x2VOL Blog: Tracking Service Hours at your School

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

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.

Service Programs vary in many ways. Many public schools and districts recognize students for their service to the community during graduation. Many private schools require service each semester or each year. Although they vary, there are service program challenges that every school faces at one time or another.

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.

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. 

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.