Community Day programs for Junior School and Grade 9

On Wednesday, October 16, while students in Grades 10 and 11 were focused on taking PSAT exams, the younger students on campus were engaged in Community Day activities.

Community Day for J School students in Grades 7 and 8 focused on fun and collaboration activities, including an egg drop challenge. Divided into teams, students engineered, fabricated and experimented ways to protect a raw egg from cracking when dropped from a second story window outside Thompson Hall. Several teams successfully protected their eggs during the drop. The J-School also participated in an Olympics, which included a series of team races, an epic tug of war and other activities on Parr Field.

Grade 9 students also participated in a Community Day program, focused on team building, empathy and community service. The class was divided into two sections for the day, and a portion of the program included remarks from two guest speakers. One group heard about the social justice from Khalilah Brown-Dean, Professor of Political Science at Quinnipiac, and Chairman of the Board of Directors for The Community Foundation. The second group heard about mindfulness from Shefau Dabre Rufus, owner of Zen-Zilla Yoga and Wellness, and LEAP Director of Programs and Curriculum.

The program continued in collaborative breakout sessions, where students were challenged to develop a service project that will help the community, and will be completed with their adviser group this school year. Students also had the opportunity to practice their teamwork skills as they faced an escape room challenge with their adviser groups.