School Life

Saints in Service

Since our founding by The Rev. Dr. Chamberlayne in 1911, the School has held the service of God and fellow human beings as the highest achievement of any man.  As a school whose mission is to empower boys to make a positive impact as leaders in a rapidly changing world, the practice of transformative service of God and neighbor is integral to our program. 

The purpose of the St. Christopher's Community Service Program is to:

  • Encourage boys to interact with people and places of significant need in meaningful ways
  • Facilitate transformative relationships across lines of difference
  • Help boys grow in comfort with and compassion towards different kinds of people and places
  • Graduate boys who are comfortable responding to others' needs while also concerning themselves with remedying the root causes of such needs

We have a number of community partners and vetted organizations that work especially well with our students.  A current list is maintained on our community service webpage.  If they need guidance, students can ask advisors, teachers, coaches, or the community service coordinator (the Rev. John Ohmer, Upper School Chaplain).  Additional opportunities are announced in chapel throughout the school year.  

Please log community service hours in MobileServe soon after volunteering, as details are easily forgotten. Please contact the community service coordinator (Rev. Ohmer) with questions or program suggestions: ohmerj@stcva.org.

Community Involvement

List of 3 items.

  • Saturday Academy

    St. Christopher’s Saturday Academy, a program of weekend fellowship with third, fourth and fifth graders from public schools around the Richmond vicinity, runs through the school year. It includes one-on-one tutoring, academic enrichment, board games, athletics and lunch.

    More than a dozen Upper School students from St. Christopher’s and St. Catherine’s volunteer their time to take part in this program.

    For more information, please contact Director Christie Wilson at wilsonc@stcva.org or 804.282.3185 ext.2626.

  • City Saints

    Founded by St. Christopher’s in 2002, City Saints brings together boys from around the city of Richmond to the St. Christopher’s campus every July for targeted summer enrichment and academic opportunities. City Saints focuses on supporting some of the city’s most underserved youth through academic, emotional, and social enrichment in a classroom setting. City Saints students have the opportunity to learn about other cultures, swim, perform science experiments, play sports, write creative stories, engage in math and word games, and enjoy two weeks making friends and having fun! The program brings to the St. Christopher’s campus approximately 35 rising third through fifth-grade students from Richmond’s east end and south side. The participants are chosen by their school counselors, and the program is fully subsidized and staffed by current St. Christopher’s faculty and students. The parents of participating students report remarkable improvements in the achievement level, behavior, and enthusiasm toward school in their children following the program.

    For more information, please contact Director Peter Cross at crossp@stcva.org or 804.282.3185 ext.3617

  • University of Virginia Reading Program

    St. Christopher’s School, The Peter Paul Development Center, and University of Virginia's Curry School of Education graduate program share a unique partnership model. Their partnership supports struggling readers and trains future reading specialists in their craft. The three partner organizations join together every summer in July to support the literacy development of our youth in the Richmond community. The young students from Peter Paul Development Center continue to learn during the summer with individual intervention and remediation in a fun, nurturing environment. The graduate students are immersed in a supervised clinical setting to build expertise, confidence, and competence as reading specialists. This special partnership promotes literacy, fosters collegiality, builds relationships, and nurtures understanding for all involved.

    For more information, please contact Director Glorietta Jones at jonesg@stcva.org or 804.282.3185 ext.2648

Recent News

Lower School Service Learning

The new service-learning model will better prepare our boys to recognize real needs within the community and respond with creativity and compassion. Our service-learning model will more intentionally connect projects to each grade level’s curriculum. For example, the first graders will support an animal welfare group while second graders will work with the elderly residents of Little Sisters of the Poor. The goal is to increase the capacity for empathy while teaching the practice of reflection and laying a foundation for a lifelong commitment to service.
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