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So, your student has an x2VOL account. Do not be stressed; it’s a good thing.
At its simplest, x2VOL helps keep track of your student’s volunteer hours. When they need to apply for a job or college, they can refer back to their account where their hours have been diligently noted.
What does a student do on x2VOL exactly?
- Search for local volunteer opportunities
- Record service hours
- Receive approval/denial of service hours by school administrator
- Print service transcript
Topics: volunteering, service tracking
One of the requirements of National Honor Society is recording a certain number of service hours. Tracking this by paper is quite cumbersome - especially for the NHS sponsors who are tasked with reporting these hours on a regular basis. Why not convert to a digital process? With x2VOL, an NHS sponsor can set up goals for the club, post opportunitites for club members, and have easy access to service hour reports!
As a high school student, you are becoming adept at building relationships. This is an imperative skill to help you succeed in the “real world.” Something that you’ve probably figured out by now is that building relationships looks different in every scenario. There are some commonalities though between groups of people. You wouldn’t invite your teacher to go to the movies, just like you wouldn’t interrupt a heartfelt speech from a friend. There are unspoken Do’s and Don’ts for building relationships. Here at x2VOL, our realm is community service. We feel like we have valuable advice about building relationships with nonprofit organizations, and we would like to share them with you.
Before we begin, you might be thinking: Why do I need to build a relationship with a nonprofit? Usually when you volunteer, you will choose to do something you’re passionate about or maybe something you are considering for a career. People at nonprofit organizations are very knowledgeable about their cause and will have advice and valuable insight to offer you.
When looking for a place to volunteer, a student is probably interested in something familiar. While there is value in serving at the same place for a long period of time, it is also important for students to diversify their volunteer experiences.
The scholarship search can be challenging for students. We hope the following sites will help students with a place to start. Each site is structured differently and allows students to search based on a variety of criteria. Please share the sites below with high school students!
Fastweb members are matched to relevant scholarship opportunities completely free of charge. With roughly 1.5 million scholarships worth more than $3.4 billion, there are scholarships for every student’s educational goals, activities and interests. Members also get insider financial aid tips, advice on high school and college life, as well as job and internship matches in their area.
Diversity is something we value. At its core, diverse means different than what we know. The familiar becomes mundane. Introducing diversity spices things up, creates a change of pace, and teaches us how to adapt. We want our students to experience diversity because our world is diverse. We want to grow adept individuals who succeed in whatever environment they encounter.
Is there an app for that? It is hard to find something these days that there isn't an app for. However, when it comes to tracking community service, most institutions are still using good ol' fashion paper and pencil. It's time for the service tracking norm to be up to speed with 21st Century iniatives --Let's get digital!
After a student completes a service project, he or she should be encouraged to write about the experience. The reflection doesn’t need to be lengthy; it just needs to be an honest reflection of the student’s feelings and evaluation of the experience.
The goal here is for the student to spend a couple of extra minutes thinking about what the service meant and what was learned from the experience. By doing this, students see the deeper value of service; they learn it is more than just something to check off the list and experience meaningful personal growth.
Whether students are tracking service, internships, or work-based learning hours, they should write a reflection about their experience. This step is crucial in gaining deeper understanding from their experiences and can be leveraged on college and scholarship applications.
One of the most prominent challenge students face today when headed to college is paying for tuition. However, there is a plethora of scholarships and awards available for students.
Students who are involved in community service should check out the scholarship and award opportunities below. If you’re a student, we encourage you to apply today! If you're a school administrator or family member of a high school or college student please share the opportunities listed.
