Community Service for Florida’s Bright Futures Scholar Students

In the past I have always thought that doing community service meant that you were serving time for doing something wrong. Today, community service has another meaning – volunteering. Teaching our young people to serve others and to give back to our community. Florida recognizes the importance of community service and has created a great scholarship program for students in this state.

Florida Bright Futures

For over the past year I’ve met a number of local high school students who ask to serve in our Volunteer Services non-profit organization; to gain hours to apply for Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship Program and to give back to their community. Many come to us because of someone they know who works here but everyone is welcome to apply. There are roughly a thousand employees and associates at our headquarters – our departments cover accounting, human resources, media, technology, maintenance, publication, campus groups and much more.

High School Students

I enjoy working with high school kids and was intrigued to find many of them eager to learn and grow by serving others, not just going through the motions of “doing time” to get what they want – a scholarship. Although we are a non-profit organization and headquartered here in Orlando, Florida, the opportunities are much like many jobs and tasks that you would find in corporate America.

When a teen asks to volunteer we find that many of them are already busy with their academics, often Advanced Placement classes, sports, part-time jobs, student government and other activities. This leaves their only available time to volunteer – when they are out of school during the holidays and summers. Even then, I’m winded just trying to follow their high energy and enthusiasm to keep on top of their things to do list.

What Drives a Student?

My thoughts wonder as to what drives these students. What makes these kids want to do more? While others have no clue what they are going to do next week, let alone after they finish high school. One of the things I find in common with many of the students beyond financial need is that they have more than one sibling – which increases the inability for their parent to pay for all of the kids to attend college and there’s a positive work ethic that was taught to them early on.

These kids don’t just do the minimum either. Of the three types of Bright Futures Scholarships, the awards increase with the number of hours that they put in. I was introduced to two teens a couple of months ago. One was 15 and the other 16. They came to interview to volunteer in December and are working towards the highest number of hours, 100, over their high school years. I was impressed to hear that the 16-year-old already had a summer job lined up and when off she’s not working, plans on volunteering with us. Her father works at our organization and she spent most of her early life growing up as a missionary kid in South Africa.

The 15-year-old said she won’t be old enough to work this summer and wanted to get a head start on volunteering. She’s at the top of her class,has two younger siblings, spent her early years living in Detroit, enjoys numbers and is interested in becoming an accountant, she lives in a single parent household. We also have internship programs once they enter college.

Highly Skilled High Schoolers

When they volunteer there are days when they may be doing simple things like filing and stuffing envelopes. However, since they are good with computers and software programs, we’ll have them working on data entry and more detailed work – alongside the experienced and educated staff, which can also turn into a mentor type program. Our young volunteers are able to do some of the things that our older, retired volunteers may not be able to do physically. They have the computer skills that people are looking for in workers today, because they grew up with the technology.

These two students are not alone, we have a handful that come in on their holidays off – even though they still have AP class work and other obligations. If you saw them at the mall they look like your typical teenagers, having fun, giggling and speaking quickly to each other. But don’t let their ages fool you. They are intelligent, articulate and highly motivated. They are our Bright Future.