Q. What types of service are required for graduation? A. 100 hours are required for graduation.
Note: These hours must fall into certain categories based on who you are helping and how.
The only category in which you must have a minimum number of hours is “Working with the Marginalized.”
0 - 25% of your hours may be in the Immediate category (Helping Sion, your place of worship, your club sport, your elementary school, etc.)
0 - 35% of your hours may be in the Practical Work category (Volunteering for non-profit organizations, but you don’t interact with the people in need)
40 - 100% of your hours must be in the Working with the Marginalized category (serving directly with people who are poor, suffering, oppressed, elderly, disabled, etc.)
Q. How do I figure out which category of service to circle?
A. Think about who (which organization or person) benefitted from your service.
If the group that benefitted is one that you are or have been associated with – such as Sion, your elementary school, your team/club, your place of worship, your Girl Scout troop, etc. – this service is for your Immediate Community.
If your service work benefitted a non-profit that wouldn’t be considered part of your immediate community, the category depends on whether you interacted with the people-in-need / marginalized.
If you did not directly interact with the people-in-need/marginalized, this would be the Practical Work category. For example: sorting food donations at Harvesters, fundraising, office work for a non-profit, organizing a clothing closet for the needy, going through volunteer training, baking cookies for the elderly, working on educating the public about pro-life issues, etc
If you did interact with the people-in-need/marginalized, this would be the Working with the Marginalized category. For example: Serving a meal at a soup kitchen, visiting with the elderly at a nursing home, talking with and transporting patients at a hospital, walking with Breast Cancer survivors at the Komen Race for the Cure, teaching an ESL class, playing with kids at a domestic violence shelter, helping the competitors at Special Olympics, etc.
If your service work falls under more than one category, circle both categories and write the amount of time allotted for each type of service. For example: If you spend 3 hours at home making cookies for KC Hospice House and then 1 hour delivering them to the guests and their families at that location, you would divide up your time into -3 hours Practical Work and 1 hour Working with the Marginalized.
Q. What if I don’t remember how many hours I have, or have a question about my totals?
Q. What does not count towards Sion’s service requirement?
A. Any work for which you are paid.
Free babysitting (unless you are babysitting for someone in the marginalized category).
Volunteering at a for-profit company.
Helping family & friends (if you think the family/friend would fall in the marginalized category,
please check with Mrs. Hull to see if it would count towards your service requirements).
Q. How do I count working with animals? A. If you are assisting a shelter and interacting with the animals, this counts in the Marginalized category. If you are assisting a shelter, but not interacting with the animals, you circle the Practical category. Volunteering at a veterinary clinic does not count for service hours.
Q. Where do I get service forms to fill out? A. This Service Learning web site is connected to the Wornall Home page so you can access it from any computer that is connected to the internet. From the main Sion Service Learning home page follow the Service Report Form link, click to download the form and print it out.
Q. Where do I turn in my service forms? A. Service Hour Report Forms are turned in to the plastic drawers (labeled for each class) in the Theology / Service-Learning office.