For my entire life, it has been instilled in me that service is an important part of being a good samaritan. This completely makes sense to me; I’m given a lot every single day that others are not lucky enough to receive so I should do everything I can to give back. But I start to have a lot of questions about the ethics of service when it comes to doing good deeds for “service hours.” 

Service hours are required of many students at Meridian, whether because they are reaching for the IB Diploma and trying to gain CAS hours or trying to become a part of National Honors Society. I understand that the point of recording your service hours is to show these prestigious organizations that the student is balanced and cares about the community, but is that really what it ends up doing?

What kind of message is it sending to students that they should only do service so they can add hours to applications and receive the IB Diploma? Students should do service because it’s a way to give back to the community and gain perspective. Doing service just so it “looks good” on an application completely negates the purpose of service, which is to help others who are in need.

Often, when someone is forced to do something, they develop a negative connotation with the activity. This is the exact same case when it comes to forcing kids to do service just so they can put it on an application. 

The objective of making service hours a requirement for these programs is to add students who are balanced and connected to their community. Instead of merely requiring students to document their hours, we should  have students write a paragraph about what the individual learned with their various service experiences. This way, programs get a sense of how engaged students are in service but they are also gathering information about the person as a whole. Students are encouraged to do service but not just to “gain hours.”

With that said, I understand that Meridian High School cannot remove service hour requirements from applications that are created by outside programs. I ask that these important programs take into consideration what they are really asking of students and how they think students can further their service experience.