In theory, managing St. Agnes’ community service program was simple: students submitted a form at the end of each service activity, the advisor signed off, stored it in a three-ring binder and manually recorded the hours in a log book tracking every student’s efforts. One teacher was assigned to manage each class, either the freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. But as student hours accumulated, so too did the width of the log book and burden each teacher carried. There are over 350 students at St. Agnes. With 100 students per class, one teacher could be monitoring 3,000 hours or more per year.
Sixteen-year veteran teacher, Mary Miller, sums up how x2VOL eliminated the paperwork hassle. “Paper submission and management was a nightmare!” Students had to get a form at school and sometimes they would forget to take it to the charitable organization. That simple misstep meant students couldn’t recall everything they had done and couldn’t adequately write about their efforts. Once the form was submitted (either on time or late), teachers had to approve each form by hand and record it on the log sheet.
