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Schutz American School students are the future leaders of their communities. By offering service to the Alexandria community, Schutz students have an opportunity to see aspects of their community that they might not normally see. Community service offers students an opportunity for social and emotional growth, as well as intellectual growth. Outreach to the Alexandrian community creates goodwill within the community, as well as offering some benefits to local charitable organizations.

Community Service at Schutz has evolved over the years at. It first began as an extracurricular after-school club, with a focus on environmental projects. Students and their sponsors also visited some local charities and held fundraisers for them. The students preferred spending their time helping the charities, hence the focus turned there.

In 2002, Schutz created a committee of teachers, students, and parents to oversee Community Service. This committee helps to coordinate the various charitable activities in the school, such as the annual Ramadan food drive, the clothing drive, and the school supplies drive. The goods collected are distributed to various charities contacted by the classes.

Each class selects a service project for the year. It could involve a charity or an environmental project. The classes visit the charity at least once that year, interacting with the people. Some classes make arrangements for the organization to visit the school to play on the playground. Some classes have painted preschools; bought books and read them to the children at the school; and provided children with toys or a winter outfit. Most importantly, the students get to know their community a little better.

School-wide assemblies are held throughout the year to inform classes about the activities that have been or will be carried out. This gives the added bonus of creating school spirit.

This year our school became involved with Habitat for Humanity.  Students and staff helped to construct a home. These homes are built using appropriate, locally-available building materials, which meet specific housing requirements. Houses have cemented or tiled floors, plastered or limestone brick walls, secure wooden roofs, and enough rooms to separate parents from children and boys from girls, and families from their livestock. The access to clean water and sanitation systems, separation from animals and good ventilation all serve to improve the health of the families and their communities.

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