education With Purpose about 13 students from Soka University of America who spent a week learning about the Amazon . They conducted exchanges with the Kambeba Indigenous community outside of Manaus, Brazil, and the Soka Amazon Institute. They studied biodiversity, our relationship with nature, and how people can coexist with it responsibly. It seems to me that whenever possible, education should be rooted in action so students have a clear purpose. I think that frames the spirit of volunteerism.

We finished our Girls Volleyball season with a 9-1 record, top in our division. I am so proud of the freshmen and sophomores who powered the team. For the past two years, upperclass students have volunteered to recruit incoming and second-year students. We spent a lot of time embracing, encouraging, and coaching the new students

As a result, I didn’t get all that much playing time this season,but that’s okay. The graduating teammates are leaving behind us a team that will only get more dominant as the years go by. I hope we set an example that student athletes should have an expectation for serving younger students.

Tomorrow, the students from the Boys’ and Girls’ Volleyball and Track Teams volunteer at the New York City Marathon. Many of us are in marathon training, so there is a lot to learn! Coach told us, however, that we will be mostly working behind the scenes and might not even get to see runners. That’s okay. It took the volunteering efforts of many people—staff, parents, teachers, the PTA, and the Administration—to get us to where we are now. Now it is our turn to do things that no one else notices—moving water and supplies from one location to another, and cleaning up after thousands of runners and cheerers.

The Jammy Girlz, a girls’ rock band I and three friends co-founded, volunteer every Friday after school at the Early Bird Dinner hosted by the restaurant. It is attended mainly by retirees, and we’ve become friends with many of the audience members. Sometimes, people of this age feel very isolated. The Jammy Girlz love music from The Great American Songbook, and the seniors we play for are delighted. I can’t tell who walks away happier: the encouragers or the encourages!

I think parents volunteer more than anyone else. All the band members crashed at our home so we could practice. Thanks again to Pupa who took precious time off from his Jamaica Strong Recovery efforts to transport us and our instruments from the school, to the restaurant, and to the house! Thanks to my parents for preparing food for us. We enjoy seeing you enjoy yourselves!

The Jammy Girlz will rehearse in the morning and then volunteer with our Middle School girls at the ACS location. This is our second year working with some students who have undergone terrible problems in their lives. Our school principal encouraged us to raise a group of “successors” who can also be girl rockers.

The 8th graders have their auditions coming up for a couple of specialized high schools with great music programs. They have come a long way since we started working with them. We are proud of volunteering with them and hope that not only will they continue with music but some of their trauma melted. The big question is, how can we keep this program going after the four of us graduate?