Community Service/Work Hours for Bright Futures

Community Service Hours and Bright Futures

Community service hours are not a requirement to graduate, but they are required for Bright Futures Scholarships and are a positive addition to college applications and career resumes. In order for students to satisfy the community service requirement for Bright Futures eligibility, they must identify a social or civic issue or a professional area that interests him or her, and develop a plan for his or her personal involvement in addressing the issue or learning about the area. This webpage is here to help your student get started! Community Service and Job Opportunities are often posted in Canvas in the "College and Career Center" module in the "Student Body" course, so please be sure to monitor that for opportunities.

A list of popular volunteer opportunities are here, along with a list of reasons why some community service hours cannot be counted. Please be mindful of the reasons why your community service hours could be denied: Community Service Opportunities 

Students can visit www.volunteerflorida.org and www.volunteermatch.org to see many more opportunities!

If you already know how to submit your hours, you can start here. Simply click the links below to access the forms you will need to log your hours (you must be logged into your orange county schools account to access the forms):

Community Service/Work Hours Form and Reflection

Community Service/Work Hours Form and Reflection SUBMISSION

How to Begin Volunteering: 

Steps for Students to Complete Prior to Volunteering

  • Determine an area/topic in the community where you would like to make an impact.

    • TIP: Try to do something that is relevant to what you want to do after high school. For example: If you plan to be a social worker, you might want to work at a food bank. If your postsecondary plan cannot provide you with a volunteer opportunity, then choose something you are passionate about.

  • Research the types of volunteer activities available in your community or utilize the list we have at here on our website (below)

  • Contact the organization with whom you are interested in volunteering and determine:

    • The steps to become a volunteer, 

    • If they have volunteer openings for the dates/activities you are interested in, 

    • Who the contact will be to verify your hours and participation in the activity. Note: Supervisors must be a non-family member with an organization who directly supervises the student during the activity outside of the home.

    • If you have a question regarding whether the service activity is acceptable, reach out to your school counselor

Steps for Students to Complete During Volunteering

  • Keep track of hours, dates, and activities completed during service to verify with your community service supervisor. Make sure you also keep a copy of your supervisor’s email address as you will need to provide that later. Hours must be logged on the community service form here (must be logged in to an orange county schools google account to access)

Steps for Students to Complete After Volunteering

  • Complete the reflection log at the bottom of the community service form discussing what you did during your volunteer work and how it has impacted your community. This should be 3-4 sentences long.

  • Take a picture of your completed form and upload it to your google drive account. Best practice is to have a folder specifically for community service. You should always keep records of your community service work, just in case!

  • Submit your community service form by clicking the link here. This will take you to a google form to complete where you will attach the form that you already uploaded to your google drive. Once you press submit, you are done!

  • Example of a completed community service form can be found here (must be logged in to an orange county google account to access)

Paid Work: 

Steps for Students to Complete Prior to Working

  • For paid work, students will need to submit a copy of their pay stub to their counselor or designee along with the form here (must be logged in to an orange county schools google account to access). Students will need to meet with their supervisor/manager at their place of employment to determine how to get access to this. We utilize this to monitor the total amount of hours worked.

Steps for Students to Complete During Working

  • Keep a record of your pay stubs so you can log your work hours when you reach the maximum amount (up to 100 hours of paid work). School Counselors will only log 100 hours of work as the purpose of logging the hours is for Bright Futures Scholarship only.

Steps for Students to Complete After Working (or Reaching 100 Hours)

  • Complete the reflection log at the bottom of the form discussing what you do during the average workday and how it has impacted you and your ability to be prepared for the workforce after graduation. This should be 3-4 sentences long.

  • Take a picture of your completed work hours form and upload it to your google drive account. Best practice is to have a folder specifically for community service. You should always keep records of your community service work, just in case!

  • Submit your work hours form by clicking the link here. This will take you to a google form to complete where you will attach the form that you already uploaded to your google drive. Once you press submit, you are done!

  • Example of a completed work hours form can be found here (must be logged in to an orange county google account to access)

Additional Tips for Students:

  • Students can combine community service hours and paid work hours to meet the Bright Futures requirements.

  • Teachers/Club Sponsors/Coaches do not accept nor submit community service forms on behalf of student

  • Students cannot obtain Bright Futures community service hours for being a student assistant, or for attending club meetings.

  • All volunteer community service hours will begin the summer prior to entering high school; volunteer hours prior to the summer of 9th grade will not be counted.

  • Court mandated community service or service that a student is receiving academic credit for, will not count towards community service hours for Bright Futures

  • All work hours will count if you worked after June 27, 2022.

  • Bright Futures requires that hours must be submitted to the student’s school counselor/designee no later than the student’s high school graduation date. Windermere High School recommends that seniors log all of their hours by May 1st of their senior year. It is recommended the student submit their hours each year of high school or as they are completed.