Hendersonville High's annual Symposium helps students give back to the community
This year's theme of the week-long Hendersonville High School's annual Symposium, put on by the Social Studies Department, is "Serve Community," and that's exactly what the students will be doing on Friday, Oct. 21 as they branch out across the county to be of service to local non-profits.
The Symposium started in the early 1990s, according to Hendersonville High Principal Bobby Wilkins, and it's something that always allows the students to give back to their community, he said.
"It's always something good for the kids, and this year is another great example," he said on Wednesday, Oct. 19. "It's not only for the students, it's for the community. We don't get to do that a lot, so we enjoy it when we get to."
Wednesday was the third day of the Symposium and featured 20 non-profit organizations in the new Event Room at Hendersonville High. Representatives from each organization had small booths set up, and students went to each booth to learn about the organizations.
Hendersonville High Social Studies teacher and city council member Jerry Smith is the director of the event and said it's something students look forward to every year.
"Today's activity is the Volunteer Fair," he said on Wednesday. "As you can see around the room, we have 20 different volunteer organizations that came here today to talk to the kids about their organizations and teach them about the services they provide."
All of the students were given a "scavenger hunt" checklist, where they would go around to each organization and find out information needed to complete the worksheet.
"Each class period has about 100 kids to come through. So, all the kids in the high school will make it through today," Smith said. "Also, this is the first time we've held an event like this in this new event space. It's an awesome space, and we're very proud to be in here today. The volunteer organizations here today are awesome, because they are doing a really great job in engaging the kids."
One of the booths was being worked by one of Hendersonville High's own — sophomore Shayna Robinson. She helps with an organization called ENGin.
"It's an online program where you sign up and you are paired with someone from Ukraine, and you teach English to them one hour a week online," she said. "The response here has been pretty good. We've got some people signed up who are interested in it. I hope we get more volunteers for it."
The Symposium continued Thursday with students talking with local nonprofits that fight hunger in Henderson County. The final day (Friday, Oct. 21) had students out in the community, putting all they had learned into action, Smith said.
"For Friday, we have our Day of Service," he said. "We are very excited. We have 48 different volunteer activities that our kids are going to be involved in. We are sending kids to almost every elementary school in the county. We are sending kids to the city of Hendersonville, to the fire department, to the police department. We are sending kids to Council on Aging, to Team ECCO Aquarium... to all kinds of places to volunteer for an hour and a half.
"The culminating event is after lunch on Friday, the kids and the teachers will scatter throughout the county and get a chance to serve. We are excited that we're getting to learn about serving and then to go out and actually do it. It's going to be a really fun day."
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Hendersonville High's Symposium helps students give back to community
