The Richardson Independent School District encourages each student to participate in service learning as an important component of his or her education. The Board of Trustees adopted a goal for all students to develop individual and civic responsibility. To help achieve this goal, the District established the Service Learning Award. The Service Learning Award offers an opportunity for students to engage in meaningful volunteer activities of their choosing to contribute to their community or selected organization and to gain recognition at graduation for those worthwhile activities.
Award Criteria
To earn the Service Learning Award, students must have completed a minimum of sixty (60) hours of volunteer service hours between June 1 prior to 9th grade and March 31 of their senior year. Students may earn qualifying service hours by participating in volunteer activities through school clubs, civic organizations, community organizations, charitable organizations, religious organizations, youth organizations, or through individual activities. Students may not count hours for activities for which the student or the organization received any money or other financial benefit for participating as follows:
Students are encouraged to earn a minimum of 5 hours during 9th grade
Students are encouraged to earn a minimum of 10 hours during 10th grade
Students are encouraged to earn a minimum of 15 hours during 11th grade
Students must earn a minimum of 30 hours during 12th grade
Total Hours = 60
No more than 18 of the 30 required hours may be performed as a part of other school–based volunteer service requirements the student may have (e.g., National Honor Society, AVID, Fine Arts, Athletics, etc.). Any 9th-12th grade student who has a question about whether an activity will qualify for service learning credit should contact the grade-level Assistant Principal or designee in charge of Service Learning for clarification.
Verification Form Required
To receive credit for qualifying hours, a student must prepare a detailed description of the service learning project and include his or her personal reflections about the meaning and effect of the activity. All hours must be submitted by April 1 electronically. Students should use the following link to document their hours via our new Community Service Hours Log Google Form: https://forms.gle/XRzCaGbBEFhtMyLi8 .
When a student submits an entry, a request will be sent to the activity’s organizer/sponsor with a link to verify the student’s submission is accurate. Once the activity’s organizer/sponsor verifies the service the campus administrator in charge of approving community service will be able to approve the hours.
All service hours must be approved by the Assistant Principal in charge of graduation and an adult who has personal knowledge of the student’s participation in the project. Unverified hours will not be counted. RISD reserves the right to disqualify any hours that it determines do not constitute legitimate volunteer service hours.
All project hour descriptions, personal reflections and verifications must be submitted by April 1 at 4:00 pm. The form must be filled out in full with at least one paragraph in the reflection section.
All volunteer service hours must be completed by March 31 and recorded on the form linked above by April 1 of the student’s senior year.
Recognition at Graduation Ceremonies
Graduating seniors who earn the Service Learning Award will receive a medal to be worn at graduation, and recognition in the graduation program.
Contact person: Executive Director, Advanced Learning Services
RISD Chart Your Course Handbook | Updated July 8, 2024