Florida Virtual High School Counseling Department

Steps to Completing and Submitting Service/ Work Hours

1. Carefully read through the FVHS Volunteer Service or Paid Work Handbook

2. Students determine where they want to complete their volunteer service/ paid work hours.

3. Complete the FVHS Bright Futures Volunteer Service or Paid Work Approval Form and submit the form to

your school counselor BEFORE any hours are completed.

4. Complete your service/work hours. Document your hours and reflect on your experience

using the FVHS Bright Futures Community Service or Paid Work Log and Reflection Form

5. Collect any and all necessary documentation and signatures from the organization where the hours

take place. Please note that you will need to complete one form for each organization you provide service/work hours for.

Submit the FVHS Bright Futures Volunteer Service or Paid Work Log and Reflection Form to your school counselor prior to high school graduation.

Volunteer Service and Work Hours

Volunteer/ Work hours are NOT required for graduation. However, it is required for various scholarships such as Florida Bright Futures, plus, it can look great when applying to college. The resource files below will give you all the information you need to begin serving your community

The student may identify a social or civic issue or a professional area that interests them and develop a plan for their personal involvement in addressing the issue or learning about the area. The student must, through papers or other presentations, evaluate and reflect upon their volunteer service or paid work experience. Volunteer service or paid work may include, but is not limited to, a business or governmental internship, work for a nonprofit community service organization, or activities on behalf of a candidate for public office. The hours of volunteer service or paid work must be documented in writing, and the document must be signed by the student, the student’s parent or guardian, and a representative of the organization for which the student performed the volunteer service or paid work.

Students must earn the required volunteer service or paid work hours, or a combination of both. Service hours/paid work hours must be completed with an agency, company, organization, or business.

To be eligible to receive one of the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Awards a student must complete a program of volunteer service /work that includes a minimum of hours:

Florida Bright Futures Volunteer Service and/or Work Hour requirements

Did you complete service hours before enrolling with FLVS Full Time or without FLVS FT School Counselor approval?

Students may apply previously earned volunteer hours recorded on their official transcripts to their cumulative hours towards Bright Futures. If the hours are not logged on an official transcript and/or we did not approve your organization for the community service hours, you will need to submit a letter on the organization's letterhead with the following information:

Dates volunteered
Total hours completed
Detailed description of the jobs you performed
Signature and contact number for the organization's supervisor

Is it possible to earn virtual service hours?

Although students are responsible for finding areas that fit the criteria of community service hours, the list below of online options may be of interest to some students:

Carnamah Historical Society virtual volunteering initiative uses online volunteers to help with transcription and indexing projects to make historical records more discoverable and searchable.

Smithsonian Archives of American Gardens is an online database of thousands of images in the Smithsonian’s Collections Search Center. By correctly tagging an image regarding the types of plants in the image, the structures, objects, people, or any details you notice, you help make that image more useful to professional catalogers in museums, archives and libraries.

The Smithsonian Digital Volunteer program engages the public in making its collections more accessible. Digital volunteers transcribe historic documents and collection records to facilitate research and preserve these valuable assets for future generations.

Connect with older adults to form friendships, create intergenerational bonds, and provide support.

https://dorotusa.org/volunteer

Submit the FVHS Bright Futures Volunteer Service or Paid Work Log and Reflection Form to your school counselor prior to high school graduation.

Volunteer Service and Work Hours

Did you complete service hours before enrolling with FLVS Full Time or without FLVS FT School Counselor approval?

Is it possible to earn virtual service hours?

How do I view how many service hours I have?