x2VOL Blog: Tracking Service Hours at your School

When students participate in community service it expands their world-view and opens them up to ideas and opportunities they might not have experienced otherwise. They learn about the importance of helping others and have a chance to discover an area of focus for a potential future career.

It's so easy to get caught up in admin work and managing day-to-day activities that sometimes. spending time engaging with students can fall to the wayside. 

Talking with your students, seeing how they are doing, encouraging them in school and in service, are huge elements of a student's education. It can be easy to give students a community service requirement, but that process should be more than just checking a box. Students need to be engaged in community service - and that's where you come in. 

She might be a world famous pop star and actress. She has a partnership with Coach and the most followers on Instagram, clocking in at 142 million. 

But, more important that those titles, Selena Gomez is a dedicated servant to her community and advocate for victims of human trafficking through an organization called A21, whose mission is to eradicate human trafficking through awareness, intervention, and aftercare.  Selena has been serving as a volunteer every week at A21 since March of 2018. 

Every year on September 11, individuals across the country step away from their normal day-to-day activities to volunteer in their communities on National Day of Service and Remembrance.

This day is an important one - it gives Americans the chance the remember those men and women that lost their lives in the September 11, 2001 attacks and honor those brave individuals that served in response to the attacks the day of and in the days, weeks, and years following. 

School is back in action! You might be more or less excited about getting back into the school grind, but there are some things you can do to set yourself up for success as you start this new semester:

• Shop for your favorite school supplies: Who doesn’t like to parade down the aisles of pens, notebooks, and binders! Treat yourself to your favorite school supplies to get you excited about taking class notes and getting your homework done.
• Memorize your class schedule: Don’t get stuck in between classes not knowing where you are going to next! Memorization is key.

School is back!

Classes are in session, students are memorizing their schedule and admins are getting organized for the year ahead of them. Which means, it’s the perfect time to set up your x2VOL account for success. There are a couple things you can do to ensure you are ready to start off the new school year on the right foot so your students can start logging hours:

Many secondary schools across the nation have been around for generations. Some are even over a century old. Their values and mission have been long established and so have many of their processes and procedures. 

When logging and recording service hours served by students, it's vital for admins to have confidence that the hours were completed as stated, not falsified and ultimately accurate. Not only does acceptance into clubs and groups depend on students completing a specific number of hours, but, many times, it's a graduation requirement, a class grade and can impact scholarships as well as college admissions. 

Summer is the perfect time of year to knock out community service hours and volunteer to make a difference in your community. There are so many different ways you can get involved and various organizations you can benefit with your time and service. Check out these summer service opportunities:

Students in schools around the country are serving their communities. The students at KIPP Atlanta Collegiate in Atlanta, Georgia, are no different. These students have a school requirement of 140 hours, but often go far beyond even the school requirement to log hundreds of hours of service to their community.