The junior year Christian Service requirement is 60 hours of direct service with people who are materially poor and/or marginalized in some way. This can be completed on an immersion trip the summer before junior year, or through 60 hours of local service.
The goal of the program is to push students to understand their service work as a response to their faith, and lead them to question injustice by creating relationships with people who are poor and marginalized. As Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. said, “When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.”
GUIDELINES
There are some important guidelines for the 60 hours to ensure that students have an experience that allows them to create relationships and question the systems of injustice that oppress and marginalized members of society:
- Juniors must complete 60 hours of direct service to the poor and marginalized. Service can be completed by the end of the school year. A reflection project must also be completed in order for Christian Service to be complete.
- Service cannot be overseen or coordinated by a family member or completed at a home parish – we want students to step outside the “bubble” of their everyday lives.
- All service sites must be approved by the Assistant Director of Campus Ministry, Mr. Keith Cummings, 10 (CummingsK@spprep.org). All sites found on this list are pre-approved. Any service done at an agency not approved will not be counted toward the 60 hour requirement.
- All juniors must complete a reflection project as a mandatory part of the requirement. Please see this page for options and guidelines.
Service Verification: MobileServe
All hours must be tracked on the MobileServe App for Juniors.