x2VOL Blog: Tracking Service Hours at your School

All too often, a school officials think that the number of service hours reported is an indication of a student's success in volunteer community programs. While this is part of the evaluation, it is far from complete. The experience has an impact on the student's growth as well as on the school and community. Transformation takes place. Things change. People change. And society is better for those changes. 

The impact each student has on the community needs to be captured through the observations and comments by the student, teacher, counselor, administrator, sponsor, parent, and any other person of interest in a community service project. This is the best way to measure its impact and total value. This is the information which will make a student stand out for college or scholarship recognition. 

Administrators, parents, and students need direct and quick access to the student's volunteer history. Volunteer history can be neatly tucked away in a binder, tucked away in cabinet, tucked away at the corner of the oom. Or, it can be out in the open, easily seen for all. We suggest the latter.

Students and parents need direct access to the student's service hours for several reasons. It can be used for scholarship applications and job applications. It enables parents to check on their child's progress and accountability.

It allows school adminstrators to provide follow-up and encouragement as well as find more diverse opportunities for the student. 

Let’s think like a student. 

When a student is looking for a book, he isn’t going to go the cafeteria- unless there’s such a thing as a libra-teria and your school has it (in which case… you probably can’t relate to this analogy). No, the student will go to the library to find the book he needs. Similarly, when the student looks for communtiy service, he needs to have a destination in mind.

Imagine a community where everyone is working together to serve. The community values serving others and finds importance in teaching their younger citizens this honorable habit.  This is the kind of community, Cassandra Shed- Director of YoungLife Southwest Dallas, hopes to build.  

There are Academic Transcripts. And there are Service Transcripts. They complement each other to give a holistic view of each student. Together, they describe the person, his or her strengths, interests, achievement, motivations, commitments, goals, and potential. They give a complete picture of the student as a highly qualified candidate for scholarship or college entrance.