School Life

Community Service

Respect, integrity, service, stewardship, and curiosity are Millbrook’s core values. It is no accident that service is at the center of those values, as it has been a vital component of the Millbrook experience since 1931. Millbrook students own the culture of the campus, and community service is a large part of that ownership. 

Community service is built right into the schedule at Millbrook. Four days per week, for a total of 2 hours, students and faculty devote time to helping the school "run," as well as serving in the local community; however, it's common for students to volunteer considerable time beyond the built-in community service periods. Whether feeding the endangered red wolves at night, teaching music lessons to local children, or taking a "bright nights" run into Poughkeepsie to provide food and comfort to those in need, service extends far beyond the dedicated blocks in any given day.

Service is perfectly expressed in our motto—Non Sibi Sed Cunctis (not for oneself, but for all)—so it is no surprise that one of our most honored traditions is the awarding of the Community Service Cup to a deserving senior at commencement each year.

Returning IVth, Vth, and VIth form students remain with a community service for the entire academic year. New IVth, Vth, or VIth formers are required to complete two semesters of community service during the academic year; one semester at the Trevor Zoo and another semester in a service of their choosing. All IIIrd form students participate in three different services on a rotating basis. These students will spend approximately ten weeks in each of the following services: the zoo, recycling, and the farm.
Community Service Catalog

List of 9 items.

  • Activities

    Do you want to help plan what you do on the weekend? This service helps in the preparing, planning, and advertising of campus activities that happen both during the week and on the weekend. CS members assist in integrating new activities into the weekend program and in solving logistical concerns of existing activities. Students also help make the weekend team assembly announcements and keep the community informed of upcoming activities. This service may sometimes meet outside of the regular community service periods.

  • Archives

    The Archives Community Service is preserving the history and legacy of Millbrook School. If you enjoy history, photography, film and video, and have a love for all things related to Millbrook, this is the service for you. You’ll learn about digitizing all forms of media as we create a computerized collection to bring Millbrook’s Archives into the 21st Century.

  • Attendance

    This community service will coordinate assemblies, forums, chapel talks, and formal dinner attendance. Members also serve as deans’ assistants to the Academic Office and the Dean of Students Office. The service takes on two additional mission-based initiatives each year.

  • Break the Bubble

    The goal of this community service is twofold: to "break the Millbrook bubble" and to raise awareness of the many unique stories on campus. Students will be expected to work closely with faculty members to organize cultural events on campus, inform the community on current events throughout the world, and gain an understanding of the varying backgrounds of the members of the Millbrook community. This community service is open to any student (international and non) who is interested in recognizing and promoting cultural diversity on campus.

  • Chapel Council

    The Chapel Council’s primary responsibility is to design, promote, and manage all events in the Flagler Memorial Chapel as well as all other opportunities related to cultural and spiritual life. This includes Chapel Talks, Tuesday Talks, the Thanksgiving and Candlelight Services, and (in collaboration with the DEI Council, the International Student Office, and Break the Bubble) promotion of multicultural programs and celebrations. Working closely with the chaplain, this is an exciting opportunity for students to take the lead in creating and sustaining the culture and traditions of the school.

  • College Counseling & Alumni and Development

    Students in this service play a role in supporting the ongoing and critical process of informing students about opportunities for their post-Millbrook educational plans, introducing students to the Millbrook network, and supporting efforts that build a culture of philanthropy in the Millbrook community. The student(s) in this service should enjoy helping others, be well organized, and have an interest in public speaking, communicating with peers, and engaging the community to think broadly about college and life as future alumni of Millbrook School.

  • Community Music

    The Community Music community service (different from Music Lessons) is designed to meet the musical needs of the Millbrook community and to serve the local community outside the school. Students will plan, organize, and select music for the musical offerings at school events such as chapel talks, assemblies, arts nights, all-school services, and additional events such as a Friday night jam session or a coffee house. They will also develop opportunities to share Millbrook music with the larger community outside the school.

  • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Leaders

    Students in this community service will receive training from DEI faculty and student leaders on how to be effective DEI leaders on campus. Students will engage with their peers in constructive ways in all aspects of life at Millbrook, including being a presence in every dorm and in every dorm meeting. Students will support DEI leadership and faculty in running events, such as MLK day, affinity groups, heritage month activities, and more.

  • Dorm Leaders

    The dorm leaders are selected by the current dorm faculty along with the dean of students and the dean of residential life. Dorm leaders provide essential support for maintaining a safe and healthy environment in the dormitories to which they are assigned. They complete dorm duty at least once a week and all dorm leaders meet as a group during the Tuesday Community Service period.

List of 9 items.

  • Environmental Council

    Environmental Council promotes sustainability by integrating environmental stewardship into programs, policies, and activities on campus. The council recommends and implements projects that support Millbrook's mission of stewardship of the natural world and the goal of carbon neutrality, which could include energy efficiency and conservation, community awareness and involvement, and renewable energy initiatives. The council is composed of students, faculty, and staff. Each dorm will have a representative on the council, who serves as a liaison to enhance community involvement. These students will have a real and meaningful impact on the school in both the short and long term. The community service may sometimes meet outside of the regular community service periods.

  • Farm

    Millbrook maintains a state-of-the-art mobile greenhouse, which supports our commitment to community gardening, composting, and hands-on work. We are growing our own produce and delivering it to our dining hall. Also, we are working on expanding the Millbrook School Farm by adding one acre of no-till field. Required of all IIIrd formers, this service is also open to all upperformers, who can apply to be a farm leader.

  • Fire Safety

    Want to help keep our buildings all safe? Want to learn about all of the buildings on campus? Want to perform a very important service for the community? If you answered yes to any of these, then the Fire Safety community service may be for you. This service checks emergency lights, fire extinguishers, emergency exits, student rooms for safety, and reports problems to maintenance and dorm heads.

  • Food Services

    Students who are a part of this service are important to the smooth, efficient functioning of the dining hall. Their work includes, but is not limited to, making sure that students assigned to dishwashing and food serving do their jobs properly and well. This service is a good place to test and develop leadership skills. NOTE: Duty consists of one day weekly: a breakfast meal and a dinner meal. This position is NOT available to III and IV formers.

  • Friday Council

    The Friday Council is both a community service and a position of leadership at Millbrook. The council helps conceive of and implement events that happen for students on Friday nights while school is in session. These events include outside speakers (forums), all-school events (such as Friday Night Lights or Career Night), and clubs. Skills and qualities you will develop as a member of the Friday Council include planning and follow-through, public speaking through regular announcements in assembly, creativity in generating ideas, and peer empowerment and accountability.

  • General Services

    The General Services Community Service is responsible for parts of the regular upkeep of the Schoolhouse as well as general services for the entire campus. This includes maintaining all the classrooms and the extensive common spaces in Schoolhouse.Students will do some cleaning of display cases in Schoolhouse, maintain the K-cup coffee station in the faculty room, help set tables for formal advisor lunches on Tuesday, clean the athletic busses, and from time to time engage in other projects as needed around campus.

  • Hamilton Math and Science Center

    Students in this service help in the Hamilton Math and Science Center by way of maintaining classroom spaces throughout the facility, helping to keep track of math supplies, and assisting the Science Department in maintaining its laboratories and equipment. Students with a real a penchant or passion for the laboratory sciences can also focus their work specifically on lab preparation, set-up, recording data and conducting trails, and overall general maintenance of MASC spaces in the form of servicing as lab assistants or lab techs.
     

  • Holbrook Arts Center

    This service provides students with an interest in any element of the arts to acquire new skills or enhance existing ones. Those who are a part of this service will play critical and direct roles in supporting the needs of this multi-faceted facility. You will help to maintain the studio art, music, ceramics, scene shop, set design, costume, and dance rooms, as well as the Warner Gallery, the Murray Photo Studio, and the Morrison Theater.

