Community Engagement

The part of Veritas’ mission to prepare students for lives of both service and learning, has adopted the core value of intentional engagement as one of the driving factors to bring that mission into fruition. Though many things can be included as part of pursuing intentional engagement - including the Cultural Expeditions Program and experiential learning with field trips and other educational experiences - one of the biggest portions of this core value is instilling a heart of service within our students. This is done with intentionality engaging our students with our broader community to be the hands and feet of Christ to the world around them.

Scripture exhorts the people of God to think of the needs of others. In Philippians 2:3-7, the Apostle Paul encourages us to, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (ESV)

Having Christ as the example, His followers are to put into practice the very mindset of humility - putting the needs of others before their own. This is the very heart that Veritas is desiring to instill as part of the educational experience of its students.

Veritas has already participated in many service projects for the 2022-2023 Academic Year with the hopes of adding other local partnerships going into the future. These include giving food to the underprivileged community of Houston, encouraging the active duty service members in our nation’s armed forces deployed across the globe, providing blankets to veterans in Boston and New England, and giving much needed winter clothes to the underprivileged population of San Antonio. Service projects range from school-wide initiatives which included a food drive in conjunction

with the Houston Food Bank. This particular project was spearheaded by Mrs. McDaniels and the Fine Arts Department, and incorporated families bringing non-perishable food items as the “price” of their admission to the varying Christmas Productions and Concerts. During Christmas, a school-wide project with Stockings for Heroes, provided an opportunity for our students to support and encourage our active duty service members who are deployed around the world by creating stockings filled with gifts, cards, and goodies. Another aspect of intentional engagement incorporated service opportunities during the CEP Trips. Veritas middle school students created care packages and made encouraging cards for the underprivileged community in Boston and San Antonio. In Boston, seventh-grade students made encouraging cards for residents of The New England Center and Home for Veterans and gave them with much needed blankets. In San Antonio, partnership with CAM (Christian Assistance Ministries) continued as fifth-grade students also made encouraging cards in conjunction with giving beanies for the clients of CAM. They also received a tour of the warehouse facility from Volunteer Manager, Mary Henderson, where she gave the students insight on the purpose and creation of CAM, and gave them a view into the lives of the various clients that they service, including the homeless population of San Antonio.

Veritas continues to look for opportunities for our students to engage with the community at large, including potential ministry opportunities and partnerships. Ultimately, above all things, the goal for Veritas students is to impart a heart for others which builds empathy and care for people within the community and throughout the world. The hope for students who are a part of the Veritas community is to walk out the Great Commission and to become the salt and light that Jesus desires for His followers.