PCSC's Parent Testimonials!
Read below about the opinions of involved PCSC parents to understand what your child can gain as a member of PCSC! Scroll down, or click here, for alumni testimonials!
Eric Bentley, January 2020
Piedmont Community Service Crew provides an environment and structure that fosters multiple areas of growth through direct experience. The youth leadership oriented structure allows participants to learn how to work, manage conflict and lead within a diverse peer group while giving the latitude in a safe adult-supervised environment to experience the failures and successes that are so critical to growth and learning. The students get more out of the experience as they put in more time and effort. Participants well to further develop their awareness, skills and capabilities for future applications in their lives.
father of Bridget Bentley, PHS Class of 2021
2018-2019 PCSC Co-VP Fundraising
2019-2020 PCSC VP Administration
2020 RTO Co House Captain
Keiko Hayashi, January 2020
Piedmont Community Service Crew is a priority in our son and daughter's lives. Ever since our son enrolled as a freshman crew member three years ago, his commitment to community service and leadership has catapulted and solidified in ways that we never imagined! Preparing and serving food to the underserved grew quickly into his desire to not only lead events but also take on executive leadership roles. Our daughter also got deeply involved in PCSC. Their participation has fostered social, organizational and public speaking skills which as a result has boosted their self confidence, driving them to participate even more actively. The group of friends they have made through PCSC is nothing short of positive and supportive, and together, they have accomplished so much towards contributing to our community at large!
mother of Toshi and Aya Troyer, PHS Class of 2021
Toshi: 2018 - 2019 PCSC Co-VP Fundraising
2019 - 2020 PCSC VP Parent Engagement
Aya: PCSC Videographer:
2 RTO House Project Videos
Chris Stuetz Memorial Video
Sandra Parker, February 2020
I have watched PCSC foster growth in leadership and in life skills in the members I have worked with and in my own daughter. My daughter joined as PCSC as a freshman and her work with PCSC has expanded through her high school years. Crew members learn to organize events, manage budgets and purchase and prepare food for their own groups and for external projects, all of which are student-led. PCSC members engage in construction projects and in tutoring and have a few regular events which feed the homeless. The range of opportunities and events to participate in translate into growth opportunities beyond the usual high school experience, I hope you will consider supporting your child's involvement in PCSC.
mother of Eleanor Hoffpauir, PHS Class of 2021
2018-2019 PCSC VP Accounting
2019-2020 PCSC VP Communication
2020 Website Creator & Manager (this one!!)
Jen Cavenaugh, December 2020
My name is Joshua Rogers [PHS ‘18], I served as PCSC’s VP of Fundraising, VP of Program, and President during my time at Piedmont High School. I joined PCSC my Freshman year of high school after an injury that left me with a surplus of time, which I chose to spend on bettering my community. This was one of the best decisions of my high school career.
PCSC offers students an opportunity to grow and learn in a way that is unparalleled by most clubs and extracurriculars in the Bay Area. During four years in PCSC I was not only able to learn and experience, but also teach and mentor people on management, fundraising, finance, public speaking, and general leadership skills all while doing activities that I love and making a difference in my community.
Aside from the plethora of life and professional skills PCSC gave me, it also introduced me to a lot of new friends that I would never have become close to. The amazing thing that I have found about service is the amount of people it brings together. Political ideologies, social status and economic classes tend to fade away when one is working with someone who shares the same values of helping those around them.
PHS Parent
PCSC's Alumni Testimonials
Read below about the opinions of involved PCSC members to understand what your child can gain as a member of PCSC! Scroll up, or click here, for parent testimonials!
Maya Guzdar, February 2020
I joined PCSC as a freshman believing it to be nothing more than an opportunity for service—an outlet for getting out of Piedmont to clean up trash at a park or chop some onions at a local soup kitchen. While I spent many hours tearfully chopping onions at soup kitchens during my time in PCSC, through my four years as a member, I came to understand that PCSC is about s0 much more than just service—PCSC teaches members how to become leaders. Today, I credit PCSC to everything I know about leadership, organization, commitment, and teamwork.
After a freshman year of attending events and shyly sitting in the corner during monthly meetings, I became the assistant to the VP of Administration. I helped create a system to get members renewed, learned how to speak up during meetings, and discovered the rewarding feeling of seeing plans put into action.
The next year, I became a youth leader for PCSC’s annual “RTO” project, in which PCSC partners with the NGO Rebuilding Together Oakland to renovate a low-income/veteran/elderly Oakland homeowner’s house. The experience was transformative—I worked for months with older students and adults to plan our two workdays. I learned how to organize groups, how to work toward a goal, and also about the power of empathy, and taking the time to learn about someone else’s life.
Through PCSC, not only did I learn leadership skills, but I made life-long friends—relationships I never would have formed otherwise. Singing carols at tree-lot, staying late gossiping after monthly meetings to eat snacks, having philosophical talks at the tops of ladders while painting at RTO; these memories are some of the best from high school.
PCSC changed my life. PCSC gave me best friends, internships, hilarious stories, mentors, a deeper understanding of the world around me, and a clearer sense of my purpose and what we can all do to make a difference.
PCSC has something for everyone. Whether you want to lead, you want to serve, find a community (or all three), I urge you to join, or just go to an event, talk to some members, and try something new.
PHS Class of 2018
2017-2018 PCSC President
Stanford University Class of 2022
Joshua Rogers, February 2020
My name is Joshua Rogers [PHS ‘18], I served as PCSC’s VP of Fundraising, VP of Program, and President during my time at Piedmont High School. I joined PCSC my Freshman year of high school after an injury that left me with a surplus of time, which I chose to spend on bettering my community. This was one of the best decisions of my high school career.
PCSC offers students an opportunity to grow and learn in a way that is unparalleled by most clubs and extracurriculars in the Bay Area. During four years in PCSC I was not only able to learn and experience, but also teach and mentor people on management, fundraising, finance, public speaking, and general leadership skills all while doing activities that I love and making a difference in my community.
Aside from the plethora of life and professional skills PCSC gave me, it also introduced me to a lot of new friends that I would never have become close to. The amazing thing that I have found about service is the amount of people it brings together. Political ideologies, social status and economic classes tend to fade away when one is working with someone who shares the same values of helping those around them.
Joshua Rogers, February 2020
PHS Class of 2019
2018-2019 PCSC President
Princeton University Class of 2024
