Service Hours

Education is more than just about learning facts and developing skills. With Roger Bacon’s motto, “In Holiness and Learning,” we strive to teach students about living holy lives, and about serving God by serving others in need. It is not enough to merely talk about this service. It is something that must be done.

Objectives of the Service Program at Roger Bacon High School

The RB teaching community believes that the students, by performing service will:

• Develop social responsibility in the practical application of the Gospels.
• Learn of their ability to influence change in the quality of life for others.
• Gain an understanding for the uniqueness of the individuals they serve.
• Appreciate cultural diversity and a broader concept of “community.”
• Advance in personal growth and value development.

Each year students at Roger Bacon will be required to engage in service experiences that span some minimum number of hours as a part of their educational experience. Fulfilling the requirement includes approval of the specific service experiences, a supervisor who will evaluate the student's service experience and a reflection paper about the experience. These requirements are spelled out in more detail for each grade level in the menu item to the left titled The Requirements for Service.

Requiring service-hour reflection papers teaches students to do theological reflection. Processing their various experiences of service gives them an opportunity to discover their personal strengths and weaknesses and to apply concepts and ideas they have gained from their academic classes.

What types of volunteer service fulfill Roger Bacon High School’s community service-hours requirement?
Students want to know what “counts” as community service when choosing activities to fulfill their required community service-hours. Guidelines for Community Service Activities provides help in choosing appropriate service projects and avoiding inappropriate ones. The Automated Service Proposal Approval Site helps you evaluate if the service you would like to undertake qualifies. This electronic form acts as an on-line test. It determines if the service a student intends to perform qualifies as community service. By answering "yes" or "no" to questions that immediately indicate if a given type of service is family service or personal favoritism rather than community service, students can generate an approval statement. That statement must then be printed by the student and signed by both the student and his or her adult supervisor.