Volunteer hours on transcript-monthly or yearly total?

[Ann@thebeach]

I am taking the advice of some expert transcript folks and doing this year by year, instead of last minute when he's a senior.

He's in 9th grade right now so I'm trying to get his 9th grade year written up now so I don't forget anything.

 

My son is in Police Explorers and volunteers approx. 10 hrs a month with events. I'm trying to decide the best way to list this. Should I just write "volunteers approx. 10 hrs per month" or add up all the hours for the year and put that number? Should I add a general list of duties such as handing out fliers, child ID card fingerprinting, directing traffic, etc? Or would that be obvious considering it's for Police Explorers?

 

He also does lots of training on various issues such as suicide, domestic violence, homelessness, etc and I think these are great trainings too.

Not sure how to list that though, thoughts?

 

Other than his basic academics, Police Explorers and martial arts are his main activities. Since he is not academically inclined (he's scraping by with the basic subjects of Algebra and writing but enjoys history and science), I really want to highlight his other activities.

 

Thanks for any feedback.

[regentrude]

I do not see the transcript as the place to list any non-academic activities.

In the college application, there will be plenty of room to list volunteer activities and details, such as time spent. You could also highlight those in your guidance counselor letter - but you would typically not put this on the transcript.

I would make a detailed list of the activities he did while volunteering, total the hours, and keep it in my records to be at hand when the time comes - the same way you would write up an extended course description (which you might later condense into one paragraph)

 

ETA: The Common App asked for hours per week spent on each activity

[Jenny in Florida]

I do not see the transcript as the place to list any non-academic activities.

In the college application, there will be plenty of room to list volunteer activities and details, such as time spent. You could also highlight those in your guidance counselor letter - but you would typically not put this on the transcript.

I would make a detailed list of the activities he did while volunteering, total the hours, and keep it in my records to be at hand when the time comes - the same way you would write up an extended course description (which you might later condense into one paragraph)

 

ETA: The Common App asked for hours per week spent on each activity

 

As usual, Regentrude is right on both counts.

 

Traditional school transcripts do not, as far as I can tell, include any extracurricular activities, just courses taken, grades and test scores.

 

We did write up a "student resume" that listed all of my son's extras, including his volunteering. We sent it to the folks he asked to write letters of recommendation for him, and he took copies with him to college and scholarship interviews so he had the information handy. He also used it as a template for filling out the appropriate sections of the Common App and the individual applications of colleges and scholarship programs. Most of those applications asked him to list hours per week spent on each activity and the number of weeks each year in which he participated.

[Ann@thebeach]

Interesting. I have read many things about making the transcript work for the student by adding in the "extra" stuff and showcasing the "whole" student.
I guess it's a matter of semantics since some would call this extra stuff a student resume rather than a transcript. I know the term "transcript" varies greatly depending on how one will use it and the expectations of the receiver/college.
I was planning on courses/credits to be one section and the additional info in another section.

I also am not using this for entry into a high level college since he will be starting at a community college.
I am mainly wanting to get all the info down for scholarships and other applications that might need a transcript of some type.

So back to the volunteer hours. I guess I will look at some more references on how to do this.

[Swimtaxi234]

Unlike the other posts, I have my daughter's volunteer hours listed on her transcript.  It will be one line - something like, "As of 4/1/14 - 121 Community Service Hours", but I also have accomplishments and activities on the same page.  It is a very clean layout and easy to read.

 

I learned the hard way that each of the hours needed to be verified (for a possible scholarship), so while it was a pain, I contacted all of the POC (person in charge) and asked them to send an email or letter (on letterhead if possible) verifying the volunteer hours.  In my email requesting the verification, I listed: # hours, date, location, and task.

 

Thankfully every single hour has been verified.

 

[Ann@thebeach]

Good to know about the scholarships and volunteer hours. I "think" the police explorers keeps a record of the hours (they need so many hours to get ride alongs) but I will definitely check that now.

