How A 10th Grade Class Planned and Ran Its Own Service Project

This article was written by Amy Van Pelt, School Counselor at Imagine Schools at North Port in Sarasota County, Florida. Amy has been at Imagine since the school opened in 2008, teaching elementary math, science, and STEM before serving two years as Middle School Counselor and the last five as High School Counselor. 

This is our second year working with The Positivity Project (P2) at Imagine Schools at North Port. In December 2025, students in Josh Santoro’s 10th grade P2 class took on a service project they came up with themselves. As he described it:

During this time of giving, they wanted to give one of the most valuable things a person can offer: their time and services. They saw a big need to clean up the campus inside and out, mainly outside. They coordinated and put together a Litter Pluck. Not only did they make the place look better, they actually had a great time doing it.

How Students Chose the Project

The students broke into three groups of five, and each group came up with a service project idea. Each group presented its project to the class, and then the class voted on which one to carry out.

The “Litter Pluck” won, and from that point forward the students ran it. Letting the class choose gave the students a real sense of ownership, which translated into more excitement and better execution later on.

Students Ran the Whole Thing

After picking the project, the students set up the entire service learning project themselves. They emailed administration for permission and laid out their plans. They contacted the maintenance team for equipment, including bags, gloves, reflective jackets, and pickers. They organized teams, assigned job duties, and arranged for garbage disposal.

For a class of high school students, this was a real project management exercise. Students handled every step that would normally be handled by an adult.

Character Strengths in Practice

Students practiced a range of P2 character strengths through this project, including teamwork, leadership, integrity, humility, gratitude, and social intelligence. Our high school students work through the same 24 strengths as our younger students, but they apply their learning to what high school students actually encounter.

Teamwork and leadership showed up in how they divided the work and assigned roles. Gratitude and humility showed up in what they understood afterward.

What Happened on Campus

It was a complete success. Staff and students saw all the garbage that had been picked up, and the students were thanked for their time and effort.

The event made it to a staff meeting, where staff showed their appreciation with applause and kind words. That project also started the ball rolling on other P2 classes wanting to run a service project of their own.

The Reflection Afterward

Reflection was a major point of the service project. The students put together an entire slideshow documenting their experience, and they were surprised by how much fun they had doing the work.

Two things stood out. The first was the sense of value students got from seeing the difference their project made. The second was quieter. Students who normally did not socialize much were talking throughout the entire class.

Understanding the People Who Do This Work

The biggest change was in how students understood the people who clean up after others.

They came away with a better sense of what people who work in the public sector deal with, especially those whose job is picking up after other people. They reflected on how their own parents feel having to pick up after their kids. They reflected on our custodial staff and what they go through every day cleaning up after students.

That was a complete breakthrough in their understanding of the Other People Mindset (OPM). Reading about a character strength in class is one thing. Spending an afternoon doing the work someone else does every day is another. This is the kind of lesson that stays with a student longer than a slide on a screen does, and our school hopes to replicate many more.