Taylor Bembery
Associate Editor
The Jackson State University Divisions of Student Life and Academic Affairs are urging all students to get the required 120 hours of service to graduate to avoid consequences.
With graduation approaching, many students are in the hot seat because they have little to no service hours. The 120 community service hour requirement became mandatory for students enrolled after 2009. Transfer students have a mandatory 60 hour requirement.
Gisele Gentry, Assistant Director for Service Learning, said Student Life and Academic Affairs are enforcing the community service requirement in May 2014.
“I know students may have heard that other classes have gone through without community service hours but the original paperwork stated back in 2010 in your course catalog that if you graduate in May 2014, you need the community service hours to graduate. It is required,” said Gentry.
Students are urged to check their transcripts to ensure that any hours they have completed are recorded. Academic advisors can also assist with clearance.
Students who enrolled in the university in 2010 must meet the 120 hour requirement; transfer students need 60 hours. There has also been a change in the flexibility of obtaining 120 hours to meet the crucial deadline for those planning to graduate this semester.
“At one point, students needed 120 hours of community service; that has changed. Now you have to have 120 hours of service, meaning that if you have service learning hours that you completed in a class, that can count towards those hours. Whether it’s on-campus community service, off-campus community service, (unpaid) internship through a class, or your practicum,” said Gentry.
Student Life has continued the push to help students find opportunities and locations to earn the required 120 hours of service. Basically, students have until April to complete their servie hours to graduate. A list of service agencies can be found on the Student Life webpage.
“Monthly and bi-weekly, we will have some type of community engaged activity for students. If they do not have transportation, there will be a bus that can take them to the site and bring them back. We are currently working with agencies to get a listing of events. We will post that information in the student newspaper and it will possibly go on our website. We also will post events that are coming up outside the center so students can know what is going on with the agencies that we have partnered up with,” said Gentry.
T’erica Hudson, a senior criminal justice major from Chicago, Ill., has gone above and beyond the requirement of 120 hours. Hudson entered JSU in fall of 2010 and has earned 462 hours of community service, ranking No. 3 on a list of expected graduating seniors with service hours.
“Community service is more of an internal thing. It’s our moral obligation, not a requirement. Dr. Martin Luther King said it best: it’s about service. If we are living, we should be serving others. I feel that’s why I live by service. I do service now and I don’t even record my own hours anymore. To be selfless so that other people can grow is pretty much the main reason why I love to do community service,” said Hudson.
Raquel Araujo, a junior studio art major from Ontario Canada, understands why JSU wants students to be engaged outside the classroom.
“JSU just doesn’t want students to be academically successful, but they want students to be well rounded,” said Araujo.
The deadlines for spring 2014 service hours are April 1 for service learning hours and April 15 for community service hours. Students who participate in the Alternative Spring Break that will take place March 9-14 in Atlanta, Ga. will receive 120 community service hours. Students who wish to find out more information about service hour opportunities can visit Alice V. Harden Center for Service and Community Engaged Learning on the 1st floor of Reddix Hall, follow the twitter page: @JSU_CSCEL, or call 601-979-1294.
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