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The World Needs Progress
You Need Power
Our Program
Changemakers
Live Oak students make an impact in actions both bold and quiet. We take seriously our commitment to encourage our students to think of themselves as changemakers.
We strive to prepare our students to go out in the world and actively effect change in their local communities, in their cities, their states, and the world as a whole.
A Live Oak education centers on the belief that understanding the world around you fosters a broader awareness of one's power to influence positive change. Our students challenge the way "things have always been done" and dare to let their passions show a unique way forward.
We strive to prepare our students to go out in the world and actively effect change in their local communities, in their cities, their states, and the world as a whole.
A Live Oak education centers on the belief that understanding the world around you fosters a broader awareness of one's power to influence positive change. Our students challenge the way "things have always been done" and dare to let their passions show a unique way forward.
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Changemaker Program
The Changemaker Program is designed to formally integrate service learning into the K-8 curriculum, building agency among Live Oak students in identifying needs and ways they can contribute to positive change in their communities. Unique social justice themes are outlined for each grade level that inform curricular throughlines that help students combine historical learning of past changemakers, while helping them understand the ways their skills can be used to make a difference. Middle School students take the Social Impact Studio each year, which teaches them hands-on constructive skills in the ChangeMaker Lab that they can use to support their community action. In addition, Middle School students lead a variety of service projects that target sustainability and environmental issues around campus, the Potrero Hill neighborhood, and beyond. Finally, the program establishes consistent working partnerships with local organizations that present shared service learning opportunities and allow for important perspective-building experiences that inform future changemaking activity.
Some of the examples of the specific social justice throughlines that frame Middle School work in the Social Impact Studio:
6th Grade: How can I use my maker mindset to contribute to housing justice and community well-being?
7th grade: How can I use my maker mindset to promote peace and understanding between communities?
8th grade: How can I use my maker mindset to challenge systemic racism and promote equitable communities?
Family House
Live Oak’s partnership with Family House draws on both student and family engagement. Family House serves as a home away from home for families of children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Throughout the years, Live Oak volunteers have cooked and served dinner to the community on a monthly basis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, students and parents have supported Family House with Halloween costumes and packaging hospital snack bags.
Week of Service
In the week following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Live Oak students engage in their annual Week of Service. Each grade level identifies service projects they want to partake in on campus, around the Potrero Hill neighborhood, or around the City. The week brings students, families, and staff together in a unified mission to make a positive difference. In addition to performing service projects like cleaning up around Jackson Park, leading a coat drive, visiting a local eco center, or serving food at a local food bank, students learn about notable and historical changemakers that connect to their service projects.
Green Team
Live Oak's Green Team is a leadership group made up of middle school students who take the lead in planning and organizing environmentally-oriented events for the entire K-8 community. The Green Team spearheads park cleanups, research projects, school supply repurposing, community education, and much more. Their work culminates in a schoolwide Earth Day Celebration that includes the annual Bike and Roll to School Day and Green Initiative project presentations from K-8 with the goal of educating our community on how to be more green.
The Live Oak Alumni Changemaker Award is given yearly to an alum who models empathy and responsibility, demonstrates the capacity to create change in the community, and inspires action in others. In 2022, we honored our first Young Alumni Changemaker–a junior or senior in high school–recognizing that Live Oak students do not wait to make an impact in their communities. Most recently, we honored a pair of Young Alumni Changemakers from the Class of 2021: Justin Babler-Kuebler and Nala Urrutia.
2023 Alumni Changemaker
Brendan O'Callaghan '02
2025 Young Alumni Changemaker Award Recipients
Nala Urrutia '21
Justin Babler-Kuebler '21
Live Oak School welcomes and admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities of Live Oak School. Live Oak School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith in administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, Adjusted Tuition program, and athletic and other school-administered programs.