How to Write an A+ Reflection and Why it’s Important

Students! Community service is an important part of your high school career. Through service you have the opportunity to build character, make an impact in your community and develop a resume of volunteer experience you can utilize in your college applications.

After volunteering and completing service, you can reflect on the experience. Reflection is an important part of the process because this fosters a deeper understanding of the importance of serving and encourages personal growth. Learn more about How Reflections Play a Role in Student Development and Service Learning.

Best practices for writing a reflection:

• Quality is Key: Make sure your reflection is well thought out.
• Focus on the details: Elaborate on your experience, diving deeper into the meaning of service.
• Use correct grammar: No spelling errors and correct formatting.
• Leverage your reflections on the Official Service Transcript™.

A Quality Reflection

What does an A+ reflection look like? In reflections, quality is key. Writing a reflection that is well thought out with correct grammar and spelling is vital to impressing your teachers, school administrators or the college admissions officers that will be reading these.

Take a look at these examples of basic and advanced reflections.

Basic reflection: "At the animal shelter I learned that caring for animals is important and that it takes a lot of hard work."

Advanced reflection: "While volunteering at the animal shelter, I was able to develop a deeper appreciation for the individuals that work with these animals every day. While being able to play with puppies and cuddle with kittens is fun, there is a lot of physical and mental work that goes into caring for animals."

Basic reflection: "i volunteered at the soup kitchen and I learned it’s important to help people because other people are less fortunate."

Advanced reflection: "Volunteering at my local soup kitchen gave me the opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes for the day. Getting to know the people there made me realize how fortunate I am and that I have an opportunity to serve others."

Notice, the basic reflections included grammatical errors and minimal detail. The advanced reflections dove deeper into what the student gained from the experience and contained no grammatical errors.

The Official Service Transcript™

This reflection process gives you the opportunity to share your opinions, your thoughts and experiences. College admission officers look for students who can reflect on their experiences, showing their maturity and the ability to learn and grow from challenges. This is why the reflections that you write in x2VOL are included on the Official Service Transcript™ – an official document that can be sent to college admissions officers to showcase service experience.

Learn more about the Impact of Community Service on College Acceptance!

The majority of college admissions officers state that service reflections are an important factor in deciding who gets admitted to the university.  Don't miss out on a chance to impress universities! The Official Service Transcript™ gives universities the opportunity to gain a deeper sense of who you are by hearing, in your own voice, what serving means for you. 

Use x2VOL to showcase your service experience and leverage those A+ reflections to help you get into your dream university.