Seriously, in addition to picking another school if you don’t like it, I can’t imagine that any school has some unwieldy time commitment. Pick a weekend day, gather some friends, and go do something meaningful and crank out some hours.
Our local high school had a community service requirement - 10 hours per year. I remember, at a parent meeting, some mom standing up and complaining about it because her son was Soooo busy that she didn’t think bit was fair. I remember thinking to myself, he could crank that out in one long Saturday or Sunday if he wanted to. 8-|
Coincidentally, D forwarded an email to me last night that spells out the process for getting her volunteer hours approved at her college. The very last paragraph says essentially that there is no reason for not finding a volunteer position or meeting the hourly requirement, because there is an office dedicated to helping kids find the resources they need, and listed the room number, phone number and email address of the person in charge. So this school has a requirement, but provides a way for kids to meet it without leaving them flailing around without guidance. That’s ideal to me.
Imagine if a college stated that 100 hours of community service was mandatory for graduation, but these hours would not be charted. They would be expected to completed, as part of an honor code. Students should understand that giving back to the community is a vital art of maturing into adults, part of the college experience. The college would have an office dedicated to helping students find these opportunities, similar to what sseamom mentioned above.
But no official records of this service would be kept by the school. Because, one, the college would not want this service to be seen mainly as publicity for the school. And two, students should not expect to gain academically or vocationally from these experiences. The work should be done for its own sake, selfless and as anonymously as possible.
Is any college actually doing anything like this? I agree with lookingforward, in asking how many colleges require service? So maybe this is a lot of fuss over hypotheticals. I am not against community service, and I’d want my kids to get credit for theirs. Just as I hope their study abroad opens doors for them. I just believe we should be upfront that it is not just the helped who benefit from volunteering. Which is what the OP asked, and OP is long gone.
The OP hasn’t been back on cc since yesterday, when he/she posted here. Not thinking that qualifies as “long gone”.
I asked DS#2 about his community service requirement. He said there were 2 separate requirements- one that was done through a class in the first 2 years, and rue other that was done as a upperclassman and was done, at least for him ( not sure if it is universal) through his major.
As I said earlier, my daughter’s Jesuit college had a community service requirement that was done freshman year as part of their dorm theme.
But in addition, she also had a couple of courses that had required community service as a course requirement.
The college organized a ton of community service projects. Service is part of the Jesuit mission. Our kid understood and supported this before she made the decision to matriculate.
I have mixed feelings. As someone who has extensively worked at non-profits, the last thing I want is someone who is forced to be there.
My major required a community engagement class where you had to work with local schools, organizations, etc (depending on the class).
I’m ok with it on a major-by-major basis and with private schools. However, at public schools, it can be problematic. As much as I think every person should volunteer at least some of their time, I know students who are juggling kids, full time work, and a full time schedule. There just aren’t any more hours in the day and I don’t think public schools should add more barriers to graduation.