Service Learning

Making a Difference

The Service Learning Program at Milken Community School is built upon the concepts of tikkun olam and tikkun atzmi – repairing the world and becoming one’s best self and follows a cycle of learning, action, and reflection. Service Learning at Milken seeks to raise student awareness of local and global issues, engage students in direct problem solving and relationship building to address these issues, and develop graduates with a lifelong practice of engagement, service, and reflection. Our expert Service Learning faculty combine hands-on service opportunities with Torah study and personal reflection to create positive experiences that impact our students and strengthen the fabric of Los Angeles.

Our Middle School Service Learning program, Kulam, provides space for students to explore Jewish values and to become problem-solvers for our local and global communities. Milken students engage in both on-campus and off-campus direct service opportunities, embracing their role as social action advocates empowered to make an impact at home and abroad.

At the Upper School, the Service Learning advances the Jewish mandate of tikkun olam (repairing the world). Students identify areas of interest early in their Upper School careers and demonstrate active involvement in giving back to the community throughout. In addition, Upper School students must earn community service hours through Service Learning each year.

Yozma

Yozma (“initiative” in Hebrew) is Milken’s Upper School social action leadership initiative. Through a leadership-based curriculum and lenses of Torah, students work collaboratively to envision, plan and teach – and to turn ideas into action. Yozma participants culminate the year at the Yozma Siyyum where they can display various projects and initiatives they have worked on during the year.

Beit Midrash Fellowship

One of Milken's Signature Program with a service learning component, the Beit Midrash Fellowship is an advanced, innovative Jewish studies program that integrates high-level text learning, social action, leadership, community-building and celebration.

Global Beit Midrash Social Action

The heart of the Global Beit Midrash is a student-centered digital, global, collaborative, project-based initiative, with four corners: narrative, text, culture, and social action. As part of our Service Learning program, Milken students address common social action issues including how their communities engage poverty, hunger, homelessness, and the elderly. They design, facilitate, and fine-tune social action projects, teaching these skills to fellow students in the global program as they go. Learn more at www.globalbeitmidrash.com.