With well above 5,000 students, this school is among the largest high schools in Indiana. Additionally, the building is situated in downtown Carmel, a town bursting with small businesses and bustling with activity. Due to this school’s convenient location and the robust number of attendees it possesses, it makes sense to have a designated “day of service” in which students can have an organized way to give back to their community. However, this concept begs the question: Which day should this event be organized? 

This year, SAT day is on March 4, and all freshmen, sophomores and seniors will have an e-learning day. Furthermore, all juniors will take the SAT in the morning and have the ability to leave school in the early afternoon. For all of the reasons mentioned above, it makes sense to turn all future SAT days into optional preordained “days of service.” this would be a major benefit to this school’s students and the city of Carmel.

By allowing the bus system to operate in the morning and afternoon like usual, students would have a surefire method of transportation to this “day of service,” which would not be an option if this event occurred on a weekend or break. Since this day also counts as a work day for all of this school’s teachers, those unoccupied by proctoring the SAT could monitor the event. Students who choose to participate could be sorted into alphabetically assigned volunteer groups, and students would spend the day making change throughout Carmel in a variety of ways. An abundance of preparation would have to be completed in advance. For example, local businesses must be contacted, students must be organized and situated, and teachers must communicate with the students in their volunteer group, but the work would be well worth the effort.

As aforementioned, the SAT day currently operates as an e-learning day for most students. However, a vast majority of the classes offered at this school are open and available for a multitude of grade levels. In classes that contain juniors, many teachers opt to declare the e-learning day as null and void since they know a good chunk of their students will be occupied with taking the SAT. Therefore, this e-learning day can hardly be considered academic, despite the name by which it is recognized. Replacing this futile attempt of a school day with something helpful to Carmel’s community would greatly benefit everyone involved.

We understand students may not find an optional “day of service” appealing, but as an extra incentive to make change in our city, NHS or community service hours could be offered for the event. Additionally, two separate sessions could be held: a morning session, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and an afternoon session, from 1 to 4 p.m. Juniors who are already at the school building for the purpose of taking the SAT would have an easy way to spend their afternoon, and the convenience of the setup could be another way to incentivize participants.

All in all, the current e-learning day would be much more beneficial if it was replaced by a voluntary “day of service.” This way, students have a well-organized, convenient and easy way to give back to the city of Carmel. This outcome is much more favorable than a trivial and underused academic day.