Service learning is at the heart of the Peter Gruber International Academy. Our school offers opportunities for students to apply what they learn in the classroom by contributing to the needs of our local and broader community. We are motivated by the commitment to "leave a legacy".

The program involves a variety of activities promoting reflection, personal growth, and a sense of community. Reflections are the primary evidence of growth and will be driven by the student (and guided by an advisor). A student who is not comfortable with written reflection may choose to have a conversation with his/her advisor about his/her activities. The advisor will take notes at these meetings, which become part of the reflection documentation. Students may also choose to reflect in oral presentations, emails, journals, photo essays, videos/DVDs, blogs, or a traditional essay format.

SA: Service as Action (Grades 6 - 10)

Service as Action (SA) invites students to share their energies and special talents while developing awareness, concern, and the ability to work cooperatively with others. It helps them to develop a spirit of open-mindedness, lifelong learning, discovery, and self-reliance. It encourages them to learn new skills and develop attitudes and traits that will be respected by others, such as determination and commitment, and promotes growth in the knowledge of life, self, and others. The SA programme also prepares students in the Middle Years Programme for CAS. Students at the PGIA will participate in SA learning experiences each year of their MYP journey.

CAS: Creativity, Action, Service Grades (11 - 12 )

Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) engages students in reflective involvement beyond the classroom by fostering caring and socially responsible attitudes through participation in activities that reach beyond themselves and their books.

It consists of three strands. Creativity: arts, designing the project, activities, music, and other experiences that involve creative thinking. Action: physical exertion contributes to a healthy lifestyle including team and individual sports, expeditions, and local or international projects. Service:  unpaid, voluntary exchanges that have a learning benefit for the student during which the rights, dignity, and autonomy of all those involved are respected, which may include working with children, refugees, the homeless, and other community and social services.

All Grade 11-12 students are expected to participate in learning experiences involving CAS over two years. These learning experiences may be completed in any combination. However, there must be a balance between all three categories of CAS.

All students are expected to have shown achievement in the following eight learning outcomes:

Outcome 1: Increased awareness of strengths and weaknesses
Outcome 2: Undertook new challenges
Outcome 3: Planned and initiated new activities
Outcome 4: Worked collaboratively with others
Outcome 5: Showed perseverance and commitment in activities
Outcome 6: Engaged with issues of global importance
Outcome 7: Considered ethical implications
Outcome 8: Developed new skills

Some of Our Service Learning Opportunities

  • Walk for Wishes

  • Relay for Life

  • Interact Club

  • Volunteering at Queen Louise Home & Lucinda Millin Home 

  • 80/20 lunch   

  • Project Give

  • International Beach Cleanup

  • Fall Fest

  • M2M Race

  • Taste the Nations

  • World Sight Day

If you require more information please contact Ms. Michele Weichman, SA/CAS Coordinator, mweichman@vismia.org and remember... "In order to leave a legacy, you must make service a part of who you are."