From building innovative solar notebooks to collecting hygiene kits for homeless youth, PHS students will be engaging in various, constructive service learning projects on May 20.

While all of the projects differ, each grade level sticks to a certain theme every year: freshmen focus on the environmental concerns, sophomores combat discrimination, juniors concentrate on poverty and the seniors on economic disparity.

The freshmen will be working on what physics teacher Marna Chamberlain calls a “solar notebook”: a plastic binder with two solar panels that allow for the charging of any electronic device through a USB cable.

“I came across the solar notebooks and it was a lot more affordable than [last year’s solar ovens],” Chamberlain said. “Not only that, but it can also be built in about an hour, so the kids who don’t have me for physics can learn about wiring and what goes into the process of solar energy.”

Another thing that Chamberlain liked about the notebooks was that she was able to find a good home for them on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

“Both of the reservations are very remote, and neither of them have a reliable power supply,” Chamberlain said. “The Pine Ridge is actually one of the poorest places in the Western Hemisphere.”

The reservations spend their limited government funding on fuel for frigid winters.

“They seemed to be really enthusiastic, and told us that the notebooks would be used on a daily basis,” Chamberlain said.

The sophomores, who are continuing with their theme of discrimination, will be attending a series of workshops, along with the PSA film festival.

“They are really focusing on the aspect of community building,” said history teacher and service learning coordinator Courtney Goen.

Students will also be visited by speakers from PUSD, who will share their personal experiences with adversity and how they were able to overcome it.

For the juniors, combating poverty will hopefully be achieved through their partnership with multiple local organizations who focus on homeless youth.

They are currently holding drives for hygiene kits and gently used clothing to deliver to homeless teens.

“One organization is called ‘Yeah’  [Youth Engagement Advocacy and Housing],” librarian and eleventh grade coordinator Susan Stutzman said. “They work with homeless youth in Berkeley and help ease their transition into adulthood.”

The other organization that they are partnering with is 1 Closet, which has delivered gently used clothing to over 8000 teens living in foster care and homeless shelters.

“As teenagers, we are very self-conscious about how we present ourselves to others,” Goen said. “We want to make sure that the luxury of taking a shower everyday, and not wearing the same clothes two days in a row is offered to them as well.”

Seniors will have a more adventurous experience this year, venturing off campus and working with different programs related to economic disparity.

Through a survey conducted on last year’s senior class, faculty found that students prefer to work directly in their community as opposed to staying on campus.

“Not only do students like the freedom that they get, but they like the fact that they can see results right away,” Stutzman said. “It’s a privilege that they really seem to value.”

An especially interesting organization the seniors will be working with is called the Homeless Homes Project, where people volunteer to help turn discarded materials into small mobile shelters for the homeless in Oakland.

Others include Lake Merritt Institute, which helps maintain a clean lake; St. Vincent de Paul, which provides necessities for the homeless; Rebuilding Together Oakland, which rejuvenates underprivileged neighborhoods and finally a company called MedShare that sends medical supplies abroad to impoverished countries.

Another organization students will get help with is called We Are Piedmont.

“It’s working with PHS and PADC, to try and highlight some of the different ethnic, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds that make up our community,” said project student leader and senior Claire Altieri. “We are going to hang 22 portraits in City Hall of different individuals.”

Altieri, along with her other student leaders, hopes to combat stereotypes about Piedmont and create awareness for the diversity that is often overlooked by both outsiders and community members.

“One of our main goals as a community is that by the time you graduate PHS, you are a well versed and knowledgeable citizen,” Goen said. “In Piedmont, as almost everyone knows, we live in a bubble and these projects really address the need for us to step out of it.”