Program Overview

Upper School Independent Community Service Program

Our vision for the Upper School Independent Community Service Program is the same as the School’s Vision for Every Student:

• Take meaningful risks.

• Be yourself.

• Make a difference.

Community service volunteers are difference makers! Our program offers students support to discover their greater community through experience and to identify how they may use and develop their own unique abilities and learn about and alleviate need.

Students are required to submit a minimum of 4 hours of community service this year (ideally, one per quarter, with a minimum of 3 hours outside of the Flint Hill organization) with these goals in mind:

• Facilitate a love of service and a culture of service work

• Foster independence and grassroots efforts around service work

• Learn about our community through active engagement

• Develop essential life skills and understanding

• Celebrate and support the contributions that we make to our community through service work

Identifying need involves learning more about our community and the people in it. Students may find it helpful to consider this list of needs when determining which areas of service appeal to them:

• Elder Care

• Animal Welfare

• Culture

• Education

• Special Needs/Disabilities

• Literacy

• Poverty

• Disaster Relief

• Healthy Futures

• The Environment

• Immigrant Support

• Food and Housing Insecurity

Alleviating need in the greater community can take many forms. Finding organizations that serve specific needs may be a good place to start. The Volunteer Youth Service Guides, with links on the right of this page, are helpful sources for categorizing service organizations by location, volunteer age and service themes. In addition, the guides offer regarding questions to ask if students contact an organization(s) about volunteering. Students may also find the structure of our school clubs helpful. Currently, there are 11 clubs with a focus on service work; many more are involved in community service activities. Organizing your own service event is also an option.

Timelines for completing Community Service are important for accountability. Therefore, all students must take responsibility for recording his or her service hours (while logged into the Husky Hub) via the x2Vol system, located on the Student Portal page, in order to receive credit for completed service hours.

Students are required to complete a minimum of 3 of their 4-hour community service obligation to organizations outside of our community. All hours served for our school and other non-profits will 'count' and may be entered as hours served toward their community service efforts as 'Inside School Service Hours'. There is no 'cap'--all hours 'count.' Students may accrue all hours toward awards, such as scouting and the President's Volunteer Service Award. Providing service through Flint Hill School to outside organizations, such as working a Special Olympics event at Flint Hill School, counts toward the 'Outside Schoo Service Hours.' Hopefully, this will create a balance of serving within the community, as well as reaching beyond ourselves to serve those with substantial need.

Tracking Community Service Hours

• Hours are tracked yearly, though students are encouraged to fulfill a portion of their required hours each quarter (1 hour per quarter, as the deadline for submission is Spring Break for Seniors and graduation for all other grades). It is important that students submit their hours as close to the time that they complete them as possible, in order to keep an accurate accounting of progress toward meeting their requirement on time.

• Tracking of hours begins the day following graduation the previous year and ends: the day before the current year's Spring Break for Seniors and Graduation Day for all other grades. Students who complete service work outside of those time periods should communicate with the service coordinators to ensure their work will count toward the intended year's total.

• Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors wishing to serve more hours than the required 4 (for example, to earn the Presidential Service Award), may continue to accrue hours through the end of the school year. All hours must be completed and recorded by Tuesday, June 15, the official end of the 2020-2021 school year. Seniors must have served and recorded all hours by March 10 due to of awards' timing.

Students are encouraged to monitor their own progress in meeting the requirement and can get an updated total by contacting a service coordinator and/or their advisor. Information regarding current accumulation of hours will be sent periodically to students as well.

Earning the Presidential Service Award

Earning the Presidential Service Award is a goal for many of our students. Freshmen completing at least 50 hours of service during the academic year will be eligible. Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors completing at least 100 hours of service during the academic year will be eligible. Seniors receive this award at Closing Ceremonies in the Spring. Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors receive awards in fall of the following school year. Here is the link to the sponsoring organization: Presidential Service Awards

Husky Dress Proposals and Nominating an Organization for Benefit

Husky Dress Days are held throughout the year to support thematic causes within and outside of our community. Students are invited to submit a nomination for a non-profit organization that supports the theme and will benefit from the funds raised through the Husky Dress event. The link to the proposal/nomination form is available in the Student Portal.

Students will have the opportunity to make Husky Dress proposals/nominations up to the submission deadline within each semester. The deadline for the October and January dates is Friday, October 18. The deadline for the March and April dates is Friday, January 31st. Nominations are selected using the following criteria: Criteria for Selecting Husky Dress Days.

Consequences

Consequences are a natural part of learning. Everyone involved in community service at this school hopes that students’ service-related consequences will be positive ones! However, there are negative consequences for not following through with this obligation. Consequences include:

• Seniors who have not completed their service hours by the end of the third quarter will lose their sign-out privileges until the community service obligation is completed. In addition, a student’s ability to start his/her off-campus Senior Project (a requirement for graduation) may be affected.

• Hours recorded outside of the suggested timeline may not be eligible for inclusion; students should record them promptly!

• Students' registration for the next school year will not be considered complete until their community service hours are complete. Students who are not in compliance by the third quarter deadline will be put on a probationary plan to complete the work.

• Students who have not completed their service hours are eligible for detention(s).

Our community needs students’ responsible and compassionate engagement; students must be responsible for this obligation.