Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy

Students at Hillcrest Academy will take this week to participate in service projects and learn lessons in the community. Service and Learning Term (SALT), is an every-other-year endeavor for the district, where high school students sign up for projects outside of the building to learn, meet and contribute to a mission. Bryn Hovde, Hillcrest Academy Art Teacher and SALT Coordinator, shares what he hopes students and community members alike take from the experience. “For a number of students, they might not have done anything like this before. In that sense, it’s really helpful to open up their mind and expand their ideas and help them interact with others. It helps to grow their faith. To see that there are other people with needs and you can feel good about helping them. Also receiving, not just serving, but also learning information or making connections and building relationships with others.”

This year’s list of activities include: a trip to Guatemala to work with missionaries, traveling to Wynne, Arkansas with the Mennonite Disaster Service to help with tornado clean up and reconstruction, a trip to Omaha, Nebraska to partner with Christ for the City International to work with service ministries, visiting sports coaches, psychologists and nutritionists at the University of Iowa for service projects and training sessions, musical performances for local churches and nursing homes in southeast Iowa, art walk tours at various destinations around southeast Iowa, and work for local non-profits in southeast Iowa. Middle school students will participate for the first time ever in SALT with programming on campus and around southeast Iowa. For more information about SALT at Hillcrest Academy listen to the In Touch with Southeast Iowa programs with Hovde from Thursday and Friday, available free, on our website at KCIIradio.com.