This year students built a tree out of recycled cardboard and paper scraps to help raise awareness about paper use in studio 2. The sustainability committee has been collecting information about the school’s use of paper and this was a project to help tally the paper use in our lower school studio. The students have also been recycling their paper towels and we plan on using them to make paper. Each student will have an opportunity to be involved in this process of reuse. The lower school art program does a variety of community service projects within the curriculum. The second grade has been part of a shoe drive with the middle school art program for Soles4Souls. The fourth grade works on a micro finance project and studies the art of creating alpanas in a story written by Mitali Perkins called “Rickshaw Girl.” Every winter we participate in an all school project decorating bags for an organization called God’s Love We Deliver. The bags are delivered with food to people whom are homebound. Additionally, last year many of us experienced Hurricane Sandy and our students made drawings about peace that were part of a book bag project that was donated to students in Staten Island. Friend Seminary believes that caring and support in all parts of the school curriculum helps teach a student how to create a world that ought to be.