Community Outreach

Community Outreach and Service has been a Hallmark of CIS since the School's Inception

We recognise that we have an important part to play in the wider world, and that we are in a unique position to be able to give something back to the community in which we live, and to communities that lay beyond the boundaries of Singapore. Community outreach projects at CIS are cooperative partnerships between the school and communities in need, and provide students with a wider perspective of their individual responsibilities to society.

As part of our transdisciplinary curriculum, community outreach plays an important part in fostering the IB learner profile traits. Engaging students in community service projects is a wonderful way of encouraging our students to be principled, caring and open minded. Additionally, outreach and service activities encourage empathy and understanding, and result in the development of responsible and well-balanced global citizens.

Community outreach initiatives at CIS can be school division specific or can span the entire school and provide older students with opportunities to act as role models and mentors to their younger peers. Through outreach and service activities, students further develop essential life skills in the areas of communication, teamwork and leadership.

Student volunteer activities in the local community include volunteering at the Fairlight Aged Home in Singapore, volunteering at Riding for the Disabled, and participating in the Terry Fox inspired Run for Cancer.

Each year, groups of High School students in the IB DP travel to Cambodia to build houses and to undertake various service projects for the Cambodian community. CIS also supports the Maryknoll AIDS Hospice in Phnom Penh, the NHCC (New Hope for Cambodia Childrens Orphanage), and the People’s Improvement Organisation, who sponsors 3 schools at the city dump. 

In Ladakh (India), students have been supporting the dental and reforestation programmes initiated by Bill Kite at the Lamdon School. Over the years, CIS students have demonstrated how to brush teeth, donated toothbrushes and toothpaste, and planted trees for the community of Lamdon School. Other student groups have visited a village on Bintan, Indonesia and worked with orphans to improve their facilities. 

Many other outreach initiatives occur throughout the school year and are often a student-driven compassionate response to regional or global disasters.

“My experience at CIS taught me to communicate with other cultures, which is now a vital part of my role in the hospitality industry.”

Steve Moine (CIS Alum)