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Volunteer / Community Service Opportunities

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January 16, 2009 | 12:51 pm

This posting will be updated periodically to include volunteer and community service opportunities that are suitable for high school students to participate.

Ideally, students should pick two to three areas of interest (in case some don't pan out, there are couple of backups) and make long-term commitments (3-4 years) to 3-5 extracurricular activities. Development of leadership skills in the extracurricular activities is essential.

Volunteer Matching Services

Search for volunteer opportunities or sign up to receive e-mail notifications when volunteer opportunities in the areas you are interested in become available. Most of these are national listings with opportunities in every interest area you can imagine.

USA Service

USA Freedom Corps

Action Without Borders

VolunteerMatch

Doing Good Together

Charity Guide

Points of Light Foundation

1-800-Volunteer.org

servenet.org

Year-Round Opportunities

NEW! Design for a Better Future
Organization: Design for a Better Future
Date: Continuous
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Community, International
Age restriction: None
Details: Start a charter on your high school campus to help spread awareness of architectural and innovative solutions for sustainability in developing countries.

Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter
Organization: Habitat for Humanity
Date: Continuous
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Community, Homeless & Housing
Age restriction: High school students
Details: Start a campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity at your high school to help building, fundraising, advocating, and educating.

Community Programs
Organization: Student Conservation Association
Date: Continuous
Location: Selected cities nationwide
Interest area: Environment
Age restriction: High school students
Details: Join one of the Community Programs across the nation to help with conservation efforts in your community.

Breathe California Los Angeles County
Organization: Breathe California Los Angeles County
Date: Continuous
Location: Los Angeles County
Interest area: Children & Youth, Community, Environment, Health & Medicine
Age restriction: None
Details: Start a 4-U-N-I club on your high school campus to help teens quit smoking.

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
Organization: Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
Date: Continuous
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Disabled
Age restriction: 16+
Details: Help produce books on CDs for the blind and dyslexic at studios across the country.

Best Buddies High Schools
Organization: Best Buddies California
Date: Continuous
Location: California
Interest area: Children & Youth, Disabled
Age restriction: High school students
Details: "Best Buddies High Schools pairs people with intellectual disabilities in one-to-one friendships with high school students... By becoming a High School Peer Buddy, volunteers offer a Buddy the chance to explore a new way of life and feel included in the high school environment."

Collegiate Challenge
Organization: Habitat for Humanity
Date: Continuous
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Community, Homeless & Housing
Age restriction: 16+
Details: Gather up 5 or more of your classmates and/or friends, grab a teacher or parent to supervise and be on your way to help build affordable housing!

Apprentice Ecologist Initiative
Organization: Nicodemus Wilderness Project
Date: Continuous
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Environment
Age restriction: None
Details: Organize your own trash pickup project or native tree planting project and take lots of pictures. Write an essay about your project and upload it with your best picture to receive a Certificate of Achievement. A $500 scholarship will be awarded annually to the top essay.

Call to Protect
Organization: The Wireless Foundation
Date: Continuous
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Women
Age restriction: None
Details: Collect unwanted/broken cell phones to help raise money for domestic violence shelters. Check the web site for information on how to start a program at your school/community.

Huntington Education
Organization: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
Date: Continuous
Location: San Marino, CA
Interest area: Education, Environment, Children
Age restriction: 14+
Details: Choose from seven programs, from working with the public to working with children to working with plants.

April

Act! Speak! Build! Week
Organization: Habitat for Humanity
Date: First week of April
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Community, Homeless & Housing
Age restriction: None
Details: Join this student-initiated week of advocacy and work in partnership with local affiliates to plan and host events focused on ending poverty housing.

ASPCA Day
Organization: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Date: April 10th
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Animals
Age restriction: None
Details: Go Orange for Animals. Check the web site for ideas on promoting humane/cruelty-free treatment of animals at your school/community.

Denim Day in LA
Organization: Peace Over Violence
Date: Third or fourth Wednesday of April
Location: Los Angeles; Southern California
Interest area: Women
Age restriction: None
Details: A rape prevention education campaign with organized rally taking place in Los Angeles. Register on the web site to receive a free Denim Day Action Kit to promote awareness at your school/community.

May

Revlon Run/Walk for Women
Organization: Entertainment Industry Foundation
Date: May
Location: New York and Los Angeles
Interest area: Women, Health
Age restriction: None
Details: Join the 5K run/walk to raise funds and awareness for women's cancers research, counseling and outreach programs. You can also volunteer at the event, check the web site for details.

