- Gateway High
- Community/Volunteer Service
Community Service
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Community Service Requirements for Bright Futures
Please remember that you need 100 or 75 hours of community service for the Florida Academic Scholars or Merit Scholarship respectively. All hours must be turned in to your Guidance Counselor. All hours must be completed prior to graduation and proper documentation must be maintained (See Community Service and Bright Futures below).If you are an IB student, please note that you may turn in the Service hours you earn as part of your CAS project; however Creative and Action hours do not meet the standard of service as defined by the state. Contact your counselor for more information.Click for packet: Bright Futures Community Service Packet -
How to Document Community Service
Please provide the following:
- Who did the community service?
- What service was performed?
- When and where it occurred?
- Number of hours completed
- Signature of supervisor
Community Service at School: Please use our Community Service Hours Sheet
Community Service outside the school: Please have the information on company / business letterhead
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What are the requirements for community service?
- Students must perform volunteer services on their own time, which can include lunch breaks and after school.
- Fundraising for non-profit organizations or charities is acceptable.
- Service may be volunteered to the school and/or the community.
- Service may be performed for profit-making organizations ONLY if they are institutions like hospitals or nursing homes.
- Volunteer work for a religious or political organization will ONLY count as volunteer hours if, for example, your church youth group helps with the Special Olympics or the political organization promotes non-partisan activities, such as voter registration.
- Vacation Bible School and working in the church nursery are acceptable.
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What does NOT count towards community service?
- Service rendered as a prerequisite for employment.
- Service performed for a student's family, neighbors, or friends or for profit-making organizations.
- Attendance at self-improvement workshops, conferences, or competitions.
- Service performed a s result of disciplinary action taken by the school or courts.
- Participation in Varsity or Junior Varsity athletics, or regularly scheduled band or chorus performances.
- Common activities such as acolyte, altar server, lay reader, church choir and clerical work for religious organizations.
- Babysitting
- Any paid service
- Volunteer service work involving academic requirements for a class
*The above criteria will not cover all circumstances. If a question exists regarding the acceptance of an activity for volunteer service, the student's school counselor should approve the service prior to the student's participation.
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Possible Volunteer Opportunities in the Community
- Please check Volunteermatch.org, https://www.orlandostudenttutoring.com/
Other Volunteer Options may be available below with limit due to Covid-19 social distancing expectations.
- Kissimmee Little League
- Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce
- Advent Health
- Osceola Regional Hospital
- Elementary and Middle Schools (Osceola County)
- Nursing Homes
- Assisting Teachers at GHS
- Humane Society/Animal Shelter
- Heavenly Hooves
- Orlando Tutoring Service https://www.orlandostudenttutoring.com/
- Osceola Public Library
- Osceola Teen Court
Teen Court is a diversion program for first time juvenile offenders under Court Administration. Teen volunteers fill the roles of attorneys, court clerks and jurors. They listen to real cases and then the jurors, themselves, decide, within our guidelines, what the youth should be sentenced to, not if they are guilty or not. The jury is actually made up of volunteers and defendants serving part of their sentence. The youth/defendant has 5 weeks to complete the sanctions and if successful, the State Attorney dismisses the case.
With that being said, youths that volunteer as jurors, clerks or attorneys will receive community service hours for their time. We meet every Wednesday at the courthouse on the 5th floor and we use 1 of the courtrooms. We currently do a virtual Teen Court via Teams one Wednesday a month. We did virtual Teen Court continually through the pandemic and will be keeping it once a month to be able to serve more youths. For in person Teen Court youths need to arrive at 4:30pm and virtual Teen Court starts at 5pm, usually logging in about 4:30pm.
- Give Kids the World
- Relay for Life
- Gift for Teaching
- Mission Trips
- Scouts
- Red Cross
- T.R.A.C.K. Center Inc (trackcenter.org)
- Volunteer Match: Volunteermatch.org
- Food Banks
Additional volunteer options available: Click Volunteering Oportunities
Need tutoring or a virtual community service opportunity?
Orlando Student Tutoring is a free online tutoring program run by a group of high school students at Lake Highland Prep. You can easily get service hours by tutoring students in subjects you are comfortable with. This is an excellent opportunity for you to get hours for Bright Futures in
the comfort and safety of your home. Don't hesitate to sign up for a personal tutor if you also need academic help!
You can sign up here: https://www.orlandostudenttutoring.com/