Service Opportunities During Remote Learning

Since students are not on the IMSA campus, it has become increasingly difficult to get service hours. Due to the nature of remote learning, many sophomores especially will struggle with obtaining internal service hours. External service hours, on the other hand, are a problem for everyone. Social distancing has further limited the opportunities for IMSA students to get external service hours; additionally, the financial burden which many families have during the pandemic has caused students to take on jobs, which severely limits their time to volunteer. However, these are a couple of opportunities for students struggling to get service hours, despite the circumstances, which can help the IMSA student body get closer to the 200-hour benchmark:

Red Cross Volunteer Opportunities

One of the benefits of volunteering for the Red Cross is that there are now virtual opportunities to provide assistance. However, if you are able to leave your home, Red Cross still allows people to welcome visitors to Red Cross facilities and take their temperature. The benefit of both of these service opportunities is that neither would be unmanageable for students with a heavy academic workload.

Delivering Groceries to Seniors

Due to the elderly being especially susceptible to harm from COVID-19, it is important that seniors stay home. Therefore, many seniors, especially in suburban and urban areas, need a means of getting essential goods, such as groceries. Depending on your location, delivering groceries to seniors may be simultaneously safe and an effective way of getting service hours. In most cases, despite the fact that this service opportunity requires you to leave the house, the nature of delivering groceries does not pose a threat to one’s health.

Teach Coding Classes to K-8th Graders

This sounds like a lot of work, and that would be anticipated. However, the benefit of this opportunity is that it provides a lot of service hours: there are approximately 3-5 hours of work per week for 8 weeks, so this opportunity alone can get you 20% closer to the 200-hour goal. This opportunity would consist of two synchronous classes per week in addition to grading homework and managing teaching assistants. However, this opportunity should only be utilized for students at least somewhat familiar with code, and pick the curriculum which you are most familiar with.

Translators Without Borders

Another virtual service hour opportunity is through Translators without Borders. You can volunteer as long as you are fluent in one language other than your native language, so this is a perfect opportunity for IMSA students who are bilingual or polylingual. A great aspect of this opportunity is that you can choose the types of texts that you want to translate. However, if you by chance only are fluent in one language or this opportunity does not spark your interest, Translators without Borders is also looking for graphic and web page designers.