Summer (June-September)

Learn and Build Experience
Organization: Habitat for Humanity
Date: June-July
Location: Varies
Interest area: Community, Homeless & Housing
Age restriction: 16-18
Details: Get out of your community and experience Habitat for Humanity's work in a new location for a week during the summer. In addition to five days of building, you will also participating in educational activities during the week. Program application deadline is February 27th.

National Crews
Organization: Student Conservation Association
Date: June-July
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Environment
Age restriction: High school students
Details: Participate in the National Crews and help restore our national parks across 50 states. Program application deadline is March 15th.

September

Eco-Corps
Organization: Greater Los Angeles Zoo
Date: September-December
Location: Los Angeles
Interest area: Animal
Age restriction: High school students entering 9th, 10th, or 11th grade in the fall
Details: "Students participate in a 10 week class, meetings on Saturdays, learning about conservation, ecology, and abbreviated taxonomy of the animals here at the Zoo. Upon completion of the class, Eco-Corps students are then eligible to participate in some educational opportunities for visitors as well as most General Volunteer programs." Spring Eco-Corps Class Now Available! Please attend the following meeting to learn more:
February 7, 2009 - 10:30 a.m., Witherbee Auditorium

October

Lee National Denim Day
Organization: Lee Jeans
Date: First Friday of October
Location: Nationwide
Interest area: Women
Age restriction: None
Details: The largest single-day fundraiser for breast cancer. Register on the web site to receive a free Participation Kit to promote awareness at your school/community.

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Comments {99}

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: June 12, 2007 4:15 am (UTC)
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"make long-term commitments (3-4 years)"

Hi, I'm currently a sophomore (soon to be junior this summer). I sort of slacked off freshman and sophomore year, but I finally realized what I have to do to get into college. You see, both my parents immigrated to America (from a poor country) went to work without a college education (so I guess I'm a 'first-generation' student). My parents, especially my mother, do not know a lot of English. I usually have to explain things to them. I really want to get into a UC (especially Berkeley) to make them proud, but I'm afraid that's it's going to be too late. I'm not in any clubs, sports, etc. and I haven't done any community service yet. I've done nothing special, so I'm worried.

This summer I plan to volunteer as much I can. My two areas of interest are the environment and helping out the poor. I'm determined to be a psychologist or a psychiatrist, because I really want to understand more about people.

I knew that maintaining good grades was important at least, so I try my best in school. This summer I'm taking 2 math courses at a community college and next year I'll be taking AP US History, AP Calculus, and AP Psychology. I worked really hard this year so I received an A+ in 3 of my classes (one of them was AP World History). I seem to become a better student every year.

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: June 12, 2007 4:19 am (UTC)
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Another interest of mine is animals.

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: June 16, 2007 5:02 am (UTC)
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how many hours of community service should i do by the end of junior year?

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Ms. Sun

(no subject)

from: [info]askmssun
date: June 19, 2007 2:04 am (UTC)
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The range I typically see goes from 150 (about one hour per week for three years) to upwards of 400 to 500 (about three hours per week for three years).

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extracurricular or community service?

from: Anonymous
date: November 28, 2007 5:35 am (UTC)
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Would key club be under extracurriculars or community service. with the club i have done about 120 hours by doing several small activities.

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Ms. Sun

Re: extracurricular or community service?

from: [info]askmssun
date: November 28, 2007 8:57 am (UTC)
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If you hold leadership positions at Key Club, those count as extracurricular activities; the actual community service hours should count as community service.

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key club

from: Anonymous
date: November 28, 2007 11:33 pm (UTC)
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well i do hold a position in key club. so i would put that under extracurriculars. also i did community service with it about 60 hours a year.
so can i put key club for the organization for community service and list some of the activities i have participated with is such as doing the rose parade in the description area?

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Ms. Sun

Re: key club

from: [info]askmssun
date: November 29, 2007 12:41 am (UTC)
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Yes.

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: December 31, 2007 7:44 am (UTC)
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I'm in a lot of clubs on campus (Habitat for Humanity, Key Club, NHS, etc.) and have done a lot of community service with them, so can I count each club's hours as community service?

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: December 31, 2007 7:47 am (UTC)
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And I'm confused about extracurricular activities. What exactly COUNTS and what doesn't count?

