37. Community Service

Dalton’s Community Service program, founded by Nora Hodges, dates to 1944. Hard hat and certificate of recognition from Habitat for Humanity given to participants in New Orleans project.

“It is hoped that this [community service curriculum] will give you a new sense of your own value with a different meaning than book learning can give you.”
—Teacher Nora Hodges addressing students, 1944.

I see Dalton’s commitment to Community Service as part of the School’s broader effort to build global citizens. I, and countless others in the Dalton community, have benefited from this focus.

As a freshman, I found a homeless soup kitchen at All Angels Church through Dalton’s service listings. The soup kitchen ran a timely, efficient operation, drawing many of its resources from the church. This first interaction with New York’s marginalized population, shaped my personal commitment to sustainable service initiatives. It was particularly memorable because I went alone as a timid fourteen-year-old, not really knowing what to expect. More than that, this experience started to inform a personal exercise of building hypotheses on how to drive sustainable societal change that I’ve carried into my professional life, both in non-profit and corporate roles.

Dalton instilled a sense of collaboration and community that encouraged us to think beyond our immediate interests. In addition to Dalton’s commitment to community service, I’m grateful that Dalton encourages students to remain curious and ask difficult questions. With so many challenging problems to be solved in this world, I treasure the formal and informal training I received at Dalton that helps me “go forth” and tackle them.
—Arun Yang ’06, Co-head of Community Service Committee ’05–’06