PASB student receives international award for Service Learning project

As an international school, PASB adopts numerous practices in global education, one of which is Service Learning, which encourages students to plan and act on social and volunteering projects. The benefits of such actions are exceptional. As Ms. Daniela Davis-Becker, Service Learning Coordinator at PASB, points out, these projects allow students to connect “their academic learning to real-world actions and collective wellbeing. It’s character-building combined with academic competence, in a nutshell. Students become more empathetic, responsible, and improve their mentality as global citizens who can and should contribute to the improvement of society. Beyond these skills, they develop knowledge of logistics, planning, strategy, and above all, reflection.”

Last week, the American International Schools in the Americas (AMISA) association awarded the Global Citizen Award to our senior, Maria Clara Britto, for her Service Learning project, “Colorindo Vidas” (Coloring Lives). The project has been active since 2018 when Maria Clara was only 14 years old and took the initiative to contact our Secondary Art teacher, Ms. Camila Lisboa, to help her in her mission to bring love and joy into the lives of children and teenagers with disabilities through art. 

Since then, Maria Clara and other students who got involved in the project with her carry out monthly actions to distribute love and joy to many children and young people. According to her, “the main ones are visits to Lar Vida, taking art, music, theater, and physical education to the children and young residents of the home. We also do frequent fundraising through bake sales, Field Day sales, Halloween activities, and more!”. They also hold campaigns to collect food, clothes, medicine, diapers, powdered milk, and other necessities for the institutions, and motivational lectures for parents and students to awaken their interest in social volunteering.

For her project “Colorindo Vidas”, Maria Clara was selected among student projects from several international schools to receive first place in the Global Citizen Award and was recognized at the AMISA Educators Conference in São Paulo. She also received $1,500 for the institution she cited in her application, Lar Vida. 

As the advising teacher of this project, Ms. Camila points out that the AMISA award “is the recognition of a part of what we live here every day: education of citizens who think outside the box, daring and entrepreneurial minds that find in the school a fertile soil for them to turn their dreams into reality and develop broadly. Maria Clara has become a communicative and proactive leader: she takes care of the project quite independently and inspires her peers.”

This is an incredible result that only demonstrates the reach of Service Learning, which is, according to Ms. Davis-Becker, “a differential of PASB because in no other school in Bahia does community service have the academic structure that we have. It is not just service for service’s sake, but the joint growth of all involved, the application of technical knowledge in practical reality, the constant reflection and readjustment of the strategies adopted. Spreading good, love, and positive conduct, when done within a specialized high-level academic program, makes students realize that the power of change is in their hands and that it is unlimited. They know they always have more to do, conquer and share; they know everyone’s intrinsic responsibility to act for the common good, they go out there and make it happen!”

To learn more about this inspiring project, access its profile @colorindovidas_ on Instagram. To learn more about PASB’s Service Learning Project, reach out to Ms. Daniela Davis-Becker (d.davis@pasb.com.br).