Full Overview
Scholars
in Service to Pennsylvania
is an
AmeriCorps Education Award Only program (Ed Award). This means
that
participating students enroll as AmeriCorps members on a part-time
basis and
receive a partial Education Award at the end of their term.
Students who
complete 450 hours of service over 1 calendar year earn an award of
$1,250.00. We anticipate that this program will be available in
subsequent years, essentially allowing students to do multiple
terms.
Students can do up to 2 terms of Scholars in Service and thus may
choose to
perform 900 hours over 2 calendar years to earn awards totaling
$2,500.00. The award can be used to pay for any legitimate
educational
expense at their current undergraduate institution or to pay for future
educational expenses, as well as to re-pay student loans.
What we’re expecting from your campus:
We
expect that your campus will recruit at least 10 students to
participate in
this program. These students will be
leaders on your campus who have already demonstrated a significant
commitment
to community service. These students
will commit to an ongoing weekly service project where they will do
approximately 10 hours a week of service. They do not have to earn all
450
hours at the same service site; however it is recommended that they
perform
most of their work at one primary site per academic term.
Students often earn a large portion of their
hours in summer months as well. Many of
these students may also have work-study money that they have been (or
could be)
applying to do “Off Campus Community Service.”
We
expect campus supervisors to see students on a regular basis (at least
bi-weekly) to monitor their progress, collect and sign off on their
time
sheets, and provide them with structured reflection and training. We also expect the supervisor to be involved
in the selection of service sites for your students.
Ideally, these students will be campus
leaders and will recruit other students to volunteer as well. This can be easily accomplished, for example,
by having Corps Members plan and/or assist with a service fair in the
beginning
of the year.
In
our experience, it is best to recruit students with a track record of
commitment. Many students are drawn to
the idea of money for college. Often,
these students do not have a track record of significant service and
find
themselves struggling to earn enough hours. Furthermore,
while the Ed Award may be the
incentive that distinguishes
your Corps Members from other students, the campus should not build its
leadership program around the award.
Post-Secondary Readiness and 21st Century Community Learning
Centers (21CCLC's)
With the November 2004 round of
applications there is a special
emphasis on post-secondary readiness and
21st Century
Community Learning Centers (21CCLC). The
ideal proposal will incorporate support of
some type of after-school
or Saturday post-secondary readiness program offered in
conjunction with a 21CCLC
in your local area. If you do not have a
21CCLC in your area, but you can do post-secondary readiness at a local
school
or community-based setting, you are still encouraged to submit a
proposal. If you need assistance designing
a
post-secondary readiness program and/or connecting with a 21CCLC,
please
contact the PHENND Office immediately at 215-573-2379.
You do
not have to reinvent the wheel. If you have an existing
relationship with a school-based or community-based program for
children, you may be able to incorporate elements of post-secondary
readiness (i.e. SAT prep, career awareness, college visits,
self-assessments) into your program. For resources related to
post-secondary readiness, visit the PHEAA website at: http://www.pheaa.org.
For more information about 21st Century Programs as well as a
list of 21CCLC sites across the state, click here.
Please note, this is only a partial list. There are 58 new 21CCLC
sites across the state that have not yet been added to this list.
To find out whether you have a 21CCLC site in your area, call the
PHENND Office at 215-573-2379/
How to leverage the Ed Award for Community
Service Work Study:
All
campuses are required to use at least 7% of their Federal Work Study
allocation
to support “Off Campus Community Service” jobs. Interestingly,
campuses are allowed to self-define
“community service
jobs,” leading to the phenomenon of many campuses claiming higher
percentages
of service jobs than may appear to be the case. Some
institutions assign work in the campus
library as a “community
service job” if that library is open to the public.
This tactic defeats the original purpose of
the works study program.
We
encourage you to use the Ed Awards to increase and expand your campus’s
work-study offerings. You can do this by
packaging the Ed Award with Federal Work Study service to attract
students. There are powerful incentives
for campuses to go above and beyond the 7% requirement.
If a campus spends more than 10% of its
work-study money on off-campus service jobs, it can receive additional
money
from the federal government. These funds
can be used to expand work-study at the college.
Work-study
service is one of the best ways to organize weekly community service
programs. Students should be able to
make a deep commitment to service regardless of financial need. If students have to also hold down a job in
addition to their studies, they often cannot participate in
significant,
meaningful service. The Work Study
program allows students with financial need to both earn money to keep
themselves afloat, while also providing significant, meaningful service
to the
community. It is also often the case that service sites need regular,
committed
volunteers willing to put in at least 8 hours of service per week (for
example,
to run a four-day a week after school program). This
can often be too much for the average
volunteer (who may or may not
have a different paid job). By offering
work-study money as an incentive, you can recruit students who can
commit
significant time to service and thus provide higher quality programming
to your
community partners.
Any
nonprofit community site or school can be a work-study host. If a student is tutoring school age children
(4th grade and under) or tutoring in a family literacy
setting, the
student is participating in America Reads. This
means that 100% of their work-study wage is
paid for by the federal
share. Neither the college nor the
community site must pay for any part of the student’s wage. The federal share of all other community
service jobs is 75%. This means that if
a student is working with a job-training program, for example, either
the
college or the community site pays for the other 25% of the student’s
wage. This 25% is often a reason why
campuses don’t
expand their community service work-study offerings.
However, if a student is a Pennsylvania
resident, PHEAA will reimburse the college (or community site) for that
non-federal of the student’s wage, essentially eliminating the need for
any
local contribution to the student’s wage.
For
more information about PHEAA’s State Work Study program, visit:
http://www.pheaa.org/workstudy/index.shtml
Also
visit the U.
S. Department of Education's website about Community Service Work-Study
Benefits for students:
Aside
from the intrinsic benefits of service and the added benefits of being
a part
of a leadership program on their campus, students will receive
significant
benefits from participating in an AmeriCorps program.
Their Ed Awards will allow them to earn $1,250.00
per service term for college expenses. (Please
note that the Ed Award is taxable.) While
an AmeriCorps member, they will also
have all of their federal student loans deferred, and will have their
loans
placed in forbearance (meaning the interest is paid for by the
Corporation for
National Service Trust).