What If Your Kid Isn’t Into Volunteering or Community Service?

[Anonymous]

Thankfully our kids attend a Catholic HS that has a crazy amount of required (and need verified) service hours.

It stuck. My oldest home after freshmen year in college went back to volunteer a few hours at place he did throughout HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why I’m a fan of required community service. Sure, for some kids it’s just a box they check with the most minimal effort they can muster. But for others, it’s the push they need to get involved in something they end up really caring about. My kids work with a neighborhood organization that provides food and health services to others in the local community. They both continued volunteering after satisfying their school requirement. Beyond the general positive experience of helping others, they’ve also built skills in food handling and customer service that they can include on their resumes as they pursue paid jobs.

I don’t know whether my kids would have gotten involved with this organization if not for the school service requirement. But I’m so glad they did and believe it’s had real benefits for them, as well as the organization they’re serving.

+100

It’s good for teen’s mental health too

[Anonymous]

I also think there are some aspects to volunteering that can have a benefit for yourself, no question. I used to volunteer at a food bank/kitchen. Learning how to make and handle large meals has been a skill I've been able to use for my own benefit quite a few times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid satisfied all their HS volunteering during the Summer prior to freshman year.

None of it was listed in the activities section for college because it happened before Freshman year.

New poster, but just to clarify for upcoming applicants, summer before ninth grade counts as part of ninth grade for college admissions, so it's fine to include activities and volunteering from that summer on the Common App.

Maybe…but my kid had tons of other things to list, so was advised to list the more prominent and recent activities to fill up the 10 things.

If any space remained, then this probably would have been mentioned.

If your kid had that many strong activities, the lack of including volunteering probably didn’t matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why I’m a fan of required community service. Sure, for some kids it’s just a box they check with the most minimal effort they can muster. But for others, it’s the push they need to get involved in something they end up really caring about. My kids work with a neighborhood organization that provides food and health services to others in the local community. They both continued volunteering after satisfying their school requirement. Beyond the general positive experience of helping others, they’ve also built skills in food handling and customer service that they can include on their resumes as they pursue paid jobs.

I don’t know whether my kids would have gotten involved with this organization if not for the school service requirement. But I’m so glad they did and believe it’s had real benefits for them, as well as the organization they’re serving.

+100

It’s good for teen’s mental health too

So are many things…yet schools don’t require you to join a student club, participate in a music/arts EC, play a sport (I know some privates do), etc.

Those are also great for mental health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid satisfied all their HS volunteering during the Summer prior to freshman year.

None of it was listed in the activities section for college because it happened before Freshman year.

New poster, but just to clarify for upcoming applicants, summer before ninth grade counts as part of ninth grade for college admissions, so it's fine to include activities and volunteering from that summer on the Common App.

Maybe…but my kid had tons of other things to list, so was advised to list the more prominent and recent activities to fill up the 10 things.

If any space remained, then this probably would have been mentioned.

If your kid had that many strong activities, the lack of including volunteering probably didn’t matter.

Correct…that’s why CS isn’t as critical as everyone makes it out to be. They just want kids to be engaged and productive in whatever endeavors they choose.

[Anonymous]

For all the hostility to OP on this forum, did anyone stop to think that some kids who do volunteer in a formal capacity may not be doing chores at home (because they’re too busy doing things to position themselves to get into good colleges) or that OP may not want to raise a kid who’s interest is fake and who’ll drop volunteering or ditch their nonprofit the second they get that acceptance letter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid didn’t volunteer or do any community service activities or have impact. The interest has be genuine, authentic. So that box didn’t get checked. That doesn’t mean that they won’t contribute on campus. Kids grow and change and can contribute to their campus/local communities in a lot of other ways. Anyone else whose kid didn’t volunteer?

That is my kid and going to HYPSM. Did not volunteer at all.

I did not think there is even a point to applying to T20 because of what everyone is saying about community service. DC helps their friends in simple ways. We put that as an activity, but there is a teacher recommendation that I am guessing that supports that as well.

[Anonymous]

Don't they play a sport? Usually the coaches sign off on all of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid didn’t volunteer or do any community service activities or have impact. The interest has be genuine, authentic. So that box didn’t get checked. That doesn’t mean that they won’t contribute on campus. Kids grow and change and can contribute to their campus/local communities in a lot of other ways. Anyone else whose kid didn’t volunteer?

Maybe step in a little bit and model for your kid a volunteering opportunity. Do you volunteer somewhere? Can you bring DC with you and start to teach them about the meaning of service and get them thinking about what type of service might interest them.

Maybe start with a local food pantry. The concept of assisting someone who needs additional food is one that almost anyone can relate to.

This. It's something I've tried to model/encourage with my kids because I want them to recognize the value and develop a lifelong habit. It's not just about college apps.

[Anonymous]

My kid was accepted to all 5 of HYPSM (and more). Didn't do any formal community service.

[Anonymous]

My kid also doesn’t have the kind of volunteer work that will show as an activity on a college app.
He’s done stuff here and there for his SSL hours and helps out his grandparents and neighbors and does chores at home. But he has adhd and some other commitments and also doesn’t drive so it’s been not practical for him to come up with sort of a sustained volunteer activity. His sister had a ton of that because she was the kind of person that loved having her time all blocked out and also loved mentoring younger kids (which is sort of the easiest volunteer type work to schedule).

[Anonymous]

Since everyone is required to have SSL hours at my children's large public school, community service has no meaning anymore - you would need to devote hundreds more hours than the others to stand out. My son listed all the hours he worked as a dog shelter volunteer, and I think nobody cared, at all.

The truth is that anything that's not independently verified by a third party can be fabricated, so I'm not sure colleges consider random extra-curriculars seriously. It may be more useful to belong to recognizable organizations, and maybe have a letter of recommendation to prove what you've achieved there, than to simply list all the stuff you did on your own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For all the hostility to OP on this forum, did anyone stop to think that some kids who do volunteer in a formal capacity may not be doing chores at home (because they’re too busy doing things to position themselves to get into good colleges) or that OP may not want to raise a kid who’s interest is fake and who’ll drop volunteering or ditch their nonprofit the second they get that acceptance letter?

I mean, I did volunteering in school as a lod and did chores at home.

Honestly whether it's fake or not, the 200 hours or whatever is still 200 hours of good. And modeling service and community participation matter, eve if it's just for a short time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why I’m a fan of required community service. Sure, for some kids it’s just a box they check with the most minimal effort they can muster. But for others, it’s the push they need to get involved in something they end up really caring about. My kids work with a neighborhood organization that provides food and health services to others in the local community. They both continued volunteering after satisfying their school requirement. Beyond the general positive experience of helping others, they’ve also built skills in food handling and customer service that they can include on their resumes as they pursue paid jobs.

I don’t know whether my kids would have gotten involved with this organization if not for the school service requirement. But I’m so glad they did and believe it’s had real benefits for them, as well as the organization they’re serving.

+100

It’s good for teen’s mental health too

So are many things…yet schools don’t require you to join a student club, participate in a music/arts EC, play a sport (I know some privates do), etc.

Those are also great for mental health.

Meet genius- my kid plays sports and has a job too. It’s the “giving back”/gratitude/service that is the spike for mental health. Looking outside of oneself and helping others less fortunate. Our society is a mess and selfish.