All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.
Campus Life

Community Service at Woodberry

Community Service

Why Community Service is Important

Legendary headmaster J. Carter Walker believed that community service was an integral part of the boarding school curriculum at Woodberry Forest School. He wrote:

“Foremost in our thinking is our obligation to correct the mistaken idea that the purpose of education is selfish; on the contrary, we try to teach our boys that education is training for service to others rather than for success for one's self; to give rather than to get; for sacrifice rather than for gratification.”

Our community service program aims to develop tolerant, selfless individuals who understand others, appreciate their needs, and find community service work personally satisfying. As part of our curriculum, we require our students to engage in community service so they experience the joy of serving others.

Community Service Requirement

Each student must perform at least sixty hours of community service before graduation. At least half of these hours must be "contact hours," spent in direct contact with those benefiting from their service.

How to Fulfill the Requirement

Although there will be opportunities for boys to accumulate service hours while they are at Woodberry, a boys’ boarding school near Washington, D.C., their busy schedules limit their service project choices. They should plan to perform the majority of their service work at home during the summer break and/or breaks during the school year. Most students seem to derive more satisfaction from making one or two major contributions rather than attempting numerous smaller projects.

Documenting Community Service

To facilitate record-keeping at Woodberry, please ask the organization or person supervising the student’s volunteer work to submit written verification of the type of activities he performed and the number of hours he worked. This letter can be sent to the boy's form dean:

Frazier Stowers, dean of the third and fourth form 
frazier.stowers@woodberry.org

Ryan Alexander, dean of the fifth and sixth form
ryan.alexander@woodberry.org


Service Award

The sixty-hour service requirement is merely a guideline; many students do much more. Each year the boys’ private school near Washington, D.C. presents the Service Award to the senior who has performed the most community service work. We have honored many students who have earned several hundred hours of community service work during their tenure at Woodberry.

Funding Is Available for Your Service Project
The Class of 2008 Community Service Grant was established by parents and grandparents of the Class of 2008 as a gift to Woodberry Forest. The program enhances Woodberry’s commitment to service learning by providing resources for students who wish to spearhead a service project during the school year or the summer.

Special Olympics at Woodberry

    • all boys golf
    • community service boys
Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. The school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.