[Jenny in Florida]

I learned the hard way that each of the hours needed to be verified (for a possible scholarship), so while it was a pain, I contacted all of the POC (person in charge) and asked them to send an email or letter (on letterhead if possible) verifying the volunteer hours.  In my email requesting the verification, I listed: # hours, date, location, and task.

 

 

I more or less knew we needed to do that for purposes of applying for Bright Futures (Florida's state scholarship program). However, we had been lazy about taking care of it. My son gave me permission to try and round up the info, since he's super busy at the moment with school and dance competition season. So, I contacted the two organizations with which he's put in the most hours last week to ask for documentation.

 

Both were really helpful. One has youth volunteers clock in and out on the computer for every shift and so was able to print out a list of every hour my son has done with them. They also have a form letter to fill out, and they had it ready for me to pick up the following day. The other one apparently doesn't keep track of hours in as formal a way and has a policy of not generating these documents. However, they did say that, if I drafted an appropriate letter listing the hours I had in my records and e-mailed it to them, the assistant would print it on their letterhead, sign it and e-mail me a scan.

 

Fortunately, even if they fall down on the job, my son has logged more hours than he actually needed with the first organization. I just want the records to be complete.

[Gwen in VA]

The transcript we designed for our kids was based on the dh's and my transcripts from our top public high school in the early 80's. (Top meaning 5% of the graduating seniors went to Harvard one year, one year 4% went to MIT plus several Ivies, etc.) Yes, dh's and my transcripts listed the activities we were involved with!

 

Front:

This side of the transcript is very traditional and done by year. Classes, credits, grades, GPA, definition of a unit, symbols to indicate where the outside classes were taken, and a corresponding listing of websites for the outside classes.

 

Back:

SAT scores and date taken

AP scores and date taken

SAT-2 scores and date taken

 

Then we divided the remaining back up into four areas. The labels of these four areas changed slightly from kid to kid, but were basically Awards/Honors, Paid Employment, Volunteer Service, and Activities. (One kid started his own company, so we dropped Paid Employment and listed activities involved with his entrepreneurial venture.) Under each heading we had a column for grade (10 or 9-12 or the like) and then a much wider column for listing the activity or award.

 

We did not list anything as detailed as hours on the transcript since 1) there is not enough room, and 2) applications have plenty of space for that type of information.

 

We also submitted an Activity Sheet as described by Michele Hernandez in her book about college admissions. The Activity Sheet (3 - 6 pages)  gave much more detail about the activities and provided an estimate of hours spent on the activity. (I love the idea of the Activity Sheet and feel very grateful to Michele Hernandez for the idea!)

[lmrich]

I think anyone can use the Presidential Volunteer Service Award to track hours and then write on the transcript under awards what place he received.

[EndOfOrdinary]

If your state requires occupational ed, vocational ed, or technology credits, it sounds like what Police Explorers could count as that. It would be a cumulative grade or cumulative credits including all four years. I would be leery of tweeting the look of a transcript too much. It would mainly depend on where he wanted to apply and what he wanted to major in.

Most colleges spend only about 15 minutes per application looking at the transcript. Putting in too much extraneous information can be detrimental.

[Shelly in VA]

Interesting. I have read many things about making the transcript work for the student by adding in the "extra" stuff and showcasing the "whole" student.
I guess it's a matter of semantics since some would call this extra stuff a student resume rather than a transcript. I know the term "transcript" varies greatly depending on how one will use it and the expectations of the receiver/college.
I was planning on courses/credits to be one section and the additional info in another section.

 

I did something like this with oldest dd's transcript. She is currently at a 4-yr university, largely on merit scholarship. The front of her transcript was "traditional" with nothing but grades. The back listed "extras" like volunteer hours, extracurriculars, SAT/ACT scores. Not sure if it was good or bad, but she did get accepted to every college she applied to, some of them highly selective.

 

I think you're right, and that it is largely semantics. I imagine admissions people see transcripts in 1,000,000 different formats!

 

I do recommend keeping a log of volunteer hours, as someone else suggested, b/c all of the resume/transcript info can be requested in different formats by different schools during the application process.