Service Hours from the Comfort of Your Own Home

Service+Hours+from+the+Comfort+of+Your+Own+Home

Caroline Croft, Senior Editor

  Due to the coronavirus, the entirety of the SA community has not been able to get out and participate in service opportunities. In addition to the fact that possible quarantine leaves us with some extra time in the day that could be easily filled with service activity, SA seniors are expected to have 85 service hours by graduation and will certainly need to work towards meeting that quota during the year. 

     Giving blood is an excellent way to get service hours during the epidemic because due to the massive influx of patients, hospitals are running low on blood. SA students can also receive service hours for sewing masks for the medical community. To further occupy their free time, students can cook food for stewpot and help with shortages in food during this time of uncertainty. 

     Hollie Marjonovic, a SA director of service learning, explains how the coronavirus has changed how students will serve their community. 

     “As with every other aspect of life right now, we are having to be creative with how to earn service learning hours” Marjonovic said. 

     Virtual volunteer work may include transcribing documents, proofreading ebooks, translating, assisting in research, and recording audiobooks. 

 

Below is a list with links to these specific service opportunities: 

 

The Smithsonian Institution’s Transcription Center

Volunteers transcribe historical documents. Though the physical museums are closing, they plan to keep the transcription center open. 

https://transcription.si.edu

 

Zooniverse

Volunteers assist in research projects.  Many, many options are available from classifying the types of sounds made by babies to helping astronomers locate black holes. 

https://www.zooniverse.org/projects

 

Project Gutenberg

Volunteers proofread ebooks that are in the public domain in the US so they can be made available in an online library.

https://www.pgdp.net/c/

 

Librivox

Volunteers record audiobooks for an online library.

https://librivox.org/pages/volunteer-for-librivox/

 

Translators without Borders

Students who speak more than one language can volunteer to help non-profits translate materials.

https://translatorswithoutborders.org/volunteer/