By Michael D. Clark
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Lakota East senior Kacy Bullard, 17, gathers pine needles during a community service project in West Chester. (Mike Simons photo)

As the echoes of Kings High School's final class bell ring across the Warren County campus, senior Kristina East is dashing away for a good cause.

East doesn't have time to mingle with classmates for an after-school chat on this Wednesday because she has to drive about 25 miles into Cincinnati to Children's Hospital's Ronald McDonald House, where she volunteers five hours each week to help families of sick children.

In Covington, Holmes High School senior Liz Fossett tutors young students at the end of her school day. That's when she's not volunteering at a safe house for abused women, organizing a food drive or picking up litter along the city's Madison Avenue.

And on a recent Saturday morning, Lakota East High School junior Andrew Harpring joins other high school volunteers who will be dispatched by West Chester Township officials to the homes of elderly and disabled residents unable to do their own yard work.

REQUIRED SERVICE

Among area public high schools that require community service to graduate: Hamilton County: Anderson; Cincinnati Public Schools Aiken, Clark Montessori, Shroder Paideia and Withrow; Indian Hill; Lockland; Madeira; Mariemont; Mount Healthy; Princeton Butler County: Lakota East; Lakota West Clermont: Milford; New Richmond Warren County: Little Miami; Kings Northern Kentucky: Campbell County (incoming freshmen in 2004); Holmes

More than half of public schools nationwide now require students to perform up to 50 hours of community service work per academic year to graduate. That's work performed both during and after school hours.

And that growing number of public schools with volunteer requirements comes as universities - questioning the value of standardized test performance - are scrutinizing student applications for evidence of real-world experience and a budding sense of citizenship.

"We are a university community," explains Mike Mills, director of admission at Miami University in Oxford, "so we want people who will interact with other people. After you take a look at their GPA, SAT score, class standing and the academic strength of their high school (courses), we look at contextual factors, one of which is community service."

Some community service requirements at the high school level are done during school hours for specific classes. That's known as "service learning." But most fall under the category of "community service," done after school or on weekends.

Heidi Murray, a counselor at Kings, says "colleges are absolutely asking for community service experience and it helps the students who don't score high on the entrance tests, or have the glowing GPA because it sets them apart from the pack."

Steve Elliott, author of Reflections, a 1998 community service book based on Kings' programs, says the growing number of public high schools offering such programs is "a real movement in this country."

Elliott is a consultant with Cincinnati's Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation, which funds many Greater Cincinnati public education initiatives and social service organizations including community service programs. He says public schools are following the lead of many private and parochial schools.

Trend toward service

According to a U.S. Department of Education:

• 27 percent of public high schools required community service work in 1984. Today, more than 56 percent have such graduation requirements.

• The number of public high school students volunteering in their communities as part of their schooling has increased from about 900,000 in 1984 to more than 6.2 million today.

Bob Olsen, chief operating officer of the National Youth Leadership Council in St. Paul, Minn., says the percentage of U.S. public high schools requiring or at least offering community service opportunities is closer to 83 percent.

The trend, and its advantages, are obvious to school officials. Beechwood Schools Superintendent Fred Bassett, whose district requires community service from students in advanced academic programs, is considering expanding such standards to all students.

Students whose world extends beyond their classrooms will eventually contribute more to bettering that world by becoming better citizens, Bassett says. "It's a good way to instill a sense of obligation to their communities."

Author Elliott, a former teacher at Finneytown High School, agrees. "What better way of teaching kids to understand other people than by requiring they interact with other people."

The participants are sold, too.

"I think it's really important," says Lakota West High School junior Rachel Ulrich, pausing while raking leaves this fall in West Chester.

She glances around at her classmates, and those from Lakota East, as they trim hedges, clean gutters and clean up the unoccupied home of an elderly couple in a West Chester subdivision.

"This shows that teenagers really care about their communities and want to make a difference," Ulrich adds.

At Lakota East, students taking John Lindeman's government class must perform 15 hours community service per semester. Requirements at Greater Cincinnati public schools range from 10 hours a year to as many as 50 at Cincinnati Public Schools' Clark Montessori High School.

Maryland is the only state that requires public high school students to have community service hours to graduate.

Bill Reinhard, a spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education, says the requirement has been in place for a decade and has not adversely affected graduation rates. Maryland students must accumulate a total of 75 hours of community service in grades 9-12.

Class created

Officials at the School for the Creative and Performing Arts in Over-the-Rhine think so highly of community service that this year they created a class devoted to it.

Though not yet a requirement, the almost two dozen participating students are keenly aware of the need for their work, says instructor James Slee."We are surrounded by need and want and we are in a unique position to help our neighbors here," says Slee, whose class recently collected more than a ton of canned goods that were donated to the nearby Free Store."We think students today should learn the value of altruism."

Bekah Conklin, a senior at the Cincinnati Public magnet school, praises the new class.

"I've done a lot of things and worked numerous community service jobs that will help with my college application,'' she says. "But I've also really enjoyed doing it and I've gotten a sense of accomplishment out of it.''

Superintendent Bassett is hopeful that the national upswing in community service will eventually translate into more actively involved adults who will continue their philanthropic efforts into the future "so we can all benefit."

Lakota East's Lindeman is confident community service will become a lifetime habit among today's teens.

"Some joke about being slave labor, but most of them come back from their work with stories about how much fun they had or the friends they have made,'' says Lindeman. "Many of my former students are still volunteering for non-profit organizations."

E-mail mclark@enquirer.com