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Service Hours
How does the tutoring work?
Members of Springfield's chapter of the National Honor Society are required
to participate in two different types of service. The first is a group
service project in which all members participate. The second is an individual
service project chosen by each student and is done on his or her own.
Our group service project is to tutor other high school students in
the library on Wednesday evenings. The officers of the honor society
will be in charge of organizing this, and everyone is required to donate
roughly the same number of hours to this project. Usually honor society
members sign up to work in pairs. Sometimes students sign up to be tutored;
others just walk in. If no one shows up to be tutored, the honor society
members are free to work on their own assignments as long as they stay
in the library for the time they agreed to be there. The tutoring begins
the Wednesday after the induction ceremony and stops in early May.
How do I go about getting my individual service hours approved?
In addition to the group tutoring service project described above, each
honor society member is also required to complete thirty hours of service
on his or her own. The first twenty of those thirty hours needs to be
completed by the beginning of the new year (see the online calendar
and/or Mrs. Zehner if you are unsure), and the remaining ten need to
be completed by May of your senior year.
By the September deadline, you need to give a typed proposal for your
first twenty service hours to Mrs. Zehner. On the proposal, you need
to explain what you will be doing, the names of an adult who will be
answerable for your hours, a phone number for that adult, and an e-mail
address for that adult if possible. Before you submit the proposal,
make sure that the adult understands that Mrs. Zehner will be contacting
him or her for verification, and that if your hours are not verified
in a timely fashion that you can lose your membership in the honor society.
You will find the form for the service hours proposals under forms.
Not all proposals will necessarily be accepted. For example, working
at your job (or another place of business) for free is not community
service unless that job clearly benefits the larger community. Community
service that you have to do for a class, service hours that are required
by another organization, or service hours that are part of a project
for which you will receive school credit are also not acceptable for
this purpose. (Hours that go above and beyond what was required for
a class, project, or other organization, however, can qualify.) Also,
the service must be something that is clearly likely to happen. Proposals
that appear to be vague or unlikely will be returned to the student.
While you may do more than one service activity to fulfill your thirty
hours, you may not do more than three in any one semester. If you are
doing more than one, you will need an adult to verify each of the activities.
Only adults may verify service hours, not fellow students or other legal
minors. Be aware that one of the goals here is to encourage the honor
society members to interact with the larger community. The Faculty Selection
Committee also wants to protect the integrity of the system. Therefore,
service hours may not be verified by a family member or by a friend
of the family.
What if my service idea is not approved?
Mrs. Zehner will explain to you what the problem is and will give you
a second deadline by which to submit a second proposal. See Important
Dates.
What if my service project doesn't work out and I need to do something
different?
You must see Mrs. Zehner, submit a new proposal and have the new service
project approved. You may not simply substitute a new service activity
on your own. If you do, those hours will not be credited toward your
requirement and you can lose your membership.
What if I'm already doing community service? Can I just continue
doing it?
Probably, as long as it complies with the guidelines for approval. You
still need to write up a proposal and submit it, and you will still
need to document the thirty hours that everyone else has to document.
Hours that you performed before the proposal is approved will not be
counted toward your thirty hours.
What should I do after I've completed my first twenty hours of
service?
Before the end of January (see Calendar for
the exact date), you must submit verification of your first twenty hours
of service. Complete the form provided on this website (see Forms)
and turn it in on time to the chapter advisor (Mrs. Zehner).
What if I don't complete my twenty hours of service by the January
deadline?
If the verification is late and/or if the hours can not be verified,
the student can be disciplined by the Faculty Selection Committee or
even lose his or her membership in the honor society. The chapter advisor
will contact any student who has not fulfilled all of the service requirements
for membership (including but not limited to tardy filing, inadequate
hours and/or unverifiable hours) and will give that student a date and
time for him or her to meet with the Faculty Selection Committee to
explain the failure to comply. The Faculty Selection Committee will
then determine what if any sanctions or extra responsibilities that
student will have to bear in order to keep his or her membership in
the honor society. Failure to comply with the decision of the Faculty
Selection Committee in all respects will result in loss of membership
in the honor society. If you lose your membership, you will not be recognized
as a member of the honor society at graduation.
What about the last ten hours of individual service hours?
Many students simply continue in the same capacity as they did for the
first twenty hours, which is fine. If you want to do something different,
you need to go through the same proposal process that you went through
for the first semester. In either case, you must perform at least ten
hours of service between January and May: you may not complete your
service hours entirely in the fall.
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