The state of Maryland has a policy asserting that without 75 volunteer hours, students can not graduate high school. To attain these hours, students must work at volunteer organizations and accumulate a total sum of hours greater than or equal to 75 or more. These hours can be earned anytime after a student’s completion of elementary school.

According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, the official definition of volunteering is “to offer to do something without being forced to do it or without getting paid for it.” By making these hours mandatory, the county forces students into engaging in humanitarian efforts, rather than encouraging them to partake through their own initiative. This makes the “volunteer hours” completely redundant and ruins the core purpose of volunteer work. The question now is whether this practice helps or harms students.

Many students struggle to complete the student service hour requirement because of external factors out of their control. Sophomore Annisa Raisa said she “wasn’t able to [participate in SSL hours], my parents worked really long hours and I wasn’t able to go to them all the time which I feel kinda might be like a disadvantage for kids who can’t go because of other factors.” On top of this, once students reach high school, the increased workload makes completing 75 hours more challenging as the years progress. While most schools offer service hours for acts that were completed during classes, the impact is very minimal as there are too few opportunities that many students are unable to take advantage of.

Another significant concern about SSL hours, specifically impacting students because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, is they would be significantly behind in their completion of SSL hours. Raisa stated, she often did not fill out the SSL form when completing voluntary work during the pandemic. Due to this, Raisa felt panic when she entered high school, feeling this race to complete her hours in time.

Many of the non-profit organizations that students volunteer at take part in tasks such as cleaning up the environment, helping future generations or assisting those who aren’t financially equipped for life’s hurdles. Through these tasks, students feel that they are helping the community, encouraging actions with positive impacts on society. While some students begrudgingly participate in volunteer work, many are able to find opportunities that they greatly enjoy. Sophomore Venera Prak identified “I have volunteered at an Elementary School before for a party and I liked it a lot. I went back multiple times.” 

While the MCPS SSL Program states that the official reason for Maryland making volunteer hours mandatory is that they promote civic knowledge and engagement, academic success, and character in students, the harsh reality is that many students would not participate in volunteer work if it was not required. Raisa said, “I feel like there are some things people do just to get their graduation requirements and not something people do because they genuinely like them.” Sophomore Yayoi King stated her primary motivation for doing SSL is the “Graduation requirement and getting SSl hours”. Students should be fully invested in what they’re doing to truly give and receive an impact from their work. Otherwise, the work they are doing becomes meaningless. 

Student Service Learning Hours truly shouldn’t be a requirement, as this completely takes away from the core purpose of these hours – selflessly giving back to your community. However, SSL have still helped many and for that reason, doing SSL hours should be promoted by teachers and counselors, but shouldn’t be required.