This year, starting on October 16, all Townsend Harris students were able to attend a workshop concerning community service at THHS. The workshop addressed questions frequently asked by students and provided information about the importance of community service, where to find volunteering opportunities, how to record community service on x2vol, and the service required for honor societies. These workshops were held in room 115 during all lunch bands on to ensure that all interested students could attend.
Biology Teacher and Coordinator of Student Activities Sarah Loew had noticed that “there [have been] many students and parents with questions about community service that the SU Executive Board … [and] decided that this would be a helpful solution. The workshops are meant to help everyone understand the community service guidelines better so that there is less stress and more joy associated with community service.”
Incoming sophomore Ali Boivab had attended the workshop “to learn about the values of community service [at THHS] as well as how community service hours and honors awards correspond.” He wanted to find out about “new volunteering opportunities, as well as make sure that the volunteering [he] was currently doing can be accepted by the school.”
Junior Hudaiba Khatari recalled that as a freshman, “I did ask an upperclassman how community service hours worked because I was confused on how many I needed.” She added, “It took me some time to figure out how to use x2vol because I never had to submit hours, but eventually, I figured it out.”
Incoming sophomore Alexan Valaras attended the workshop because at her “previous school, we never did community service; at least it was never emphasized as strongly as it is here at Townsend. I wanted to know what was required of me and what I needed to do in order to get Arista and Archon.”
As this year’s workshops had been a success, Mrs. Loew said, “In the future, I [want] to hold additional workshops on more specific topics…For example, each month there could be a different theme and students … could be [the] speakers”
Ali explained that the only change he would make to the workshop would be to “not only focus on the freshmen, but to advertise this workshop to incoming sophomores as we are as confused in this process, if not more.”
Although this was the first community service workshop at THHS, Alexan stated that “The workshop should definitely be held again.”
