<p>What counts? Let's say I were to cut my neighbor's grass, free of charge. Would that count as community service?</p>
<p>Count for what?</p>
<p>Probably not. It has to be an organization.</p>
<p>It has to be for some sort of non profit organization. My daughter had a friend (genius but no common sense type) who worked unpaid for a lawyer one summer and thought that would count for the 60 hours their HS required. She never did quite understand why they would not accept it because as far as she was concerned the fact that it was unpaid meant it should count :rolleyes:</p>
<p>lordy
I had an interesting conversation tonight with a young man who attended high school in one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Seattle.
He commented ( upon learning that my D has worked for 6 months to save money to do volunteer work in India and that she went to Ghana last year) that his classmates if they had the opportunity to do community service, they would wonder why they should.
Whereas the people at my daughters high school are more likely to think why not.</p>
<p>Community service does not benefit the individual that does the service.( except in a global fashion)</p>
<p>I guess it depends what you are trying to count it for. My D's school requires a particular number of hours of community service and they have various rules about what counts. A supervisor at a non-profit organization has to sign the documentation form and include a description of the service provided. </p>
<p>If you are just doing it to write on your college applications then it seems like you can write down whatever you please and leave it up to the person reading the application to decide whether it was worthwhile. Especially if your neighbor is elderly or disabled cutting their grass sounds like a nice thing to do. However, for my D's school requirement it probably wouldn't count.</p>
<p>Doesn't have to be for/through a nonprofit organization. Lots of kids around here set up their own programs. Make blankets to donate to homeless or neonatal hospitals, make boxes of supplies to ship to soldiers, collect food in neighborhood for food shelters, collect gently used books to donate to schools/hospitals. Many different ways to give back to your community.</p>
<p>My daughter did community service for non-profits and also in a hospital. The hospital volunteering was to be in the environment that she was contemplating studying. I think both benefitted her as well as those who she worked with and for</p>
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Doesn't have to be for/through a nonprofit organization. Lots of kids around here set up their own programs. Make blankets to donate to homeless or neonatal hospitals, make boxes of supplies to ship to soldiers, collect food in neighborhood for food shelters, collect gently used books to donate to schools/hospitals. Many different ways to give back to your community.
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<p>At our school, they need proof in order to put on the transcript that you do community service hours.</p>
<p>Our NHS and LINC service hours can be earned in many ways. Documented by student. What is required for proof? It would be sad that you couldn't take their word. Many kids do their service in pairs or groups so word would get out if they weren't truthful. If you HAD to have proof you could turn in fliers made, letters from neighbors, hospital workers, etc. Sad that you have to have everything verified.</p>
<p>It had to sign by the agency. Also for UCs they will audit 10% of the ECs. I learned this through D1 that eventhough she wanted to volunteer but everytime she called the agency that had no need for her.</p>
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It would be sad that you couldn't take their word. Many kids do their service in pairs or groups so word would get out if they weren't truthful.
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<p>What about 2 kids decide to collude to claim community service hours?</p>
<p>If your neighbor is elderly, in poor health and does not have relatives or money to hire anyone to take care of him, and you voluntarily started helping him with household chores, then, according to my D's school rules, it is community service. If you just doing it because your redneck neighbor is too drunk to cut his grass, and your mom complains that his overgrown lawn decreases the property value of the houses on your street, then the answer is no. It is sad that the true nature of community service is getting lost in these requirements for hours, forms, signatures, etc.</p>
<p>Exactly, BunsenBurner!!! The kids around here who find their own projects are usually ones who have a passion or find their cause to support and don't do it to earn hours. D2 started her own projects concerning literacy and healthcare. She has put hours in to the program and there is no supervisor. Didn't matter to her that it couldn't be "signed" off on.</p>
<p>Perhaps a bigger point needs to be made. If you have nothing to say about your community service other than counting the hours, then it isn't going to help you one iota in college admissions. Colleges are not impressed by "hours".</p>
<p>^ very true...</p>
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Colleges are not impressed by "hours".
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<p>That is not true. UCSD gives credit for community service hours.</p>
<p>This crap is ridiculous. My school differentiates between community service (which is extremely ambiguous) and volunteering (which is the same damn thing in my opinion). I'd like to do it out of the goodness of my heart wherever I please but I also need to turn in hours to my school and who knows if they'll count them. I suggested a few scenarios to my guidance counselor and my G.C. really wasn't sure either. </p>
<p>So far I gather that the company has to be non-profit or help people... or be some kids' sports organization which doesn't make much sense since they rake in as much money as any other small business...</p>
<p>And I couldn't care less if my services impress colleges or not. These hours are needed to join certain clubs as well as scholarships.</p>
<p>For scholarships you need a lot of hours of community service. My daughter ended up not listing some of the hours she did( to be on the conservative side )when she could not find the record of what/when she did.</p>