  • Holbrook Technology

    Students in this service develop the skills to monitor and run the sound and lighting devices in the Chelsea Morrison Theater. The "tech crew" is responsible for audio and video presentations in the theater throughout the academic year. While the obligations during the CS block tend to be light, this service requires frequent work in the evenings and weekends when many of these events occur. In addition to the work that this community service does to support Forums, Chapel Talks, Guest Speakers, and other events, they are also responsible for the general maintenance and upkeep of theater spaces. On occasion, they will be asked to help support the fall play and musical production needs.

List of 10 items.

  • Hum Dev Facilitator

    Hum Dev student leaders facilitate conversations with a IVth form Human Development group on Saturday mornings. Hum Dev facilitators meet once weekly during a community service block to prepare for Saturday sessions, and they plan one Human Development unit with an adult and a number of other student facilitators. The role is open to Vth and VIth formers. You can be a dorm leader, peer supporter, prefect, or work with DEI AND do this role.

  • International Student Leaders

    Millbrook School’s International Student Leaders Program is a culturally enriching experience for those students that are international students. Vth and VIth formers selected as international student leaders will act as liaisons between the international students and the faculty international student coordinators. Responsibilities encompass looking out for international students, advocating for changes, and becoming ambassadors for the rest of the student body. International student leaders will work with IS coordinators to plan and execute the IS program throughout the year.

  • Library & Ed Tech

    The library community service is responsible for creating displays and planning and promoting library events. The library hosts special events in the evenings, and the library community service helps with both generating ideas and planning the events. Members of this service also help to identify new technologies that Millbrook’s teachers could be using in their classes and teaches people how to use them. They have the opportunity to effect real change by bringing new ideas and educational tools into Millbrook’s classrooms.

  • Literacy Connections

    Students volunteer in the Northeast Dutchess and Poughkeepsie communities on literacy needs, including tutoring adult English language learners at ESL classes in Pawling and Millbrook. Students in this service will attend one of the two ESL classes offered weekly, help publicize the club’s efforts to the general student population, recruit new members, and assist in creating curricular material.

  • Literary Magazine

    Do you like finding creative student work and sharing it with the community? Do you want to create and publish a literary magazine? Then this is the service for you! This is the home of The Mill. Students in this service gather written and visual work from both students and faculty, organize what they collect, and then produce the magazine to share the content.

  • Millbrook Ambassadors

    Selected students will serve as head tour guides (HTGs) in the Admission Office. They work closely with the admission staff, and among their primary duties is organizing campus tours for prospective students. HTGs are depended on to give many tours during their free periods, as well as help to notify other students of their upcoming tours and make announcements in assemblies. HTGs assist in Revisit Days and other admission events. This position is heavily depended on by the Admission Office and prepares students for future leadership positions on campus.

  • Millbrook in Motion

    Students participating in the Millbrook in Motion community service assist the Communications Office by filming athletic events, assemblies, and chapel talks. Students also create videos for social media, the Millbrook website, and more.

  • Millbrook Kicks Cancer

    Millbrook Kicks Cancer is a service that promotes awareness about cancer and holds several educational and fundraising events throughout the academic year. Examples of student-led and student-centered events include the following: a “Pink the Rink” sponsored hockey game, the running and execution of a community 5k, the showing of a documentary, and a letter-writing activity.

  • Mills Athletic Center

    This group performs a number of duties that keep the Mills Athletic Center functional for our students, faculty, and guests. From cleaning and organizing the weight room to processing team uniforms, we work with the Athletic Department to better serve our community. Other duties include preparing the basketball court, squash courts, and lobby for game day activities, cross referencing Millbrook’s athletic events with other schools' websites, and reporting any and all discrepancies to the athletic director.

  • Music Lessons

    This group provides music lessons in piano, drums, and guitar to children in the local community. Members of the Music Lesson CS are responsible for planning, teaching, and reflecting on their lesson each week. Each member will teach a minimum of 2 half hour lessons one evening a week in Holbrook. They will also meet at least once a week during community service block to plan their lessons and reflect. The group will also be responsible for advertising the lessons within the local community.

List of 10 items.

  • Peer Supporters

    Peer supporters are chosen annually to provide emotional support in both the dormitories AND the larger campus community. Peer supporters are assigned to office hours within their own dorm and work intensively with the Counseling Office to support their peers.
    Peer supporters meet weekly during a community service period. The role is open to Vth and VIth formers.

