The program is designed to help students develop a sense of social responsibility that they will demonstrate through lifelong service to their local, national, and international communities. This service program encourages students to reflect on their community involvement through participation, contribution, and leadership.
• Participation: Students will participate in collaborative service projects to acquire knowledge and experience addressing community issues.
• Contribution: Students will recognize their role in the community by identifying and making significant contributions to personally meaningful projects.
• Leadership: Students will take the lead in building better communities and encouraging the habit of community service.
• A student must earn a total of 140 hours during four years at Maggie Walker. This is a requirement for earning the Maggie Walker Diploma.
• A student should average 35 hours per year to reach the 140-hour goal.
• A student can earn more than 35 hours a year to get ahead on this requirement.
• Up to 70 hours (total over 4 years) can be earned by on volunteering on campus at Maggie Walker.
• Seniors will submit their final community service hours at the end of the third quarter of their senior year.
Community Service hours are typically earned by working for nonprofit organizations that benefit the community in some way. Some organizations that are always acceptable to work for include local cemeteries, food banks, historic sites, shelters, hospitals, libraries, museums, nursing homes, recreational leagues, political campaigns, parks, and schools.
Sometimes it can be appropriate to earn hours working with a for-profit institution. For example, some students have earned hours by volunteering at a dance academy or martial arts studio (must be a volunteer—not paid).
Religious activities (e.g. VBS, religious services) are not eligible for community service credit. However, outreach efforts through a church, synagogue, or mosque may be eligible if they (1) benefit a community and not just the religious institution itself and (2) are not related to religious instruction. Acceptable examples include but are not limited to: Caritas, feeding the homeless, and home repairs and construction for those in need.
Students are not able to count community services when they are being paid for their hours, where they are gaining some type of benefit for completing the activities, or where they are fulfilling an obligation to an organization (no double-using hours).
If a student is unsure whether or not an activity is appropriate for community service, the student should email the community service coordinator for clarification (Les Cook: [email protected])
Students will utilize the x2vol app to submit their community service hours for verification and approval. Once the hours are submitted, they are verified by community service supervisors who are emailed a link to verify. Once verified, the submission is reviewed and approved by the MLWGS Community Service Coordinator.
Students are also permitted to use a paper form to record verified hours if this is easier. The community service supervisor would sign this form to verify the hours, and the student will upload this form to x2vol for review and approval by the coordinator.
The Community Service Coordinator creates an x2vol account for each student when they arrive at Maggie Walker. Incoming freshmen should wait until their fall arrival to MLWGS to utilize this account (however, incoming freshmen are permitted to start earning and keeping track of community service hours they earn the summer before their freshman year).
For additional information visit Community Service in the Student Handbook.
