CNG HS Academic Program Guide 2024 - 2025: Community Service Policies at CNG

OBJECTIVES

• Promote students’ character development and academic growth through meaningful experiences of leadership and service.
• Prepare students to be responsible citizens, serve others, and respect the environment through personal involvement and experience.
• Strengthen students’ sense of caring, social responsibility, and self-agency while putting their skills and knowledge into practice in real-life situations.
• Promoting students’ knowledge of and commitment to their social and natural environment.

PHILOSOPHY

• CNG inspires students to become agents of change in our school and community through service experiences that are appropriate and relevant to students’ ages and developmental abilities.
• Students’ participation in community service activities -- volunteering, service learning, student-driven projects, and schoolwide programs -- serve as opportunities for moral action to develop character for leadership and service in the world of today for a better tomorrow.
• Teachers at CNG incorporate service learning as an instructional strategy to meet learning goals and/or content standards and to bridge the academic curriculum with community service in real world situations. Teachers ensure that service learning involves student voice and choice, agency, and thoughtful reflection.
• Opportunities for involvement in community service and/ or social responsibility are available for all CNG stakeholders -- students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni.
• Fundación Hogar Nueva Granada is the primary beneficiary of our community outreach programs, helping to instill a sense of social responsibility among all stakeholders through an authentic partnership.
• CNG aligns its local community service and service learning programs with the United Nations Sustainable

• Development Goals.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMPLETION OF SERVICE HOURS FOR GRADUATION REQUIREMENT

Starting in the 2022-2023 school year, the High School added an important component to ensure that students complete their Community Service Hours as part of their graduation requirements. In looking to better serve our High School students and help them keep on track, similar to their academic credit requirements, the annual mandatory service hours must be completed as follows:

• All 9th graders must complete and validate at least 20 hours of service.
• All 10th graders must complete and validate at least 20 hours of service.

The remaining 40 required service hours must be completed during grades 11 and 12. This allows students to assume added ownership of their responsibilities and learn to manage their time in preparation for university life.

If a 9th grader reaches the last day of the school year and has not completed 20 service hours or submitted the accompanying reflection, the student will receive a Service Program Advisement Status notification. Similar to a student failing an academic course for the year, the missing service hours must be completed during the summer prior to the first day of 10th grade in order to remain a student in good standing and on track for graduation.

Any student who does not complete the missing hours during the summer break will be placed on Probation Status and will have until April 1st of their 10th grade year to complete all pending hours. All students must finish 10th grade with 40 hours of service or they will be placed on Matriculation Hold for failure to complete their Community Service graduation requirements over a two-year period.

Senior Recognition: Seniors that carry out more than double the required amount of service (at least 160 hours) will be recognized during the Commencement Ceremony with the Community Service Sash.

ACCEPTABLE FOR SERVICE REQUIREMENT

• Service initiatives that serve vulnerable populations and are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
• Service initiatives that serve external non-profit organizations with a social or environmental mission, which may or may not require a monetary volunteer participation fee.
• Service initiatives that serve the CNG community (Ambassadors, Heroes, Condor Volunteers, PTA, Andean Committee, tutoring, athletic team assistant, among others).
  • Students may validate a maximum of 20 hours throughout high school.
• Service opportunities coordinated and carried out with the CWW Office.
• Volunteering at the US Embassy through the Community Liaison Office.
• Camp Counselors and Campers:
  • Students may validate all hours for non-paid camp counselor positions serving vulnerable communities.
  • Students may validate a maximum of 20 hours for non- paid camp counselor positions in for-profit camps.
  • Student campers and student counselors in training must provide a certificate with a detailed description of the service carried out. Service hours will be validated on a case by case basis.

NOT ACCEPTABLE FOR SERVICE REQUIREMENT

• Service for which a student receives compensation.
• Service hours in exchange for a monetary or in-kind contribution to an organization.
• Service performed for profit-making organizations.
• Service hours validated for the NHS service requirement.
• Volunteering to promote a particular religion or political point of view or person.
• Performances (plays, musicals) that indirectly benefit non-profit organizations.

EXCEPTIONS TO GUIDELINES

• Exceptions to these policies and guidelines can only be made with the knowledge and approval of the High School Principal and the Community Service & Service Learning Coordinator.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

CNG’s Community Service and Service Learning program follows the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model*. The structure of the program unfolds by systematically moving from teacher-led to teacher-guided to teacher-facilitated activities gradually giving students more responsibility.

