National Honor Society Volunteer Ideas – Categorized!

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A large part of the National Honor Society responsibilities is for students to volunteer and have community service hours accumulated. But oftentimes, there is a disconnect between students in National Honor Societies and the administrators who are in charge of collecting their hours and keeping track of the National Honor Society Volunteer Hours.

For example, what type of volunteer work can a National Honor Society student perform in order for it to be considered for their National Honor Society Volunteer hour totals? And, can a National Honor Society administrator help students get their volunteer hours?

We suggest that you answer these questions clearly by providing examples and different types of National Honor Society volunteer hours!

Different Types of National Honor Society Volunteer Hours

Specific National Honor Society Volunteering

This category of National Honor Society volunteer work includes activities that the National Honor Society might be promoting or working on that year. The four pillars of the National Honor Society are scholarship, leadership, service, and character. But, sometimes they like to focus on one initiative.

For 2021, the National Honor Society is running a “Take Down Tobacco” Campaign. So, for Specific National Honor Society Volunteering, students can be asked to volunteer specifically for this campaign, and it can count for their National Honor Society volunteer hours that are required!

Here are some ideas to present to students for this type of volunteering:

• Attend a National Honor Society webinar about the campaign

• Build a “Take Down Tobacco” Campaign within the school

• Help advertise “Take Down Tobacco” in local areas by making posters or hanging up NHS approved posters

Independent National Honor Society Volunteer Hours

These National Honor Society volunteer hours are community service opportunities that students find on their own time without any assistance. These volunteer hours are good because they help student volunteers gain independence and leadership skills.

The best way to let students know that you would like them to volunteer on their own time and find their own activities is by giving them broad examples and letting them know that they can present the volunteer opportunities to an admin of the National Honor Society within the school to double-check that it is acceptable.

Here are some example ideas of broad volunteer opportunities for National Honor Society student volunteers:

• Volunteering At A Local Thrift Store

• Sign Up To Volunteer at City Events

• Work at an Animal Shelter

• Help homeless shelters with goods and services

• Create your own volunteer tutoring business

• Participate in a community clean-up event

Make sure students are aware that they cannot be paid for volunteer work, and that they must be able to reflect on their impact of volunteering if they are planning to use the volunteer work for National Honor Society volunteer hours.

Assisted National Honor Society Volunteer Hours

Assisted National Honor Society volunteer hours will be hours that the school’s specific National Honor Society plans for the students. These might be larger events or volunteering that takes place over multiple dates.

Assisted National Honor Society volunteer hours work well because students can have a distinct role in the volunteer project and see their impact, as well as develop leadership skills.

Examples of Assisted National Honor Society volunteer hours that can be provided:

• A group fundraising event that goes towards a charity of your choice, or sponsors youth sports team; a 5K, carnival event, etc.

• A community drive – contact different local businesses and nonprofit organizations and ask if there are any items they need – then organize an item drive within the school!

• Group Volunteer for larger organizations – set up group volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, or a food pantry.

• Find a group charity competition and enter your school’s National Honor Society – here is an example.

• Organize a school-wide blood drive & students volunteer during the event!

The administration can get creative with these projects and ask students to volunteer in specific areas that might be out of their comfort zone, but administration members are there to help students get their National Honor Society volunteer hours!

How To Implement Different Types of National Honor Society Volunteering

Since students do have to meet a certain level of volunteer hours for the National Honor Society, it is important that they are keeping track of their volunteer hours, and that an administrator of the school National Honor Society is as well.

It is important that students do as much different volunteer work for the National Honor Society as possible. So, a school National Honor Society might want to add to the requirements. If a student needed 40 hours of volunteering for the National Honor Society, you can ask them to complete 20 independent volunteer hours, 10 assisted volunteer hours, and 10 NHS specific volunteer hours. (Or any other numbers you would like)

This will help students volunteer in different environments and really explore their volunteering comfort zone.

This might sound confusing to track, but if you have a volunteer time tracking system in place, it should not be hard.

Specifically with Track It Forward, a volunteer time tracking system, volunteers can see their progress in a pie chart and a bar chart showcasing how close they are to a goal. We call them milestones. And, you can track multiple milestones!

So, you can set up a milestone tracking system for 40 hours total, and make sure 20 of them are a certain type of volunteer hour. Students then go into their account from a mobile device or computer and input their volunteer hours, whenever!

Admins of the National Honor Society can easily check on volunteer hours to see which students might be ahead or behind of the others. And, students can easily check and see which volunteer hours they are missing!

Track It Forward also offers a single sign-on integration with Clever! If your school uses Clever, then this is the perfect opportunity to allow students to easily and securely log volunteer hours using their existing Clever credentials. Track it Forward is very familiar with the style of National Honor Society volunteers hours, and we would love for you to see just how nicely our software works for you!