A Conversation with Dr. Bob Troy

The longtime Upper School Science teacher and Doug’s Trip coordinator has been tapped to be St. Anne’s-Belfield’s first director of civic engagement.

Can you tell us more about this Civic Engagement Initiative?

The Civic Engagement Initiative is going to connect us with the broader community more deeply. We had various elements of community service and service learning pre-COVID. Perhaps the biggest and longest running was Doug’s Trip, which took the ninth grade class away from Charlottesville to do service work. It was very meaningful, but it wasn’t in the community we live in. So one of the ways I’m thinking about this initiative is to have that kind of experience and reciprocal partnerships with organizations in Charlottesville.

What is your vision for this initiative?

I’d like to improve the way others in the Charlottesville community connect with us. To prove that we really belong, and are a reliable partner, will require us to be part of their lives, be part of their work. In doing that, we will also establish a program that, if I in this role at the School, or a key person in the partner organization were to depart, it wouldn’t upend our work. It’s going to take multiple years, but we’ll know we’re successful when we have organizations calling us to ask if we can partner with them.

What might this look like in a Pre-School to Grade 12 school?

With younger students, we try to build community awareness first. If they walk any of the trails in the Charlottesville/ Albemarle area, for example, we help them start to realize that there are folks and organizations that serve to keep those areas clean, and give our kids an opportunity to participate.

The Blue Ridge Area Food Bank is another example. Students may start with a food drive. As they get older, we begin to ask questions like, “Why is there food insecurity? Can we possibly grow some fresh produce on our own campus to donate?” Building on this, students start to volunteer with an organization in a consistent way, and hopefully very naturally move into roles where they can be trusted to take care of certain tasks and coordinate that work within that organization.

My real hope, and another element of success, will be that our graduates bring others with them into efforts like this. They seek out service organizations at their universities. They carry this civic engagement ethos with them at their next stage of education and into their adult lives.

Why civic engagement, and why now?

Everything’s connected. Everything. And as a school, we have a motivation to make sure that our connection with our community is as productive and robust as it can be. We want our graduates to recognize that whatever community they’re in, there are things they can do beyond their schoolwork, their teamwork, their club work, and their professional work to make their community have the strengths that it has. Charlottesville’s a wonderful town for education, history, and culture to teach these elements.