Community Service

As a requirement for high school graduation, all students must complete 20 hours of Community Service. Service involves working with a non-profit organization or agency serving the needs of the community. Community Service opportunities provide the means for students to develop social awareness through experiential learning. Such opportunities help students become aware of needs which exist in our community and compel them to take action to address those needs.

Community Service hours address the Expected School-wide Learning Result of:

Contributing Citizen

• Demonstrate integrity, responsibility, perseverance as productive members of society
• Respect cultural, physical, economic, intellectual, age, and gender diversity
• Recognize, respect rules, processes to govern society
• Actively participate in the community
• Act as caretakers of the environment

Requirements:

• 20 voluntary hours from a pre-approved list of opportunities…no credit for paid hours
• Must be actual work hours, not those spent in going to and from, etc.
• To receive credit, students fill out community service form, have supervisor verify and sign, write reflection on experience
• Supervisor must not be student's parent
• Hours may be accumulated and submitted 5 at a time

Service Hours Need to be Pre-Approved

Reflection Format For Community Service Requirement

In order to fulfill your community service requirement for the Santa Clara Unified School District, you must complete 20 hours of community service. To receive credit for these hours, you must rum in a Confirmation of Hours form and a Reflection for each activity you complete. Listed below are the requirements for the Reflection.

Requirements:

I. Your reflection paper must be 1/2 page typed, and must include the following information at the top of the page:

Name:
Student I.D#
Date:
Hours:
Activity:

2. Your reflection should be in paragraph form, and should answer the following questions:

Why did you choose this activity? What did you expect to do during this activity? What did you actually do during this activity'? (Describe in detail) What did you like about the activity? What did you learn? What did you dislike? Would you do this activity again? (Explain.)

Sample Reflection
Jane Doe #1234
November 23, 2000
5:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Martha's Soup Kitchen

Today I served soup for 3 hours at Martha's Soup Kitchen. I signed up because I knew I had to do community service, and my friend Sarah was going. When the day came I didn't want to go at all. Scott cancelled at the last minute, and to be honest, I didn't know what kind of people would be there. Homeless people make me nervous. When I got there, there was already a long line of people waiting at the door. Some looked like they had no home. They were dressed in rags and looked like they hadn't showered in weeks. Others were dressed better, and I wondered where they lived and why they were there. There were a lot of little kids.

Mary Smith, the supervisor of the kitchen, showed me what to do. It was pretty easy - I just had to dish up rice --but I was still a little nervous. I didn't know how to react to these people holding out their plates to me. I just smiled. Some smiled back, some did not.  Some smelled, some did not. Some said “thank-you." One man (his name was Harry) kept telling me I looked like a beauty queen and kept asking me questions about my family, boyfriends. etc. I found out he does this to everyone. It made me uncomfortable at first, but after a while I realized he was harmless.

After my 3 hours at Martha's Soup Kitchen, I was much more comfortable than I was when I first entered, although I am still not totally at ease. The other workers know all the people by name and have no problem striking up a conversation with them, but I don't know how to do that yet. I wonder how many of the same people will be there next week when I return? Overall I liked helping out. If made me feel good to know that 1 helped someone have a decent meal. On the other hand, it made me sad to see that so many people had to come here to get fed…especially the little kids. I wanted to know why they were there. Why didn't they have jobs'? Or do they have jobs, and still can't afford to eat? It was a good experience, but at the