Community service is unpaid, voluntary work performed by people to benefit the community, by assisting others or fulfilling a request.
Completing community service hours is mandatory at Lake Stevens High School and in countless schools as a graduation requirement. Vikings are required to complete 45 hours of community service for graduation, and it is recommended to complete 15 hours each year to fulfill this requirement.
“Forty-five hours is a lot, like it’s too much,” senior Ashleigh Neihart said. “They should make the requirement to 30 hours.”
Ashleigh also commented that she volunteered for places such as helping the school with activities and events and participated in clubs such as Interact Club. She also complained about her busy schedule outside of school and that competing in tournaments periodically impacts her opportunities to volunteer for community service hours.
“Helping the community is a great thing, but doing it involuntarily isn’t. I wish that this amount of community service hours isn’t required. And also other schools don’t even have to do community service to graduate,” Neihart said.
Forty-five hours might be excessive, especially when nearing graduation at the end of the school year, a handful of seniors have not accomplished their 45 hours. Reasons why they might not have finished their hours may be due to the lack of community service opportunities, lack of motivation, not wanting to complete any community service entirely or that it was just too many hours for them to handle and complete.
Community Service Liaison Gina Buckmiller said that 296 out of 2,302 students have completed their community service hours. Only 214 seniors have completed their hours.
“Yeah I did band which gave me a lot of hours, but I know that my friends often complain about how they haven’t completed their hours yet, and they don’t want to do it, but they have to,” senior Kathy Russell said. “Community service is great for the community and all and gives you life skills, but it’s too much.”
The number of community service hours might hinder a person’s motivation to complete their graduation hours, which is why many students often complain about doing community service.
“I feel like it is necessary, but 45 hours for the average person is probably too much. But it is necessary for graduation,” Russell said.
Multiple students had expressed their concerns about how the requirement of 45 hours of community service is a bit excessive, yet they think it’s necessary for graduation since it would benefit knowing the community better, making a difference and acquiring valuable work experience and skills. But they also think that having the need to complete community service hours is unnecessary since other schools do not require it and it’s involuntary voluntary work.
“It is a lot of hours and it’s too much for one person to do. But I feel like it is important for graduation since you’re helping out the community and making it better,” senior Andrew Aguero said.