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(no subject) - (Anonymous) Expand

(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: July 6, 2008 8:44 am (UTC)
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Hi I'm going into junior year at my 10-12 high school. Since My grade 9 year was in a junior high, the only extra curricular I participated in was the regional math competition where we won first place. My first year of high school (grade 10) had no extra curricular from school(however, I was chosen by my English teacher to participate in an essay writing competition for the University of British Columbia and I did... that's not extra curricular is it?)So I still have junior year and these 2 summers to start volunteering and crank out the extra curricular? Is there any point in doing extra currics in senior year? since I don't have 3-4 years of extra currics how can I make up for that?

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: July 6, 2008 8:47 am (UTC)
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also, I am from Canada so is there a different standard than for US students?

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community service - (Anonymous) Expand

Hi!

from: Anonymous
date: August 7, 2008 4:27 pm (UTC)
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I can't help but reading the conversation above my post, and it really got me confused. Tutoring after-school doesn't count as community service? What about relay for life? what actually does count as community service?

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Ms. Sun

Re: Hi!

from: [info]askmssun
date: August 7, 2008 4:36 pm (UTC)
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Tutoring does count as community service, so does Relay for Life. There is a distinction between extracurricular activities (clubs, sports, church groups) and community service (volunteering at hospitals, tutoring kids after school) that is sometime a bit confusing for groups like Key Club. For clubs that organize community service events, you would count your club activities (meetings) as extracurricular activities and actual volunteer hours as community service.

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: August 8, 2008 9:58 pm (UTC)
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hi! if i organized and led a charity program by myself, does that count as community service? if not, where can i tell the uc admissions office all the details about it? it's actually just one of the few things that i'm proud of in my application, so i want to flaunt it as much as possible!

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Ms. Sun

(no subject)

from: [info]askmssun
date: August 9, 2008 12:07 am (UTC)
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If the charity program consist of organizing your fellow high school students to do something, you can split it between extracurricular activities (time you spent in "club" meetings or meeting with faculty advisor) and community service (actual time volunteering). If the charity program was done with no relation to your school or classmates, then put it under community service.

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To Ms. Sun:

from: Anonymous
date: August 8, 2008 10:21 pm (UTC)
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Hello, I'm just wondering where to put my personal hardships in the applications. I haven't really seen an application so I don't know. thanks a lot!

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Ms. Sun

Re: To Ms. Sun:

from: [info]askmssun
date: August 9, 2008 12:08 am (UTC)
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You can briefly describe it in the Additional Comments section or discuss it at length in your personal statement.

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Community Service

from: Anonymous
date: August 11, 2008 6:08 pm (UTC)
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Hello Ms. Sun,

I was just wondering how does around 180 hours of community service and a being members of 4 clubs and being in the board position of 2 of the clubs look like in my Extra Curricular section?
thanks

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Ms. Sun

Re: Community Service

from: [info]askmssun
date: August 12, 2008 12:17 am (UTC)
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Looks pretty good to me. Any competitions or science fairs?

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: August 11, 2008 11:45 pm (UTC)
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Hi! My friend and I were arguing about community service hours today, and she said that it doesn't really matter if you have 40 or 4000. Is that true? I thought that having more gives you an edge.

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Ms. Sun

(no subject)

from: [info]askmssun
date: August 12, 2008 12:12 am (UTC)
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Well, more is always better; but whether it would make or break your chance of admission really depends on what else is on your application.

Let's say you devote 20 hours per week as the captain of your Academic Decathlon team for the last two years and you led your team to the National Championship both years. On top of that you spend, on average, 6 hours per week preparing and participating in the spelling bee and have won state and national championships more than once. Would it matter if you only have 40 hours of community service? Probably not.

On the other hand, maybe you don't participate in school activities at all. In fact, you did nothing but study for the first 14 years of your life. The thought of sports make you have a panic attack and you can't imagine joining any clubs or take on any leadership positions in them. But you love tutoring kids and helping out at the local soup kitchen. In this case, having 4,000 hours of community service is going to be pretty significant.

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(no subject) - (Anonymous) Expand

Clubs and Other ECs

from: Anonymous
date: August 22, 2008 5:05 pm (UTC)
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Hey Ms. Sun,
You mentioned that colleges were looking for "leadership positions".
Well our school has this program called IMPACT where the upper classmen help out the incoming freshmen class with various kinds of things such as helping them get adjusted to the high school atmosphere, getting them involved in sports/clubs. Well my point is that I was chosen 1 of the 30 people from a pool of 400 people to be a mentor to these new freshmen. I wanted you to know this because you said that colleges look at leadership abilities. Well does this look good on my personal statement?
thanks

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Ms. Sun

Re: Clubs and Other ECs

from: [info]askmssun
date: August 22, 2008 5:12 pm (UTC)
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Absolutely!! Part of leadership is setting a good example for others to follow and you can talk about how you are setting a good example for the underclassmen you mentor. There are other leadership characteristics that would apply to your participation in the IMPACT program, see a list in my post What is Leadership?