  • Post Office

    This community service is in charge of the student post office. Responsibilities include sorting mail for students and labeling packages within the post office space in the lower level of Prum Hall. Students in the service will be expected to work a total of 3 hours a week in the post office and will sign up for shifts. Post office hours are as follows:
    • Moday - Friday: 7:15 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
    • Saturday: 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
    • Sunday: 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

  • Recycling

    As a community we consume—and waste—an incredible number of resources such as paper, food, fuel and electricity. The mission of this service is facilitate the proper disposal of recyclable materials. The challenge is great, but even greater is the opportunity to make a significant difference in how, as a community, we make use of our resources. Join with us in one of Millbrook’s biggest and most active services, one which is particularly well-suited for day students because we have no night or weekend responsibilities.

  • School Store

    The service in the school store meets during the community service period to review inventory, make suggestions on new items for the store, fold clothes, help restock items, and assist the adult staff with projects from time to time.

  • Sports Media

    Sports Media provides students the opportunity to help make Millbrook's social media content energetic, fun, and engaging. Using video and photos from recent games, you will create posts, stories, and reels to promote upcoming games and highlight recent sports wins. You will get a chance to learn some new Photoshop and video editing skills while elevating the content we share on our social media channels.

  • Study Hall Proctors

    Students in this service assist the assigned faculty in helping to run the three evening study hall spaces—Silent Study, the Library, and H-block. Duty consists of two nights weekly. This position is NOT available to III and IV formers.

  • The Silo

    There are multiple positions within the Silo staff.

    Silo     staff writers, or "reporters," are expected to meet each community service block. They spend their time gathering information for stories (e.g., data, interviews), writing the stories, editing copy from other reporters, and helping to produce The Silo and its sister electronic newsletter, theStang, each week.

    Staff writers report to the editors of the paper but will be supervised directly by the faculty advisor to the paper.

    Silo editors manage staff writers, edit copy, assign articles, and make decisions about the journalistic priorities of the paper. The editors also publish a weekly e-newsletter, The Stang. Editors report to the faculty advisor.

    The Silo layout editor must be absolutely reliable in meeting deadlines, often under pressure caused by late submissions to the paper. Work as layout editor will be done beyond the hours of the community service block. The layout editor reports to the faculty advisor.

  • Thrift Store

    The Thrift Store Community Service is responsible for creating a sustainable, community practice of dealing with clothing, dorm room items, and other small items donated to Outreach. They work to provide a way to upcycle the majority of clothing Outreach receives and create revenue to be reinvested in Outreach efforts and in the store. They maintain a virtual store and/or pop up shops so community members can “buy” items. They organize inventory, communicate items to the community, monitor the “selling” of items, and arrange the distribution of goods. 

  • Trevor Zoo

    The Trevor Zoo, with its collection of more than 150 animals and ten endangered species, provides a unique opportunity for students to work directly with wildlife and participate in the conservation efforts of an AZA Accredited zoo.  Students in the zoo community service rotate around the zoo each community service period, with a wide-ranging, hands-on exposure to all aspects of animal care, enrichment, exhibit maintenance and diet preparation.  Third formers spend one third of the academic year at the zoo as part of their rotation. Upperclass and returning students can become student curators, helping the zoo staff operate the zoo and overseeing other Zooies. At the zoo, animal care goes on throughout the day, and students are encouraged to visit the zoo outside of community service periods (and often required for our student curators) to get additional experience including observing weekly visits from our Veterinarian. Working at the zoo requires dedication and responsibility but can be an extremely rewarding experience - one only Millbrook’s students have the opportunity to participate in.

  • Yearbook

    Students in this community service document a year in the life of Millbrook students and faculty. All students collaborate on the creative design, the organization of the book, and the finer details. If you're creative and interested in photography, learning how to create layouts, and designing a book, Yearbook is for you. Leadership roles include the positions of Business Manager (overseeing fundraising of nearly $25,000/year) and Editor(s) (assigning and tracking pages/content and photo ops and managing deadlines).

New Students Community Service Selection

Service News
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