Christian Service Hours

Service Requirements and Expectations

• As a Catholic school, an implicit part of our mission is to create Disciples of Jesus Christ. The goal of Seton Catholic Preparatory’s service program is for students to recognize and demonstrate that serving others is central to our call as Catholic Christians. This Gospel-rooted service is essential to every student’s experience at Seton Catholic. The service requirements are different for each grade level and are detailed in the Service Contract and Service Requirements form. Students receive this information at the beginning of each school year. Parents are encouraged to check updated information, available year-round on Canvas.
• Our hope is that students will develop a love for service and a passion for a unique organization with which they can develop a relationship and at which they can spend many of their hours volunteering.
• Freshmen and Sophomores are encouraged to meet their Service Hour requirement by serving at as many different locations as possible. This will give them a better opportunity to find an organization or identify a type of service that is meaningful to them.
• Juniors and Seniors are encouraged to give their time to those organizations or that type of service they found most meaningful from their past 2 years. While this is only a strong encouragement, it is a requirement for Seniors. Seniors may only do service with three separate organizations for their personal project.

Freshman - 20 hours

• Personal Project (10 hours) 
• We strongly encourage Freshmen to serve in a variety of organizations so that they can begin to discover the type of service that is most meaningful to them.
• PASS Day (5 hours)
• Unified Field Day (5 hours)

Sophomores- 35 hours

• Personal project (25 hours)
• We strongly encourage Sophomores to serve with a variety of organizations so that they can begin to discover the type of service that is most meaningful to them.
• PASS Day (5 hours)
• Unified Field Day (5 hours)

Juniors - 35 hours

• Personal project (25 hours)
• Juniors are limited to serving at three different locations. We strongly encourage Juniors to choose locations that bring them into direct contact with the community they are serving.
• PASS Day (5 hours)
• Unified Field Day (5 hours)

Seniors - 25 hours

• Personal Project (15 hours)
• Seniors are limited to serving at three different locations and at least 10 of their Personal Project hours MUST do service which brings them into direct contact with the community they are serving.
• PASS Day (5 hours)
• Unified Field Day (5 hours)
• At the second semester, Seniors will present their service project completion to their house companions, leadership, and teachers. Details and rubric will be provided to students.

Service as a Graduation Requirement

• Students at all grade levels are held accountable for performing Gospel-rooted service by a pass/fail grade. All hours must be submitted in mobileserve.com (Links to an external site.) Any freshman, sophomore or junior that fails to fulfill the service requirement for that school year will be required to perform their service over the summer before they are allowed to attend classes for the new school year. Any senior that fails to fulfill the senior service requirements will not be eligible for graduation. All service requirements must be fulfilled in order for a student to participate in any graduation events and receive their diploma.
• Service Contract Proposal
• For service to count towards the Christian Service grade, it must first be approved. Appropriate service includes that performed at non-profit organizations with 501(c)(3) status, a place of worship, schools, coaching youth, and other similar opportunities. For Seniors, an additional requirement is that the service bring them into direct contact with the community they are serving. Students must submit through Canvas their Personal Project Proposal as an assignment in the Ministry Course by mid-September. Students must use this form to request their service be approved for the 2023-2024 school year.

Unified Field Day Guidelines: 

• All students receive 5 hours of service for hosting students with special needs from surrounding public and private special education programs on Friday of Catholic Schools Week.  If a student is absent on Unified Field Day, they will be required to serve an additional 5 hours at their primary service location.

PASS Day Guidelines:

• PASS stands for Prayer and Service at Seton.  Students and staff will join together with their entire House to serve a local charity.  They will gather as a House to pray and prepare for their service at the beginning of the day, they will bus to the organization, and they will return to pray and reflect on what they did.  If a student is absent for their House's PASS day, they will be required to serve an additional 5 hours at their primary service location.

Personal Project Guidelines:

• Students must research where they would like to complete their service project.  Each year, students must submit through Canvas their Personal Project Proposal as an assignment in the Ministry Course by mid-September. Personal projects must be pre-approved by Campus Ministry. If you serve a location that is not pre-approved by Campus Ministry you risk hours being rejected! Locations include approved non-profit organizations or parishes. Once hours are complete, they must be logged into MobileServe under their 'Personal Project - Community' goal.

• Students may serve no more than 5 of their personal project hours through service done on Seton's campus (house leadership, ambassadors, tutoring, club and athletic service and other areas around Seton).  *The ONLY exceptions are Seton Summer Camps, Mass Setup Crew, and Cafeteria Cleanup Crew.

• Additionally, in an effort to encourage students to build bridges with more communities in need, students may only serve 5 of their personal project hours through liturgical ministries that take place on Sunday. This includes any practice or rehearsals prior to Sunday liturgy.

• We absolutely want students to be Altar Servers, Choir Members, Mass Captains, and Sacristans. But students should be serving at their parishes and in their communities in other ways than this. 
• Service Hours for liturgical ministries on other days of the week, such as being a cantor/altar server for Weddings, Funerals, or other non-Sunday Masses, do not have a maximum.

SERVICE THAT IS NOT APPROVED

• Humane society, animal hospitals, or any other service towards an organization that only serves animals
• For-profit businesses
• Seton Athletic Events (can be part of max 5 hours on campus, but no more)

• • I.E. NO TRACK EVENTS THIS YEAR

• Service verified by a parent/guardian or email not connected with the organization
• Donating or collecting items in exchange for service hours 

*REMEMBER* You need to be able to explain how you will interact and build relationships with the people and local communities you serve.

Service Questions

• Service Coordinator:  Mrs. Sandy Gonzales will serve as our Service Coordinator for the 2023-2024 school year, and Mr. Robbie Peñate will assist her in his role as Director of Campus Ministry. If you have any questions or need assistance with service, please contact Mrs. Gonzales first.