Student Service Committee Spotlight | Eli ’26 and Ian ’26

For Eli ’26 and Ian ’26, service has become one way to understand what community means in practice.

As seniors and leaders of the Upper School Student Service Committee, both students have spent the past three years helping classmates find meaningful ways to take part in service. At Friends, Upper School students complete service hours as part of their Upper School experience, and the committee helps make sure students have regular, accessible opportunities to contribute throughout the year. The Committee is responsible for organizing drives, setting up letter-writing events, choosing nonprofits, counting donations, and finding moments in the school year when students might be ready to give their time or attention. 

This year, Eli and Ian helped the Committee become more visible in the daily life of the Upper School. Through grade representatives, students brought forward ideas from their classmates and helped shape service projects that reflected student interest, current events, and community needs.

“I think this year, we really improved our presence within the School,” Eli said. “Now people know what the Service Committee is and who their grade reps are, which is not necessarily how it has been in past years.”

The process of choosing organizations to support is student-led and influenced by Quaker decision-making. Around Valentine’s Day, for example, the committee runs Candygrams, inviting students to send notes and small treats to friends, classmates, and advisors while raising money for a nonprofit organization. For the project, each grade representative brought forward a nonprofit organization, and the committee considered the options together before deciding where the funds would go. The group also thinks carefully about timing and relevance. This year’s Candygrams supported PinkAid, an organization connected to breast cancer support and research. In a previous year, the committee supported Day One, which works with young people affected by dating abuse and domestic violence.

Last year, the committee changed course after learning about the wildfires in Los Angeles and their impact on the Friends community beyond 16th Street. Village School in Pacific Palisades, led by former Friends Head of Lower School John Evans, was destroyed by the fires. For Eli, Ian, and the Committee, the decision to support the school through Candygrams felt immediate and personal: a way to stand with another school community facing loss and displacement.

“That really showed me that our community is going to help one another, whether there’s an incentive to it or not,” Ian said.

Beyond fundraising, the committee has organized letter-writing events, including letters to political figures advocating for specific issues and cards with supportive messages for immigrants detained at the border. Drives are another regular part of the Committee’s work. After collecting items over the course of a week, students often gather to sort, count, and prepare the donations.

This year, Eli and Ian were especially proud of the Service Committee’s collaborations with other student groups, particularly culture clubs. The goal was to make service feel more connected to students’ lives and to create opportunities that grew out of specific communities and traditions.

One collaboration with Asian Culture Club invited students to fold origami, which was then sent to nursing homes. Another, with Jewish Culture Club, connected students with the Hebrew Union College soup kitchen, where volunteers can help serve meals on Mondays.

Eli first brought the soup kitchen idea to Jewish Culture Club after remembering a visit there from his own Hebrew school years. As a fourth grader, his former school volunteered at the soup kitchen together, and years later, he saw an opportunity to bring that experience to Friends students as a way to connect service and Jewish tradition. The first visit was such a success that the group returned twice this year.

Their work has also extended across divisions. Both students were part of recent collaborations with younger students, including the Lower School Post Office project, where Upper School students helped introduce charitable organizations and support younger students as they considered where to donate the project’s proceeds. These moments gave Upper School students a chance to lead while helping younger students see service as something they can begin practicing now.

“I think community service is meant to bring people together,” Ian said. “Whether it was across cultures or across school divisions, that’s something I consistently saw, and I hope to continue to see next year.”

As they prepare to graduate, Eli and Ian hope future members of the Student Service Committee continue to build on this year’s momentum: making the Committee more visible, working closely with culture clubs, and creating service opportunities that feel connected to students’ lives.

“I’d love to see that continue,” Eli said. “I’d also really love to see more culture club collaborations. I think that was really the highlight of this year.”

For both seniors, the work has shown how service can help students feel more connected to one another. Through the Student Service Committee, Eli and Ian have helped their peers see service not only as something to complete, but as something they can take part in, shape, and continue.