x2VOL Blog: Tracking Service Hours at your School

School campus closures and transitioning to distance learning haven't stopped the students of Newark Academy from serving their community in powerful ways this past semester.

There are a lot of service opportunities to take advantage of in your community and beyond. But for today's technology and online driven students, taking service online can be a great option.

Welcome Back to School! 

Classes are in session, students are memorizing their schedule and admins are getting organized for the year ahead of them. Which means, it’s the perfect time to set up your x2VOL account for success. There are a couple things you can do to ensure you are ready to start off the new school year on the right foot so your students can start logging hours:

x2VOL has received the CODiE Award for Best Social Emotional Learning Platform two years in a row. But what is Social Emotional Learning (SEL)?
Social Emotional Learning is the process by which individuals learn to understand and manage emotions in order to learn empathy, how to achieve goals, and how to relate to others among many other things.  

Participating in community service is more than just a chore or something to check off the list. It can be an extremely transformative experience for students, opening their eyes to a whole new world outside of their day-to-day bubble. 

Spring break is the perfect time of year to spend time serving in your community. Whether it's through a week-long service project or time spent volunteering at a local nonprofit, this is a great time to volunteer. 

Every year on September 11, individuals across the country step away from their normal day-to-day activities to volunteer in their communities on National Day of Service and Remembrance.

This day is an important one - it gives Americans the chance the remember those men and women that lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 attacks and honor those brave individuals that served in response to the attacks the day of and in the days, weeks, and years following. 

School is back!

Classes are in session, students are memorizing their schedule and admins are getting organized for the year ahead of them. Which means, it’s the perfect time to set up your x2VOL account for success. There are a couple things you can do to ensure you are ready to start off the new school year on the right foot so your students can start logging hours:

When logging and recording service hours served by students, it's vital for admins to have confidence that the hours were completed as stated, not falsified and ultimately accurate. Not only does acceptance into clubs and groups depend on students completing a specific number of hours, but, many times, it's a graduation requirement, a class grade and can impact scholarships as well as college admissions. 

It's a topic that is always discussed - preventing falsification of service hours. Paper forms and physical signatures make falsification tempting to many students in public and private schools. We'd like to believe that it's a rare occurrence but many service leaders know who they need to double check.