Community Service

List of 7 items.

• Community Service Board 2019–2020

  Co-Chairs
  Toby Nwafor and Christopher Wang

  
  Chief Operations Office
  Jack Trahan

  
  Media Manager
  Tianming Xie

  
  Vice-Chair
  Benny Wang

  
  Seniors
  Sam Ahmed
  Arjun Nair
  Toby Nwafor
  Devan Patel
  Kathan Ramnath
  Matthew Raroque
  Charlie Rubarth
  Jack Trahan
  Rahul Vashi
  Christopher Wang
  Tianming Xie

  
  Juniors
  Michael Anderson
  Gabe Bines
  Will Chance
  Jack Davis
  Owen Goldberg
  Knobel Hunt
  Collin Katz
  Jamie Mahowald
  Rishi Mohan
  Tamal Pilla
  Sai Thirunagari
  Sivakrishna Uppalapati
  Benny Wang

  
  Sophomores
  Sahil Dodda
  Niles Harvey
  Zack Lightfoot
  Ashvin Nair
  Bryce Nivet
  Matthew Shen
  Ekansh Tambe
  Jonathan Yin

  
  Freshmen
  Aadi Khasgiwala
  Will Grable

  
  Middle School Co-Chairs
  Jimmy Francis
  Aditya Shivaswamy

• General Guidelines

  • We encourage students to wear St. Mark’s apparel.
  • Remember that you represent St. Mark’s when you are out in the community. Be an active participant and remember your actions are a direct reflection on our School.
  • The Community Service Director and/or an Assistant will attend all major functions along with various faculty members from both schools. There will be some activities that will not be chaperoned by faculty but will be monitored through the agencies with whom the service is completed.
  • Academic responsibilities always come first and should not be postponed in order to comply with students’ service hours.
  • Enjoy what you are doing, and others will enjoy having you help. Remember that the benefit runs both ways: others will benefit from your help and you will benefit from your engagement by building on your leadership, communication, and decision-making skills. This will help you develop socially and academically by being able to integrate your learning experiences with practical knowledge.

• Hours Due 2019–2020

  Service requirements to be fulfilled between September 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020.
  
  
  

  2019–2020 Due Dates

  
  January 22

  10 hours minimum due

  
  April 6

  5 remaining hours due

  
  May 1

  Hours due for Seniors and President’s Service Award

  
  May 31

  Final day to enter hours for the current school year

• Important Dates

  Drives
  Clothing Drive
  September 19–20 
  
  Food Drive
  October 7–21 
  
  Candy Drive
  November 4–8
  
  Gift Drive
  December 2–18
  
  Blood Drive
  February 19
  
  Spring Basket Drive
  March 23–April 6 
  
  
  Austin Street Dinners
  October 10, 2019
  December 12, 2019
  February 13, 2020
  April 9, 2020
  June 4, 2020 (Alumni)
  
  Middle School Grade Level Projects 
  5th Grade: October 24, 2019 - Dallas Animal Services
  6th Grade: November 1, 2019 - TBD
  7th Grade: March 7 - North Texas Food Bank
  8th Grade: April 4, 2020 - Bonton Farms

• Community Partners

  Austin Street Bingo (Wednesday)

  Austin Street Dinners (4 times/year)

  #BeGolden

  Best Buddies

  Bridge Lacrosse Dallas

  Chess for Humanity

  Feast of Sharing (Junior Class)

  For the Love of the Lake (Saturday)

  Genesis Shelter (Thursday)

  Genesis Thrift Shop

  Gooch Elementary Tutoring (Saturday)

  Habitat for Humanity (January – March )

  Hope Supply Co.

  Kid-Netic Games

  Live Beyond (Haiti)

  Martin Luther King Community Center

  Music Healing

  North Dallas Shared Ministries

  North Texas Food Bank

  Rays of Light (Friday)

  SPCA of Dallas

  Special Olympics

  St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store (Saturday)

  Texas Basset Hound Rescue

  Texas Tree Foundation

  The Jubilee Center (Saturday)

  The Salvation Army:

      Angel Tree

      Carr P. Collins Social Center (Saturday)

      Cedar Crest Corp Community Center (December)

  West Dallas Community Center

  Foster Kids Charity of Dallas (Freshman Class)
  

• Requirements

  • Grades 5–8: Participation in projects organized by the Middle School Community Service coordinators. 
  • Grades 9–12: Fifteen hours of service per year.
  • The year is divided in two periods. A minimum of 10 hours is due by January 22, 2019. The remaining five hours are due by April 8, 2019. 
  • Students are reminded that community service is external to the School. Therefore, most service opportunities will occur after school hours or on weekends.
  • Because the goal of this program is to open up new horizons, students may not receive community service credit for volunteering at St. Mark’s, a private camp, church, mosque, synagogue, temple, music/dance/riding school, sports clinics, etc. unless they are involved in service outreach through that organization (reaching those outside the organization membership and into the community such as the Brendan Court Program carried out at School after hours and during the summer).
  • Eagle Scout projects may be used to claim service hours, but only the portion involving direct work with the beneficiaries of the project count. Planning, traveling hours, etc. do not count. Boys may recruit friends and classmates. 
  • Professional internship hours do not qualify as service hours, unless you are reaching out to a specific community.
  • St. Mark’s is a certifying organization for the National President’s Service Award. The School orders awards for the students who qualify at the end of each school year. All hours count toward the award, including summer hours. Awards are given based on age category as determined by the organization. May 1 is the last day to submit hours for the Service Award.
  • Some projects and events are shared with The Hockaday School. Both directors take turns to transport and chaperone shared projects and events.

• x2Vol

  //www.x2vol.com/index.html
  
  Click here for the x2VOL Registration PowerPoint (Grade 9)
  Click here for the x2VOL Registration PowerPoint (Grades 10, 11, 12)
  
  Accountability – All hours are submitted through www.x2vol.com. Students may sign up for projects offered by the Community Service program, or they may enter their own project. Although it is not a requirement, it is a good idea to submit projects to the Director of the program for approval, prior to doing a personal project to ensure qualification. Students must keep a record of the Community Service projects they attend on their own. Getting hours approved involves these major steps:
  
  

  • Entering the number of hours (the actual service hours at the event plus one hour for transportation). 
  • Assigning those hours to the 10-hour goal in January or 5-hour goal in April. 
  • Including an email from the agency that will be used to verify the hours served. 
  • Checking the “Honor Principle” box. 
  • Hours must be entered online and paper forms can be uploaded.