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Starting new Clubs

from: Anonymous
date: August 25, 2008 8:15 am (UTC)
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Hey Ms.Sun,
Last year during my junior year my friends and I started a new cultural club (Indian Student Association).Since our school has a pretty moderate Indian Community, we decided that we should promote an Indian Club. In this club we talk about Indian stuff and lots of other suff as well. Well as I said in my previous post of Clubs and other ECs, does this also look good on my personal statement even though the prompt doesn't specifically talk about this?
thanks

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Ms. Sun

Re: Starting new Clubs

from: [info]askmssun
date: August 27, 2008 6:08 pm (UTC)
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Starting a club shows initiative and motivation and you can certainly include it in your personal statement as part of your background.

I think your club may need a clearer mission to be effective. Are you trying to promote awareness of Indian culture to other students? If so, ask the school for permission to set up an Indian cultural fair to promote awareness. Are you trying to preserve the Indian culture among your peers? If so, organize trips to visit Indian cultural artifacts at museums. There are lots of ways to show your leadership abilities, but you have to figure out what you are doing first.

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Communtiy Service

from: Anonymous
date: January 2, 2009 2:41 am (UTC)
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I want to go to UCLA or UC Berckely. I am curretnly a sophmore and want to ask how many hours would be a good amount 400, 500?
I am currently volunteering at a library and a hospital and is that good?

Would doing research in a lab be counted as hours?

Thank You

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Ms. Sun

Re: Communtiy Service

from: [info]askmssun
date: January 2, 2009 6:37 am (UTC)
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It would be great if you can do 400-500; the more the merrier.

Do what you like and invest the time and energy required to really learn something (about what you're doing, about yourself, etc.) and take on leadership positions.

Research in a lab is a fantastic extracurricular activity (but not community service) and the UCs will love to hear about it.

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: January 6, 2009 4:26 pm (UTC)
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i'm in key club, national honors society and bunch of other things.
i'm a junior and i just started keeping track of my community hours. and its only about 50 altogether.
and its not fair because, before i transfered to this school i had about 200 hours. so can i just add these hours and put it on the application without any proof or would it be considered lying?
its really bugging me

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Ms. Sun

(no subject)

from: [info]askmssun
date: January 8, 2009 6:53 am (UTC)
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All your hours are self-reported on the application, meaning the UCs will take your word for it. You only need to "prove" your hours if you are selected for an audit. As long as you have someone from your previous school who can vouch for your hours (a teacher or counselor, or someone who is in charge of the community service), you should be fine.

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(no subject) - (Anonymous) Expand

summer activities for a kid who has leadership but average gpa

from: Anonymous
date: January 19, 2009 8:50 pm (UTC)
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Hi Ms. Sun,

My kid has four years of outstanding leadership in the school and community. However, his grades in 9th, 10th grades are average.(Being 13 entering 9th grade was a tough transition) In junior year he has picked up to straight A's and one B in IB classes. What do you suggest he does over the summer to improve his chances to Cal? Should he do more service and a job or take more classes?

I really appreciate your expert advice and kindness to all of these stressed out students and parents. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Clueless and Confused

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Ms. Sun

Re: summer activities for a kid who has leadership but average gpa

from: [info]askmssun
date: January 20, 2009 9:38 am (UTC)
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If you live in California, I would suggest enrolling your son into community college courses for the summer. Courses in the a-g subject areas that are UC-transferable have weighted grades and he will receive college credits without having to take AP exams. The additional courses will help boost his GPA further and to show UCs that he is motivated to take that extra step to achieve academically.

I strongly recommend for your son to discuss his young age in his personal statement and what he had to overcome to achieve in school.

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: February 4, 2009 7:29 am (UTC)
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Hi,
I am a junior. I have a 4.71 gpa junior year and 4.29 gpa sophomore year with no Bs, only As. Most of my classes junior year are AP or honors. I got a 2100 on the SAT. I will take CCC this summer as well.

I have played an instrument dedicatedly for around 5 years with positions in honor groups. I participate in robotics and track as well. I cofounded a club regarding political awareness and am about to cofound an organization to promote awareness of humanitarian issues.

Do you think 2.5 hours per week at a library for the next 6 months + around 3 hours per week of tutoring for the same duration will result in adequate volunteer hours (around 150) for Cal or UCLA?

