Service Learning

A better world starts with better educated, more compassionate individuals. Like you.


Schoolwide Commitment

In the middle school, you’ll work alongside D.C. nonprofits addressing social issues. As you enter high school and learn more about injustice and inequity in society, you’ll participate individually in service and civic engagement activities in your community. In grade 11, you’ll take the Activism course in our Health, Values, and Ethics department. And after graduation, you’ll actively seek out opportunities to impact those around you.

"It's not what a lawyer tells me I may do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.”

—Edmund Burke

Empathy and Effort

Every year, students travel to five locations around the country to help communities affected by poverty, injustice, or natural disasters. You could learn about the coal mining industry in Appalachia and its effect on daily life. Or rebuild homes destroyed by hurricanes in New Orleans and New Jersey. Or gain an understanding of the Lakota community’s history on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

students presenting

Local Partnerships

Burke students partner with local public and charter schools, Food & Friends, and Hope House to bring positive change to the community. They work closely with students from local schools to discuss how issues in our world affect us in similar and different ways—simply by virtue of how we are perceived by society.

students volunteering

"It's not what a lawyer tells me I may do, but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.”

—Edmund Burke

students presenting
students volunteering