Tracking Volunteering that Private School Doesn’t Consider Community Service

[Anonymous]

Unlike public school, DCs private school doesn’t count counselor-in-training (CIT) volunteering as community service hours for purposes of the school curriculum/requirements. But DC would still like to keep track of those CIT hours and the summer camp actually requires a contact (who is not the student or their family) to receive its “certificate” summarizing the CIT hours.

Is this a common issue your HS student grappled with? Would we ask the school for a contact to keep track of the hours even though they don’t count as “community service” for the school’s own purposes?

[Anonymous]

My student attended an FCPS high school and CIT hours weren't considered community service there, either.

[Anonymous]

I mean most CIT programs require the parents to pay, and the entities aren’t serving an underserved population or anything like. Why should it count as community service?

[Anonymous]

There’s nothing community service related about being a counselor in training.

[Anonymous]

Doesnt MCPS consider CIT volunteering for SSL?

[Anonymous]

Our private mandates that the volunteering be for documented underserved population.

[Anonymous]

OP here - DC’s private has the same policy about underserved populations. I’m just asking who should be sent evidence of volunteering that doesn’t qualify under the school’s definition, if not the school, the student or their family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - DC’s private has the same policy about underserved populations. I’m just asking who should be sent evidence of volunteering that doesn’t qualify under the school’s definition, if not the school, the student or their family.

Why wouldn’t it just be sent to you or your son? There’s nobody else.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need evidence? My student tracks her own volunteer hours since her school does not require anything outside of what they do in school as a group. She will just enter it on the common app based on her own tracking.

[Anonymous]

FYI - timing at your little sibling's summer swim meet is also not a community service; that's just getting your parent out of an obligation.

[Anonymous]

I just kept track of it and reported it on the common app.

[Anonymous]

That seems really silly. What’s to stop students/parents from just making things up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That seems really silly. What’s to stop students/parents from just making things up?

They already do.

Our school only counts work for the elderly and unhoused and for anything related to reducing hunger. It’s quite limiting.

Kid is going to ask if CIT works because the camp focus is about certain topics that may work with the school’s definition of community service. If the school says no, we will count it as volunteer work.

It’s hard to get the hours in due to COVID restrictions—especially for the elderly. There are only so many spots, and lots of kids who need hours.

[Anonymous]

Our private is pretty strict about what it counts. My DC wanted to count their hours volunteering with an animal shelter (work at adoption events, foster, walk dogs, collect donations) but work that benefits animals are not valid for service hours.

[Anonymous]

It would make more sense to have a larger scope for volunteer/community service that is allowable but limit the #hours in any one category. I would much prefer my child have experiences in many different areas than to limit to one. If the schools focus is underserved populations - that is fantastic- but I would also like my kid to do thing related to animals, nature and climate change...for us having those choices has really help him become who he is, find is interests and feel like he's doing something positive.