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Ms. Sun

(no subject)

from: [info]askmssun
date: February 4, 2009 5:02 pm (UTC)
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Your club activities (political/humanitarian awareness) more the fill your share of being the "engine of social change." You can devote more time to your club activities to bring them to the next level or start a tutoring program at your school/the library/an elementary school that doesn't currently have a program.

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does this count?

from: Anonymous
date: February 5, 2009 5:39 am (UTC)
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I started my own community service project where I hand made 200 teddy bears to donate to sick children in hospitals. It originally started out with my friends helping me but they quit so I finished them by myself. Does this count as community service? Or is it leaderhip, or nothing.

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Ms. Sun

Re: does this count?

from: [info]askmssun
date: February 7, 2009 11:42 pm (UTC)
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All of the above. List it under community service and indicate in the description that you had initiated the project and worked to complete it.

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other state

from: Anonymous
date: February 28, 2009 4:40 pm (UTC)
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do the UC's accept out of state community college credits?

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Ms. Sun

Re: other state

from: [info]askmssun
date: March 3, 2009 5:18 am (UTC)
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It depends on the course. You can ask the UC campus you are interested in to review the course description to determine whether the units are acceptable/transferable.

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I'm a sophomore at risk getting accepted to a UC

from: Anonymous
date: April 28, 2009 1:02 pm (UTC)
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Hello. Please help evaluate my situation.

I had a 3.4 G.P.A in my freshman year and here are my freshman classes:
English 1 honors
World History Honors
Biology Honors
Algebra 2
French 2

Now my current G.P.A is 2.52
My sophomore first semester classes:
Chemistry Honors
English 2 honors
Ap World History
Trigonometry
French 2

First few months of my sophomore year went well. I had all A's for first quarter. Things didn't go well as expected. My parents had a divorce and it affected me significantly. I started to suffer feelings of depression and it leads me to a severe abdominal pain. I couldn't attend school for the last three weeks before the 1st semester end. I resulted to have all F's for my classes. I just started coming back to school on April 16. Here's my second semester classes:

English 2 honors
French 2
Chemistry prep
psychology
stats

I currently have all F's upon my return for these classes. THis summer I'm going to take regular English to make up my F in English honors for the first semester. I'm also taking trigonometry in the summer to take precalculus honors for next year. Right now I'm contemplating whether to take chemistry at a JC in the summer. My counselor recommended me to repeat chemistry for the entire year next year to void the F's on my transcript for chemistry. If that is so, then this how my junior classes will look like

Ap psychology
Precalculus Honors
English 3 H (possibly AP English)
U.S. History (possibly AP U.S)
French 3
Chemistry Honors

Here is my question: Do you recommend me to take a chemistry class in the summer or repeat it in my junior year?

I was considering to take a chemistry class to invest in taking AP Chem , and of course to boost my g.p.a. But i do not know if that is a good choice due to the fact that I'll have F's on my high school transcript for chemistry. I'm planning to take as many ap classes as possible to boost my gpa.

If I do take chemistry in the summer, this is how my junior classes will look like:

APUSH
AP ENG.
AP PSYCHOlogy
AP Chem
precalculus honors
French 3
Art

Senior Schedule:
AP ENG.
AP BIO
AP PHYSICS
AP ECON/CIVICS
Calculus AB
AP FRENCH
AP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

I'm planning to study political science at UCLA but I do not know if I will ever going to get accepted. My G.P.A. is so low to the point that CSU might consider in looking at my applications.

From my above future classes, do you think I will get a chance?

here is a little info about me. I've held 3 positions in my freshman year (french club, red cross club & viet club). I was also a varsity in badminton for freshman. Played tennis in my sophomore year ( jv team) . Right now, I'm a president and also a secretary in KIWIN'S (key club) club that i created at my school. Also, i've just won for president in KIWIN'S for next year's term. Not only that, I've served a total of 900 service hours.

Please let me know what your recommendations are. Thank you!!!









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Ms. Sun

Re: I'm a sophomore at risk getting accepted to a UC

from: [info]askmssun
date: May 25, 2009 8:46 pm (UTC)
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You need to repeat Honors English in order to erase the F. It's ok to take Chemistry at a CC; as long as the curriculum is a close match to the chemistry course in your HS, the F will be erased.

