On October 15, 2025, all Class IV and III students ventured beyond Milton’s campus for the annual Community Engagement Day, spending their Wednesday morning volunteering at various sites across Milton and the greater Boston area. This long-standing tradition organized by the Office of Community Engagement Programs and Partnerships (CEPP) encourages learning through involvement and interaction.
The event, first introduced by the Self-Governing Association in 2001, has become a defining part of Milton’s fall calendar for over two decades. Community Engagement Director Andrea Geyling-Moore explained that the program was born out of a desire to engage the community beyond campus “because that kind of learning is so important in conjunction with what we do in the classroom.”
Geyling-Moore said she hopes participating students “think about social justice issues and the reality of people’s lives and just make human connections off campus.”
Planning for the day begins months in advance given the variety of volunteer sites, which range from public schools and gardens to senior centers and libraries. “I start in the spring,” Geyling-Moore said, explaining that she contacts organizations early and confirms what kind of help each site needs.
This year, the day continued a format first introduced several years ago–working as established groups of advisories rather than mixed teams. “When we made that shift, everyone thought that was a great idea,” said Geyling-Moore. That way, the groups can easily reflect back on the experience for months to come.
The CEPP board members play roles in the day as well. Geyling-Moore emphasised the importance of student representatives who “lead the morning assembly and set the tone for the day.” She added that board members attend sites just like everyone else and later share feedback.
Margot Murphy-Hara ‘28, a member of the CEPP board, highlighted how the day allows students who “can’t make [a] weekly commitment experience what it means to help others.” She described that the day not only helps people outside of school, but also helps the volunteer students themselves. Murphy-Hara added that she believes the event should happen more often—“at least twice a year.”
The diversity of sites allowed for unique experiences for every advisory. Some students traveled to senior homes to socialize with senior citizens while others traveled to Brookwood Farm and engaged in manual labour.
Curtis Sullivan ‘28, who traveled to a historic garden in Milton to help Milton’s Gardening Club, expressed his great appreciation for the gardening experience despite his initial doubts about the unfamiliar activity. He revealed a new-found “respect for how people treat plants,” and a “new perspective” on something he usually does not do. Sullivan also added that he learned how “gardening is actually a really fun hobby, and it was cool to gain skills you never thought you could have.” Mirroring Murphy-Hara’s self-reflection, Sullivan stated that “it’s not just engaging with the community–it’s engaging with yourself.”
The day brought first-time experiences for some underclassmen, particularly Class IV students. Sathvika Chadalawada ‘29, a Class IV student who helped at a senior home, expressed that the day “felt intimidating,” but she soon realized the “warm and nice” nature of the experience. Chadalawada reflected on this change in mindset as a lesson to “keep an open mind” and emphasised how glad she was that she “got to make somebody’s day really better.”
For Geyling-Moore, these experiences reflect the program’s mission. “Every year, people come back with smiles,” she said. She describes participants' reactions such as “feeling like they helped beautify a park” or “helping a dementia patient feel human connection.” The day’s local connections were also significant, and Geyling-Moore added how she sometimes handpicks advisories that include alumni from the elementary school they are visiting. “It’s exciting for teachers to see them come back all grown up,” she explained.
Geyling-Moore hopes that the experience continues to inspire students long after the day ends. As she concluded, Community Engagement Day allows us to “engage with others, learn from each other, and understand the world beyond Milton.”