Students At Catholic Central High School Spend Their Winter Term Immersed In Service

March 30, 2022 | Written by Rachel Plum

Catholic Central High School, located in Springfield, OH, is just one of the numerous schools doing outstanding work in their community through the Magnified Giving program. This January, a group of students elected to spend their winter term, a 3.5 week period between semesters, participating in the Service Ministry and Magnified Giving course. Spearheaded by math teacher Marcia Roth, CCHS launched their Magnified Giving program in the 2013-14 school year. Now in her 26th year of teaching at Catholic Central, Mrs. Roth is more passionate than ever about leading students in philanthropy and service. Marcia spoke very highly of her experience in the Magnified Giving program at CCHS, saying, “I like how MG is student-centered and student driven.The students control all aspects of how those decisions are made at Catholic Central. It is challenging for me as a teacher, when I have my own feelings and opinions about the nonprofits, but it's really important to me that the students in the group get to make the final call.”

This year, Mrs. Roth and her co-teacher, Katherine Hollkamp, facilitated the service learning course for a group of eight dedicated 11th and 12th grade students. The program this year provided students with opportunities to learn about and serve at a number of local organizations, including HOPE Ministries, Families of Addicts, On the Rise, Lesotho Nutrition Initiative, Pregnancy Resource Center, Springfield Soup Kitchen, Catholic Central Backpack Program, Springfield Promise Neighborhood, and SPCA. “A big part of Catholic Central's mission is to make sure that the students there realize how special their home of Springfield is and all the wonderful services, volunteerism, and caring that goes on around them and ensuring that their eyes are open to that,” says Kelly Collison, Executive Director at Magnified Giving. 

At the end of the term, the school hosted a Giving Ceremony to celebrate the students’ hard work and commemorate all that their service experiences taught them. The ceremony was set to be in-person, but an unexpected snow day resulted in the need to move the Giving Ceremony and prayer service to a virtual setting on Google Meet. Despite having the day off, nearly all of the students in the program dedicated their morning to engaging with organization leaders and thanking them for their service to the community. This format allowed for a few Magnified Giving team members to be present at the ceremony as well. Executive Director, Kelly Collison; Director of Programs, Alison Kaufman; and founder and President, Roger Grein, were all in attendance. Of the ceremony, Alison noted, “You could truly see how much the students learned and how it touched each one of them.” 

During the Giving Ceremony, students took turns sharing beautiful sentiments about how they were personally impacted by the class.

Along with the multitude of academic advantages, service learning and philanthropy also provide a variety of benefits for individuals’ social and emotional wellbeing. One of those is the increased sense of self-efficacy that students experience through their service. Young people who are involved in giving have a stronger belief in themselves and their ability to make an impact on their community. Students believe that they have a voice, ideas, and a perspective that are valued and effective. They begin to realize that they can truly make a difference towards causes that they are passionate about. 

Young people also grow in empathy and understanding through these experiences, which is a skill set that develops significantly throughout one’s childhood. Additionally, students are given opportunities to collaborate, not only with one another, but also with their teachers, other community members, and local organizations. They are able to practice communicating their ideas, working together in teams, and learning how to understand and respect each other. Overall, the psychological wellbeing of youth in service-learning programs is much healthier than that of students overall. Rates of depression, low self-esteem, and stress were considerably lower. Studies show that people of all ages, including students, are happier and more satisfied with their lives overall when they are participating in philanthropy. Fidelity Charitable curated a study on this topic and found that people whose families participated in giving had a nearly 20% higher rate of considering themselves very happy than those who did not (“Family Giving Traditions”). 

“All these people have a great amount of hope for the future and that they can help to heal the community in their own way. So by surrounding myself with this tremendous amount of hope, I have emerged from this month with newfound confidence and attitude towards my life in that anything is truly possible; as long as you truly believe that you can do it.” - Ivan Axtell

“One thing I really admire about being a part of the Service Ministry team was the strengthening of my leadership skills.” - Allison Peterson

“What stood out to me the most was when we met the people who work in service. It was clear from hearing them speak about their organization, how passionate they are for what they do and for our help and the help of others.” - Charlie Townsend

In the end, the students narrowed down to a few specific causes that they felt the most passionate about, Poverty and Hunger, Youth and Education, and Animals and the Environment. They were able to take advantage of dunning offered through Magnified Giving’s partnership with the Kroger Zero Hunger Zero Waste Foundation, which allowed Catholic Central to award grants to multiple organizations. After much discussion, the students agreed that Springfield Promise Neighborhood, On the Rise, and Springfield Soup Kitchen had missions and efforts that aligned best with the areas they prioritized. They also named HOPE Ministries as an Honorable Mention for the incredible ways the organization has impacted the youth of Springfield. 

“Throughout the time we spent at the Springfield Soup Kitchen, I could tell that it was truly a place where people could come together in the community no matter who they were.” - Ivan Axtell

“What I learned about On the Rise is that Miss Debbie truly cares about these kids. From the way she was talking about her work, I could really tell that she does this out of the love in her heart.” - Malik Paige

“There wasn’t one organization that only focused on certain people but they helped anyone around them and their community. Why I believe in this teaching is because this country is filled with many wonderful people and their cultures.” - Efrain Hernandez