The High School years encompass a mandatory community service requirement that promotes social and civic awareness as well as engagement, encouraging student- driven projects that focus on their interests in social and environmental causes. 

* (Pearson & Gallagher 1983… Fisher and Frey 2013)

HIGH SCHOOL COMMUNITY SERVICE & SERVICE LEARNING GUIDELINES

Students volunteer their time and talents supporting different communities, such as Fundación Hogar Nueva Granada, our CNG school community, and external nonprofit organizations. To reap the benefits of service, students participate in a hands-on activity and reflect about their experience and learning process.

SERVICE REQUIREMENT

According to Colombian law students must complete a minimum of 80 hours of service. At CNG students complete these hours over the course of four years through community service and/or Service Learning.

Service Learning is a research-based pedagogical approach that addresses two specific goals of the Colombian regulation for Servicio Social Estudiantil Obligatorio: (1) allowing the connection between academic achievement and students’ personal and social development, and (2) providing students with comprehensive and continuous pedagogical projects that serve the community. Service Learning is delivered through the IPARD model: Investigation, Planning, Action, Reflection and Demonstration.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Community Service:

• Service opportunities offered by the Community Service and Service Learning Department: Available service  opportunities that are offered directly by the Community Service and Service Learning Department are updated weekly in the HS Student News. We recommend students stay informed of the numerous opportunities and sign up accordingly. Families are responsible for providing authorization and facilitating logistics for students' participation in all off-campus opportunities.
• Student-driven initiatives: CNG fully supports students developing their own social action projects that support a cause or address a global issue. Stop by the Community Service & Service Learning Department to share your ideas.
• Students that require accommodations (language, learning center, security, etc.): Stop by the Community Service & Service Learning Office to receive additional support.

Service Learning:

• Projects carried out as part of the curriculum in subject areas or electives.

VALIDATION PROCESS

Validation of Community Service Activities: In order to validate service hours carried out through community service activities, students must provide:

1. A Request for Approval form if the initiative is student-driven or was not offered directly by the Community Service & Service Learning Department. This form is available for download in the weekly HS Student News. If service is carried out without prior approval, the Community Service and Service Learning Department will determine if the service hours will be validated. This document must be handed in at least one week before the service activity date for approval.

2. A record of the service activities through:    

• a certificate from the organization with a description of the activity, dates and times, and number of hours. Only employees who work for the organization, and supervise the actual service work can approve service hours. Parents and/or family members are not approved for signing off on their own child’s hours.
• OR the Record of Community Service Hours form, signed and stamped by the supervisor from an organization. This form is available for download in the weekly HS Student News.
• OR the Record of Community Service Hours form AND evidence of the service activity (e.g., photos, videos, screenshots) for student-driven initiatives without an external supervisor. This form is available for download in the weekly HS Student News.

3. A Reflection of Service form with a description of the student’s learning process and insights from the experience. This form is available for download in the weekly HS Student News.

It is the responsibility of the student, not the parent, to turn in these documents. Emails from parents will not be validated.

Validation of Service Learning Projects: Once teachers evaluate students using the Service Learning Project Rubric, the Community Service & Service Learning Department validates the number of service hours.

Deadlines: These forms MUST be turned in by the end of the school year. Summer vacation service hours MUST be turned in by October 1st of each school year and will be uploaded into the following school year.

Schedule: Community service hours will only be validated when carried out after school hours, on weekends, or during holiday/vacation periods, except for Service Learning or student-driven projects that are previously approved by the Community Service & Service Learning Department.

Students transferring to CNG: Certificates of service hours from previous schools need to be submitted to the Community Service & Service Learning Department for those hours to be validated.

• Students who transfer to CNG looking to complete the Bachillerato program are expected to meet the 80 hour requirement.
• Students who transfer to CNG looking to complete the High School Diploma program are expected to complete 20 hours of service for each year enrolled at CNG. Stu- dents should contact the Community Service & Service Learning Department in order to determine their service requirement.

Students who participate in sports or other activities at a highly competitive level: As stated in the Colombian Social Service regulation, only students in grades 11 and 12 may be exempt through this process. These students must request their sports exemptions during the First Trimester, exclusively through the IDRD (Instituto Distrital de Recreación y Deporte). Please verify the process with the Community Service & Service Learning Department.