Every year, the Lake Forest Academy community gathers together for a day of service in mid-April. The projects range from visits to senior centers to packing meat at the Northern Illinois Food Bank, and it is a way to remind LFA students of how they can enrich the lives of the nearby community.

This year, Service Day took place on Thursday, April 23, and there were around 20 activities available to students. While Service Day is mandatory for all LFA students, Sarah Collins, Director of Service Learning, says that it is an experience that is looked forward to by many members of the LFA community.

LFA has 100% student participation, and many of the faculty join in as well. Collins says that it is part of the community experience of LFA.

“I loved helping the elderly, it really made me rethink how I can use my abilities to make other people’s days brighter,” says Junior Sneha Pamulapati.

Service Day was originally initiated in order to replace a minimum service requirement.

“We no longer wanted to require hours of service that we had to keep track of.” Says Collins, “we thought, well, if we have one service event every year, everybody is doing service together.”

Collins says that she hopes that after Service Day, students are able to see themselves as a resource in the community, and as someone who is able to make an impact on the greater Chicago area, and not just within LFA.

“Going to a school where there is a lot of privilege and opportunity i think its important to realize that there are people who are less fortunate,” says Junior Matthew Pugliese, “and I think by realizing that there are needs in the community to be filled, it helps us further flourish as individuals and to aid the external community.”