Community Service Hours?

soozievt
Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:46:45 +0000

I agree with mamalu on this.

Until I came to CC over seven years ago, I had never heard of “accumulating community service hours” which apparently some other high schools require or else people feel they need a certain number of “hours” for college admissions resumes. My kids never thought in those terms of “needing hours” of service to get into college.

I agree that a MT kid has a full load of ECs usually on their plate and it is hard to fit in another activity. I don’t think a MT kid needs to say, “OMG, I need CS hours…I better volunteer at the soup kitchen!!” Ya know, my kid did not have time to go to soup kitchens either.

However, I feel there were things on my kids’ apps that reflected service to their community and they did not do these to accumulate hours (and I don’t think it is so important HOW MANY hours you have put in…the value is not on the hour total count), but they were doing things, like mamalu mentions, that were natural outgrowths of their areas of passion.

For example, D1 coached a fifth/sixth grade girls’ soccer team in her junior year of HS (she had played soccer her entire life) and she truly enjoyed it a great deal. In senior year, she was an assistant teacher twice/week in math and French classes at our elem school (two subjects she excelled at and she also enjoys working with kids and after that point, held paid jobs working with kids and so this experience dovetailed with that).

D2 initiated and created on her own musical theater revue shows at her high school which had never been done before. These were huge undertakings (one was even during her college audition season) and she did this out of sheer desire, and not to get into college. She chose a charity to donate all proceeds to these events to. She also created a public event in a local venue revolving around the issue of peace, that included performing arts and a PowerPoint presentation interspersed throughout this event and used arts to have an impact on the community and also raised funds for Amnesty International through this event. None of these things were done to get into college or with a thought of needing community service hours. She wanted to do these things and they related heavily to her areas of passion. She used her art form to make a difference. Even in college, she went on to form a theater company with other students to put on performance events to effect social change. Art can have an impact.

While I never thought of any of this for college admissions purposes, I did take notice when D2 was chosen to be a Tisch Scholar when she was admitted and I read the criteria for selection to Scholars (something we did not know even existed) and it talked about leadership and about service to the community and I gather that these things on her resume and in her recommendations were noticed by adcoms.

I have an advisee right now who is going into Theater and while she is involved in training and productions like everyone else here, she has been going into the projects in her city every week where underprivileged kids live and using the performing arts to work with them to help with their English (they speak Spanish) and she founded this organization that does this and this year, she is taking it further and will put a play on with the teens in this housing project in a sketchy part of her city.

I have other students who have chosen to use their talents to perform in nursing homes and retirement homes or senior citizen centers. My own kid did that a little too. They WANT to do this, and it is not to rack up community service hours. These endeavors are related to their interest/career area and potential field of study in college. My own kids and others I know have also taught voice, dance or MT to children. In college, my kid has performed in pediatric hospitals. And so on.

Doing service and making a difference can be tied to your passions, as opposed to “needing hours” and adding some new misc. activity to the schedule. As an artist, think of how you want to make an impact on society. Be a leader. Be an initiator. These are attractive qualities actually to admissions officers (though that is not why you should do these things).