<p>I'm soooo sad :( I'v tried to volunteer to do community service, and I can't because you have to be 14 and I'm 12 :( Will this like affect my application, or will most schools understand?</p>
<p>There are many types of community service that are available to 12 year olds. In our community, middle schoolers visit nursing homes, prepare baked goods and deliver them to homeless shelters, tutor other students, and serve as lunch buddies to special education students once a week.
Try your current school's counselor and see if they have any ideas for ways you can help.</p>
<p>You could arrange some kind of fundraiser at your school to collect $, winter clothing, food, whatever for those less fortunate.</p>
<p>You could hold a bake sale in front of your local grocery store, etc. to raise $ for your favorite charity as an other example - perhaps also educating people about the charity at the same time. </p>
<p>I could go on and on with examples, but you get the drift. These can all be viewed as community service.</p>
<p>Many churches and synagogues offer community service to 12 year olds My 12 year old son is currently teaching basketball to underprivileged elementary school kids and could have chosen working with the environment or the elderly. PS he is not applying to BS, but his older brother was accepted to several top schools with same community service project.</p>
<p>oh how i do love applying as a freshman.</p>
<p>my middle school had zero extracurriculars. zero.
well aside from the usual brainbowl-ish things, orchestra, school council, and sports.
but we had NO community service stuff whatsoever. NO recreational clubs whatsoever.</p>
<p>so i feel for you ):</p>
<p>Really, I think it's ok. Not everyone has a gazillion activities. I honestly think that we here on CC put too much importance on them. I hadn't given EC's and community service a thought until logging on here - AND, my son went to a JR. Prep that deals with secondary school placement all the time. </p>
<p>That said, you are probably thinking of bigger things and things that you have to organize,or be super involved in. Not so I don't think.</p>
<p>Anything through school counts - even though, in my mind, you have no choice if the WHOLE class is doing a project as PART of class, but it counts.</p>
<p>Do you go to church? Have you (or would you consider) being involved in something they do there...a food drive, clothing drive, holiday gift program. My son was an alter server for years. He kept not putting it down, as if it didn't count. It does.</p>
<p>As others have said, organize a food drive - that may sound HUGE, but it doesn't even have to be outside of your friends and family. Send an email out to your family and friends and ask them to get a bag of non-pershiables together and you and your parents can pick a Saturday, go collect and drop off to a food pantry. </p>
<p>My kids every Christmas bake cookies with their grandmother and they make several extra batches and bring them to the senior center and the homeless shelter for families (darn, just thought of that and he didn't include it on his applications! Just goes to show, sometimes you just do things and don't realize it).</p>
<p>You don't need pages and pages of activities, just a couple (in my opinion).</p>
<p>Thanks guys at least I'm a little reassured, I'm going to try to do a food drive, so maybe that'll work for me :)</p>
<p>That's great wetwinz120! And you know what, the need for food this year all over has increased dramatically (a food pantry in our area last August was serving about 120 different families each month and this year is was almost 120 different families each WEEK. So that is a great thing you are doing.</p>
<p>Yep I am about to discuss it w/ my mom, oooh sooo excited!!!!!</p>
<p>(One moment while I ascend my soap box.) This post is a good example of why I have a personal bias AGAINST school's requiring community service.</p>
<p>Is there an older person in your neighborhood who could use help walking their dog? That's community service. Is there a single mom who might appreciate someone coming over to the house and reading to her child while she fixes dinner? That's community service. It bothers me that we have raised our kids to think of community service as though it was another course "offered" by their school. A well-lived life is about creating opportunities, not just showing up for something someone else has arranged.</p>
<p>I agree sbergman. And it's funny, as I mentioned in my post, my son and I were only thinking about the "structured" things when doing his application last year and then when I started to put my non-profit hat on and give wetwinz120 some ideas, it dawned on me, hey, he did that! DUH!!!</p>
<p>The school he is attending does not have a community service requirement, but over half (or is it 2/3, I can't remember) of the students do participate in one or more of the many community service projects offered. They don't require it for the very reason you stated. </p>
<p>We are bringing a speaker to my community in the spring who speaks on the topic "Raising Charitable Children." She has also written a book by the same title and it has all these kind of ideas for parents to help their children get involved in the community and to instill the value of giving and helping others.</p>
<p>sbergman and linda s., I also agree with you. I think an applicant could write up a summary of their unstructured activities in the space for community service.
I think the one good reason to require community service hours is to start a lifetime pattern of community involvement of all kinds and get teenagers to understand that there are so many different ways that they can help others and make a real difference.</p>
<p>As to a middle school without many activities: I know that reading some of the things that applicants here have already accomplished when they are only in 8th or 9th grade can inspire some fear in others. Just remember, boarding schools know that part of the reason you want to go there is for the many opportunities that they offer. So, think about the unstructured things that you have done, and also, some sport or activity or language or area of study that you might like to pursue....that might be something that you are passionate about. Just be sure that if you yearn to study Japanese and mention that on your applications or in interviews, that the school offers it. :)</p>
<p>there are girl scouts/boy scouts, town events which you can volunteer at, school events you can volunteer at, school community service clubs, church, hospital volunteer work, help at summer camp, help at day care. there's tons of theings you can do! i mean, some may have age requirements, but definitly not the majority. besides, if you ask, they may let you help even if u r "under-age."</p>