Student Life
Community Service - Requirements
All students in the college orientation classes are required to serve eight hours of community service. The purpose of the eight hour community service requirement for our college orientation classes is to help the students implement service into their regular routine. We believe that service can open the students' eyes to the needs around them, as well as build character. We also believe that it can give them experience that will help them in their future careers. Most importantly, however, we believe that the community service requirement can help students understand what it means to be a servant and thus build servanthood in their Christian lives.
Included in our definition of community service are: activities that benefit churches (preferably other than your home church), organizations like the Salvation Army, Boys' and Girls' Clubs, Women's Care Center, Hannah Lindahl Children's Museum, Hospice, Holy Cross Living Center, and various nursing homes. Community service is also work done for individuals who do not have the means themselves to get it done (such as painting or raking leaves for an elderly or physically handicapped individual). We do not consider community service work to be for someone who is capable to do it himself and just wants to use students to get it done more quickly and cheaply. Community service must be done free of charge.
Not included in our definition are activities such as: fund-raisers done by any Bethel College organization (for example, student council or any other college organization can't use college orientation students who are required to do service to participate in their fund-raising events.), work done for the immediate family (this type of work is considered something that we all should do anyway), or work done for a for-profit organization. (For example, a student can't work eight hours at their regular job without pay and call it community service.)
A good principle to go by when deciding whether an activity falls under the category of community service is "when in doubt, ask." The staff of the Community Service Center is always happy to answer any questions that arise on this topic.
Students in college orientation will be given the opportunity to sign up for various projects that interests them during the semester. The Community Service Center will work with each orientation class to assign all students to activities that they can comfortably perform. However, it is the student's responsibility to turn in all hours completed to the Community Service Center before the last day of classes. Each work group will have a sign-up sheet at their respective work sites. If a student decides to do community service on an individual instead of group basis, he/she will be responsible for getting a yellow slip, located on the Community Service Office door, filled out by the organization's supervisor. If eight hours are not turned in by the last day of classes, the student will not pass college orientation. The Community Service Center will keep students updated on how many hours they have turned in by mail correspondence and by a posted list that will be updated weekly starting at midterm. The list will be updated daily for the last two weeks of the semester. It is the student's responsibility to check that list and make sure that he/she turns in the required eight hours of service. Students who wait until the last minute to get their hours done will not receive any sympathy from the Community Service Center, so they should not plan on calling the Center, the college orientation professor, or the community service advisor to beg for more time or share their excuses as to why they couldn't complete eight hours in 16 weeks. Only very good excuses (such as a lengthy hospitalization or serious illness) will be accepted.
