<p>I'm currently putting together a resume of my high school academic career to use a a supplement to college applications that allow for a file upload. I have a question regarding community service... </p>
<p>I currently only have 54 hours. I'm hoping to reach 75 before school starts (and I'm pretty certain I'll be able to do this). The thing is, 75 still isn't much, so in my case, it seems like every additional hour I can squeeze in would be a major help. I want to get my apps in hopefully no later than early/mid September... but I was wondering if it's okay to include service we are INTENDING to do, but have not yet done? For example, there's a Pumpkin festival that raises money for Feed America in October... I did it last year and intend to do it this year, and wanted to know if I could put that down on the resume. If yes, then what about other things I plan on doing my senior year, such as Relay for Life (which I did this year as well)? There's a lot I'm planning to do with my FBLA club as well, and I'd like to mention that as well, but it won't be happening until spring and that's obviously too late to wait until I actually do it to say anything.</p>
<p>It’s perhaps not the best thing to do… it’s kind of fudging the numbers a little bit. “I’m going to do it, so I’ll take the credit for them now…” What does “a lot” mean? The best way would to put down “intended” service, because otherwise, you are trying to present ambiguous information, and ethically, that’s wrong.</p>
<p>Another way would be go to out and volunteer NOW so that you can rightfully put down THOSE hours on your resume. That of course, depends on whether you have the time now.</p>
<p>If it’s six hours… I honestly don’t know. It’s pretty meager… and it’s intended… I can tell you this: most people just don’t include intended service altogether, as your resume is supposed to be about your past, not your future (which, most of the time, is unpredictable). You might never volunteer at the pumpkin festival, no matter what your intentions now. I don’t know if colleges will look at it like that…</p>
<p>Point is, could you possibly go out and do some volunteering now instead of trying to list future volunteering opportunities?</p>
Yeah, six hours is meager, but that’s just one of the things I’m pretty sure I’ll be doing. I probably have at least another 50 hours of “intended service” coming up by the time I graduate… and I feel like 125 hours on an app would be better than just the 75 I’ll have before I submit my applications.</p>
<p>Yes, I can get hours in the remainder of the summer, and I intend to do so, but as I mentioned, I’ll only be at about 75 total hours which I’m not even proud of… =/</p>
<p>I wouldn’t. Even if you are ethical and do it like you stated here</p>
<p>Pumpkin Festival - 2010 - 6 hours
[Describe the community service]
*Planning to volunteer at the festival in 2011 as well, for ~6 hours</p>
<p>it just points out that you feel compelled to do it because you don’t feel like you have enough to begin with. Those 6 or 16 or 36 hours aren’t going to make or break your app. And, trust me, 75 hours or honest volunteerism is more than most kids have (maybe not the ones here on cc, but in the real world).</p>
<p>I have another question… should I describe each thing I’ve volunteered for with a decent description, saying what I did and why I did it… or should it just be brief, mentioning only where I volunteered and a VERY brief sentence of what I did? I’d think it’d show more dedication if I explained why I chose and followed through with each community service, but then I came across the quote, “the thicker the file the thicker the kid” so I don’t want to include too much. Currently my complete rough draft of the resume is at 3 pages… one of the pages being just community service (with explanations) and summer programs.</p>
<ol>
<li>Nobody is making you list the hours. If they’re not impressive, don’t list them. Numbers don’t mean much, anyway.</li>
</ol>
<p>List your volunteer work. Omit small numbers of hours.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A high school student’s resume should not exceed one piece of paper. When you’re submitting one electronically, that means one page. Period. Nothing more. When you’re applying for jobs in person with a hard copy, you may use one double-sided page if you have enough content to make that second side worth it.</p></li>
<li><p>Your resume should be clean, concise, and professionally presented such that a reader can get a good idea of what it contains in 30-60 seconds.</p></li>
</ol>