Q: Do I need community service hours to qualify
for a Bright Futures Scholarship?
A: Yes, at the 100% tuition and fees level Bright
Futures Scholarships ONLY. 75 hours of community service are required
at this level of eligibility.
A: No, at the 75% tuition and fees level. No
community service hours are required at this level of eligibility.
Q: How do I start?
A: Community Service plan forms and Verification
of Service logs are available in the guidance (or download from
available link). Complete the Community Service Plan by
1)Identifying a social problem and
2)How you plan to involve yourself in that problem.
3)Evaluate and reflect on your experience
4)Turn in completed forms to guidance by January 15.
Q: May I submit the documentation form the
agency provides?
A: No. Each supervisor of volunteers must sign
the official log noting date, month, and year.
Q: Do I send my community service information
to Bright Futures?
A: No. Once you have submitted the log AND the
75-Hour Community Service plan to guidance, the information will be
entered into the DCSB student database and electronically sent to Bright
Futures.
BRIGHT FUTURES COMMUNITY SERVICE REGULATIONS
Service may be volunteered to the school and/or
the community.
Students must perform volunteer services on
their own time, which can include the participant’s lunch break.
Study Hall time may be included for peer counseling activities or
service to the school, e.g. office aide. Participation in
performances. Festivals, or competitions during the school day may
count if this meets the criteria under #3 and participating students
are given permission by the principal to be absent from class.
Participation in performances, festivals or
competitions counts if the following apply:
Volunteer service meets an identified
community service need, and
There is no admission charge accepted for the
performance, and
Student participation is of voluntary nature,
and
Neither the student organization nor the
sponsoring organization receives payment for the performance.
Students may not be paid for service rendered.
5. Volunteer service involving academic
requirements for a class will count.
Service rendered as a prerequisite for
employment will not count.
Attendance at self-improvement workshops or
conferences will not count as service.
Fundraising for nonprofit organizations or
charities will count.
Service may not be performed for a student’s
family or for a profit-making organization, except for institutions
like hospitals or veterinary clinics.
Service performed as a result of disciplinary
action taken by the school or courts cannot count.
Volunteer work for the purpose of promoting a
particular religious or political point of view or person cannot count
as volunteer hours in the program. For example, if your church youth
group helps with the Special Olympics (benefits the larger community),
those hours would count, but not time spent distributing flyers
advertising a church revival (benefits only the church community).
Some common activities that are NOT eligible are acolyte, altar
server, lay reader, vacation Bible school, babysitting or working in
the church nursery, choir, clerical work for a religious, political,
or profit-making organization.
Participation in Varsity or Junior Varsity
Athletics and regularly scheduled band and chorus performances does
not constitute volunteer service under this program.
The above criteria will not cover all
circumstances. If a question exists regarding the acceptance of an
activity for volunteer service, the student’s principal or hi/her
designee should approve the service prior to the student’s
participation.
It is the responsibility of the student to keep
the actual record of the hours of service performed.
