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Guilford County Schools will use a $15,000 grant from American Express for its new Project SERVICE (Students Experiencing Real Value in Community Effort ) at Northeast Middle School.

The program, part of the school system’s student services division and character education initiative, will be an extension of a federal grant for character education at Northeast and five other middle schools.

American Express will also send volunteers to work with Northeast Middle teachers, staff, students and parents on projects on and off campus.

“We are excited because this promotes leadership for students and community involvement, and it fosters good civic responsibility,” said Gwen Willis , interim chief student services officer . “Our goal is to develop this as a pilot model for other schools.”

Northeast Middle principal Johncarlos Miller is thrilled his school was chosen.

“It’s right in line with what we’ve been pushing in our character education initiative — there’s other people in our world outside of ourselves,” he said. “This is a chance to pu t what we’ve been learning into action.”

Sonya Conway , director of public affairs and communication at American Express , said partnering with the schools is a win-win situation.

“We were attracted to this project because it encourages and instills the importance of community service in children at a young age, and it gives community members and American Express employees the opportunity to give back,” Conway said.

The program will begin at the start of the school year with training for teachers and counselors on how to integrate service learning into the curriculum. Project SERVICE will be part of the social studies curriculum for sixth through eighth grades. Sixth and seventh graders will do two school-based projects, and eighth graders will do two off-campus projects.

Northeast staff, students and parents will work together to choose projects to tackle. Examples include organizing a health fair, gathering food for the homeless, planting trees for beautification and working with local parks on conservation issues, Willis said.

“We really want the school to have the opportunity to select the projects based on needs participants and leaders identified in their own community,” Willis said.

Students will complete a portfolio highlighting their involvement in the projects.

“Our goal is to play an active role in bettering our community,” Miller said. “My hope is that the spirit of service learning is so infectious, it takes root in this entire community.”

Contact Jennifer Atkins Brown at 574-5582 or jennifer.brown @news-record.com.