Service and Leadership

Community Service (10 hours each phase)

Every phase, students are expected to complete a minimum of 10 hours of community service. These are spread out over the four phases because we want students to make it a habit to help the community. This is more that just volunteering, though that certainly qualifies. We are looking for students to seek opportunities to use their skills, passions, and voices to help serve the community. It's problem solving + community!

Community service opportunities are extremely flexible. The only hard and fast rule is that students cannot be getting paid, or already earning internship credit, for the work they do.

Common Reflection Questions for Community Service

1. What are your responsibilities at your service site? Why does the organization need you to do those particular responsibilities?

2. What are some of your interactions with the community members there? How will it help the community?

3. What are you learning at your site, and about the organization?

4. Why is this important to you?

5. What are some positive and negative experiences you had?

6. What are some positive and negative experiences you had?

7. How can you use these experiences to develop who you are as a service learner and actively engaged citizen? What will you do next phase for community service?

Leadership Roles (Phase Three and Four)

Similarly, by the time students reach Phase Three and Four, we hope that they have found interests and causes that inspire leadership to make change. Leadership roles are also very flexible and loosely defined. They must be authentic work experiences that allow the student to demonstrate all 5 of the Leadership habit indicators (below).

Through these requirements, we hope students learn more about their individual leadership styles. They learn to identify many types of leadership, learn what makes for an effective leader, and seek authentic feedback from those they lead. Leadership roles can be big and flashy, or they can be small and subtle. Advisors are very helpful in brainstorming leadership roles for students who don't often see themselves as leaders.