From the expansion of existing programs to the creation of new ones, students now have an easier time obtaining their necessary service hours.
For the first time since the pandemic, all upper school students are required to reach 80 service hours before they graduate. The pandemic affected the amount of hours UPrep required, along with lowering the number of opportunities available to students. Even three years later, these opportunities are still limited.
“Because of the pandemic and people having a harder time getting into food banks or shelters, or other places, we wanted to find some more on-campus opportunities for students,” Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Taylor Kanemori said.
Kanemori worked to create more service opportunities due to an increase in demand from faculty and staff.
“Teachers and staff were asking me, ‘Hey, it would be great if I could have a student who could help me with this; would that count?’” Kanemori said.
Kanemori also worked with Kate Williams, global and outdoor program manager, to adjust UPrep’s Global Link program to allow for host families and student buddies to receive service hours.
“First and foremost, it is actually doing us a service,” Williams said. “We couldn’t function our hosting program without hosts.”
Students write a reflection after every service opportunity so they can contemplate the meaningful impact of that service. This applies to hosting a student as well.
“One of the goals of the Global Link program is to validate hosting as just [as]important as travel,” Williams said. “I think travel gets a lot of the glory. However, I think it can be just as meaningful to invite someone else into your life, in your home, and is a true mirror of the experience that students get while traveling.”
Students can also be buddies. Buddies help their Global Link student find their way around campus, accompany them to class and eat with them at lunch, along with other responsibilities.
“For student buddies, I would anticipate they would get around 10 hours for hosting a student on campus,” Williams said. “Then a host student in their home would get up to 20.”
Along with existing programs like Global Link and student-run organizations like Glamour Gals and Reading Buddies, new programs like Puma Tech have formed as alternate ways for students to get their hours.
“Upper school kids sign up and they get trained by me on using the makerspace equipment, fixing the printers and troubleshooting basic common issues,” Academic Technology Coordinator Jonathan Delgado said. “Then either during Community Time or their free period, they will be available to help people, and they get service hours for that.”
Puma Tech will have its first training on Oct. 21, and the service will start the following week.
“Ten people have already registered,” Delgado said. “Most of them are ninth graders, but every grade is represented.”
Service is an educational part of the UPrep experience for all students.
“I’m hoping that what community service requirements do for students is help them start to recognize in what capacity they want to give back to the communities they’re a part of,” Kanemori said.
