How Many Community Service Hours Do You Need For Silver Knight

Audrey Neal, 73, left, and Home Reitwiesner, 90, right, help to pack smart sacks at the Asbury Methodist Village in Gaithersburg, Doctor., with Maryland high school seniors Aiyla Vallier and Kevin Gonzalez, both 17. (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Mail)

Mary Wagner gets insistent with her students at this time of year. Information technology's 10 weeks until graduation day, and she'due south been nudging seniors at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Leap to finish their community service hours.

"We continue making it clear: This is not optional," says Wagner, whose concluding count showed 93 of the schoolhouse's 378 seniors had come brusque on the Maryland land graduation requirement.

In many schools in the Washington region, community service hours take on a new-found urgency in spring, as students nearing graduation look to put in time at soup kitchens, charitable events, libraries, parks, recreation centers and retirement homes.

In Montgomery County, 26 percentage of seniors had outstanding hours in the second week of March, according to school system figures. In Prince George's County, the number was 28 percent at nigh the same indicate.

"I always tell them, 'Leap intermission is the perfect opportunity to get things washed,' " says Yvette Wright, a counselor at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville. "Kids tend to procrastinate and wait until the last infinitesimal."

In Maryland, students must earn 75 pupil-service learning hours to graduate, though many of those hours may be embedded within academic courses. D.C. public schools require 100 hours of customs service. Virginia doesn't have a statewide mandate, simply many students may practise such work through certain classes, organizations or on their ain.

Ideally, students state work that is related to a potent interest or career possibility, Wright says. Her students have put in fourth dimension at an creature shelter, a nutrient pantry, an arboretum, a hospital and the National Institutes of Health — not just helping others, she said, but also gaining practical feel and boosting college applications.

Wright says she'south noticed that among a renewed focus on the result, "kids are understanding the purpose, that service learning is almost giving back and getting involved."

In jump, some popular customs service spots are flooded with calls.

"We are more than than overwhelmed with high school kids who want to do service hours," said John Krivak, a librarian at the Prince George's County Memorial Library in Hyattsville.

In D.C., Peter MacPherson, a parent and Ward 6 instruction ­activist, said the service requirement is worthwhile but tin exist daunting. His daughter, involved in a rigorous academic program at Schoolhouse Without Walls and competitive swimming for many years, has put in more than than 35 hours since Jan, helping at a library, a schoolhouse, a science fair, a pet adoption upshot and a museum, likewise every bit tutoring children, he said.

"It's a scramble," he said.

At Montgomery's Clarksburg High Schoolhouse, Natoscha McKinnon, head of the counseling department, as well notes that many students have competing obligations. For some, jobs and family responsibilities are a priority, she said. "They understand the importance of it," she said. "It's just a matter of finding time to fit it in."

At Clarksburg, simply under 30 percent of students nonetheless accept hours to certificate, said Ed ­Dalton, who coordinates the effort. Even so, he said, "it all does come together in the end," adding that he could recall only once when a pupil did not complete the hours and could not graduate with classmates.

Last twelvemonth, fewer than 10 Montgomery County students, in a senior class of more than 10,000, failed to graduate for lack of service hours.

At Asbury Methodist Village, a standing-care retirement community in Gaithersburg, volunteer manager Sharon Bennett says she's seen an uptick in student involvement as graduation nears. "We accept a large mass of seniors right now trying to get their hours washed," she said.

Still, Bennett says, the teens contribute a lot — helping dementia patients use iPods, reading to the vision-impaired, playing bingo, providing simple companionship.

On Friday, loftier school students were working with Asbury residents preparing packages of food for residents of a homeless shelter.

Aiyla Vallier, 17, a Clarksburg High senior performing community service at Asbury for the first time, said she liked the work and hoped to proceed going later on she met her school obligations.

"They're like my grandparents," she said of the residents, recalling one adult female who smiled and joked with her. "I similar being around the seniors."

Some students take on customs work regularly.

In D.C., Benjamin Banneker Bookish High School requires 270 hours of service. In Montgomery, students who earn 260 hours or more are recognized with a purple tassel at graduation. In Prince George's, students with extra hours are eligible to compete for a scholarship.

"We're teaching them global citizenship and how you give back to the community," said Banneker Principal Anita Berger.

Karen Osorio, a 17-year-onetime senior in Prince George's County, says she has completed nearly 200 hours, working at an elementary schoolhouse in the summer and with a softball squad for developmentally disabled students.

"I ever call up information technology's good to give back to the customs and also to proceeds experience," she said, pointing out that she has learned workplace skills she would non take otherwise acquired.

At Blake High School, Wagner, the schoolhouse'due south coordinator for ­educatee-service learning hours, says seniors and their families are notified of outstanding service requirements in a variety of ways, including letters, robocalls and meetings.

Many students consult the county'due south volunteer heart Spider web site for opportunities. But Wagner as well has created a wall for service opportunities just outside her classroom.

1 recent mean solar day, she checked in with several seniors during luncheon. "What are you going to do?" she asked, looking for specifics.

1 student said he had washed many hours just neglected to mitt in his paperwork.

Tyronne Okunoren, xviii, said he had two service gigs, i at his younger brother's elementary school and some other at the National Capital Trolley Museum. He was nearly washed, he said.

"At showtime I thought it was going to be a chore," he recalled. "But after the first week, I started to become into it." He says the work gives him a view beyond the classroom: "It kind of lets me take a break from academics and focus on the existent world."

How Many Community Service Hours Do You Need For Silver Knight,

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/high-school-seniors-in-mad-scramble-to-finish-community-service/2015/04/05/35aa73b8-d943-11e4-ba28-f2a685dc7f89_story.html

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