Did you know that some states require students to volunteer a certain number of hours of community service to graduate high school? As a sophomore quickly approaching junior year, I started thinking about what I’m going to do after high school. Which naturally shifted to graduation. The only thing I really knew was that I need a minimum of 24 credits to graduate.
Interestingly there are a handful of cities and one state that requires high school students to volunteer community service hours in order to graduate. Maryland, Chicago, and Los Angeles are some examples. “Maryland students must engage in 75 hours of service-learning at a minimum in order to receive a Maryland State High School Diploma” according to marylandpublicschools.org. Chicago Los Angeles and a school in Wisconsin called Oregon High School all require 40 hours, it appears that 40 hours is the most common amount.
Centennial High School on the other hand makes no mention of community service as a prerequisite for graduation. On the school website, the Academics section makes no mention of community service.
So just to be sure I asked my counselor Sally Menolascina and she said that community service was not a graduation requirement. Although it’s not required, it might open opportunities for college.