Figuring out all the things you need to do to graduate can be hard.  It might give you anxiety, but rest assured, it is made easy.  Career Specialist Richard Mitchell is open anytime to help answer any questions that might be had.  He will help anyone who might need it with Xello and community experience options.  

To graduate, every student must complete 20 hours of community experience, that’s five days of four hours of work per day or four days of five hours of work per day.  

“It’s not just about going to help other people, it’s about getting out there in the community and seeing what’s out there,” Mitchell said about community experience. 

Opportunities are found on Schoology in the resources tab in the Class of [your graduating year] group.  There is a folder called Volunteer Opportunities where a PDF is given of local options and places to volunteer.  Also, looking up community experience opportunities in your area online can give you options.  The PSD Varsity Letter in Volunteer Services Schoology group presents opportunities too by Schoology posts informing about upcoming volunteer options.  If that group interests you, the code is CX345-2X48S. 

Volunteering for an organization is not the only way to complete hours; a lot of things qualify as community experience.  Anything where you volunteer or help with a project, even helping a grandparent with something, counts as community experience. Mitchell would like the process to be as easy and stress free as possible.  He will personally round hours, if necessary; for example, if you contributed two and a half hours, he will round up to three.  Things that count as community experience do not only have to be something completed within your high school years.  Something you might have helped with back in seventh grade can count.  

To record hours, make a spreadsheet with the date you did the experience, how many hours were done that day, the organization worked for, the activity done, and the supervisor’s name and phone number. Although that is not necessary for graduation, it is if you would like to apply to Varsity Letter in Volunteer Services.  The log template is also found in the Varsity Letter Schoology group.  For people who do not want to apply for Varsity Letter, they simply must log all information into Xello.  To log your hours in Xello, go to the “Dashboard” click the “About Me” tab then scroll down until you see “Experiences” then click “Add Hours”.  

During the 2021-2022 school year Mitchell had zero students not graduate from lack of volunteer hours.  During March, he will call seniors to his office and review options with them if they do not have hours completed. 

“Community experience will have to be for sure done by then,” Mitchell said.   

Mr. Mitchell will help anyone anytime if they need it. 

Community experience is also useful information to put on a college application.  Community experience is one of the top areas in which colleges look at and sometimes require when going through applications.  Volunteering is also a good and fun thing to do. It is great to help the community in which you are resident.