ANNAPOLIS – Five hundred hours. Over 800 hours. Over 1,000 hours.
These are just some of totals that individual students throughout Maryland have reached in meeting their service learning requirement — well over the 45 to 75 hours they need.
While educators’ attention was focused last week on the nearly 400 members of the Class of 1997 who may not graduate for lack of volunteer hours, there are some standouts at the other end of the service learning spectrum.
These students — in every grade and county — volunteer not for recognition but because they like what they do. Helpings others gives them a good feeling. It makes them happy.
Brian Grim, 17, may be typical.
The senior at Fort Hill High School in Cumberland volunteers at Rocky Gap State Park, building picnic tables, manning the entrance, greeting visitors and working at special events.
The park was near his house and he took a special interest in it — working on weekends, after school and during the summer. “I am just about there all the time,” Grim said.
He started six years ago, but recorded his time for only the past four. Once he hit his requirement, “I turned my hours in and kept going — I enjoy volunteer work,” Grim said.
Grim is one of 43,148 Maryland students whose May graduations will depend on the service learning requirement. They are the first class in the U.S. to be held to a statewide standard.
The Maryland State Department of Education regards service learning as a method of experimental learning. By participating, officials say, students study their communities, identify problems and devise solutions.
The program has been controversial. Critics have tried to kill it through the Legislature, arguing that requiring service amounts to volunteer slavery, that more time should be spent in the classroom, and that students are getting credit for frivolous activities. But so far, the General Assembly has declined to kill the program.
As of Feb. 15, almost 35,000 students had met requirements, while another 1,800 had completed 75 percent of their hours.
Tiffany Butcher had a hand in that.
Butcher, 18, is a senior at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac. She is the student member of the Maryland State Board of Education — service that counts toward her requirement.
Last year she founded her school’s Community Service Group, through which students earned nearly 3,000 hours. She recruits, trains and supervises project managers for various projects — thereby earning even more hours.
“Some have gone above and beyond and some just did the requirement — but all said it was an enjoyable experience,” Butcher said of participants.
She herself has gone above and beyond, but like so many students, did not keep track past the minimum 75 hours.
Susanne Adkins, 17, runs a produce stand with her brother every summer. They sell squash, melons and corn from their family’s farm in Parsonsburg. And every week they take the extra vegetables to a local shelter and distribute them.
A senior at Parkside High School in Salisbury, Adkins has also worked in her school’s office, tutors fellow students through her school’s National Honors Society, and is a 4-H member.
Adkins is not sure of her total hours — only that she is “way over” the requirement.
Francis Guns III knows his total: 1,090 hours.
The 17-year-old Perryville High School senior is den chief for a Cecil County Cub Scout Pack, helping to organize meetings and activities for younger boys. He has also spent holidays at Perry Point Hospital for the past few years. When his grandmother became ill, Guns helped the visiting nurse with her care and then began helping other patients.
Guns thinks the requirement is a good one and is now considering a career in nursing.
In Calvert County, Kevin Oxendine, 16, has over 1,000 hours in service learning. The junior at Northern High School in Owings said his activities range from treasurer for the Maryland Association of Student Councils to membership on the Governor’s Commission of Service.
“I try to make a difference and take the initiative to try to change — make things better then they were when I came here,” said Oxendine, who lives in Dunkirk.
At another Northern High School — this one in the Garrett County town of Accident — Jason Hull just “wanted to be the best.”
Hull, 18, believes his “several thousand” hours are more than any of his classmates. The senior volunteers for the Northern Garrett Rescue Squad and Deep Creek Volunteer Fire Department. He is a certified emergency medical technician, fire fighter and rescue technician.
He has no sympathy for those who grumble about the required hours.
“If I can do it,” Hull said, “anyone can.” -30-