You can discuss the divorce and depression in your personal statement to help explain your grades. UCs generally consider personal hardships when evaluating applicants. However, UCLA is extremely focused on academics (grades and test scores) and given the large pool of applicants it receives every year, students whose grades are not up to par due to personal hardships are becoming less likely to be accepted. In the last two years or so, I saw more and more students with personal hardships denied admission to UCLA but accepted at other UCs (including Berkeley).

Edited at 2009-05-25 08:48 pm (UTC)

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Community Service Hours

from: Anonymous
date: June 4, 2009 9:00 am (UTC)
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Hi Ms. Sun!

Does the amount of community service hours we do, play an important part in getting accepted to a certain school, especially if you've done quite a bit? Would that fall under extra curricular activities/ leadership?

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Ms. Sun

Re: Community Service Hours

from: [info]askmssun
date: June 5, 2009 5:35 am (UTC)
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Berkeley really values community service and leadership while other UCs vary in their evaluation. Extracurriculars pretty much covers anything you do outside of school and can include things like:
  • sports
  • church or temple activities
  • Sunday/Chinese/Hebrew schools
  • clubs or student government
  • music/dance/art lessons
  • volunteering or community service
  • competitions of any kind
  • recognition by any organization
  • jobs
  • hefty chores (caring for your siblings for more than 4-5 hours per day, having to cook for the family, having to pay bills and balance household finances, etc.)
As for examples of leadership qualities, see my post on What is Leadership?

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: June 21, 2009 10:43 pm (UTC)
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So this is going to sound like I've been a slacker for the past three years...which I basically have been.

I was in a club my freshman year, and a club my sophomore year. No clubs my junior year, no sports, no real activities.

I'm fast approaching senior year, and I'm just now finding out how difficult it is to get a good amount of hours in community service. I have little to no transportation, so it's not like I can drive myself out daily to meet community service needs in the next city or anything.

Now I'm wondering if there's really much I can do any more. A friend suggested that all the hours I've spent for the past few years helping out with my dad's unofficial bird business, feeding the infant birds would count as community service, but that doesn't seem like it'd qualify as "community service". Would it? Would unofficially helping out someone say, like, a little sister count as the "tutoring" in community service? I'm at lost.

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Ms. Sun

(no subject)

from: [info]askmssun
date: June 23, 2009 3:38 am (UTC)
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Extracurricular activities basically account for everything you do outside of school. While working at your dad's unofficial business or taking care of your sister do not count as community service, you can count them as extracurricular activities or jobs. More accurately, they would be familial obligations, but since there is no category for that, you will simply put them under extracurricular activities or jobs and explain what you did.

If lack of transportation or your familial obligations prevented you from participating in traditional extracurricular activities, you should definitely mention that in your application.

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Summer

from: Anonymous
date: June 27, 2009 9:26 pm (UTC)
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Im a freshmen going to be a sophomore by the next school year. I originally planned to take 2 summer school classes for some credits, one in psychology and computer programming, but now my school canceled all the get ahead classes due to low enrollment I have nothing to do this summer, & Im sure its too late to sign up for summer courses in other schools or my local community college , Pasadena City College. Students enrolled there around April. So what can I do now? I want to make this summer count.

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Ms. Sun

Re: Summer

from: [info]askmssun
date: July 1, 2009 6:47 am (UTC)
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Look for summer volunteer opportunities at your local library, senior center, city government, nearby hospitals, etc.

Document everything you tried to do for the summer (the canceled summer school courses, for example) and make brief mentions of your plan in the Additional Comments section of your UC application. Be sure to discuss how you found replacement activities to make up for the canceled courses.

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Hospital

from: Anonymous
date: June 28, 2009 8:47 pm (UTC)
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Does volunteering at a hospital count? Or does the school have to know about it first? Or you just put it in your personal statement?

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Ms. Sun

Re: Hospital

from: [info]askmssun
date: July 1, 2009 7:22 am (UTC)
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Yes, you can volunteer at a hospital. You will simply put your volunteer hours on the application under extracurricular activities. You may choose to discuss your volunteer experience in the personal statement.

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(no subject)

from: Anonymous
date: June 30, 2009 2:23 pm (UTC)
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When we list service hours, what if we plan to continue volunteering after the application is sent in? Do we only list how many hours we have done up to applying or can we add how many we will eventually attain?

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Ms. Sun

(no subject)

from: [info]askmssun
date: July 1, 2009 7:48 am (UTC)
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The application asks for the activity name, the number of hours per week and number of weeks per year you participate, the years you participated/plan to participate, and a brief description of the activity. So you would simply estimate the number of hours per week and number of weeks per year you plan to participate for senior year.

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