Valuing community involvement,  Freshmen Seminar classes have offered freshmen the opportunity to partake in a community service project since 2005.

Freshmen Seminar coordinator Mr. Brian Borchardt reflected that Freshman Seminar is a class established by alumni Libby Falk in 2005 because she was looking for an inspiring way to help the freshmen transition to the high school.  One-third of this class is based on community service, which also helps the freshmen get involved in their community.

This class gives freshman the opportunity to exempt if the individual meets the credentials.  As the value of Freshman Seminar became more known it went from 68 students exempting from the class to four students exempting in 2015, according to Borchardt’s data. Clearly, this data functions as proof that the class itself has transitioned positively into the NHS curriculum

Each Freshman Seminar team has to participate in doing a community service project.  Teams can create an original idea or contribute to something already in progress.

Senior Debi Baldauf (Launch Leader) shared that Freshmen Seminar (Team 1) organized a bake sale during conferences raising about $200. The money raised is going toward fleece to make tie blankets.  When the tie blankets have been made Team 1 is hoping to personally deliver them to patients at the Children’s Hospital.

Additionally, Team 5 initiated the idea of “Five Fabulous Freshmen Favors” meaning five random acts of kindness.  Senior Laura Marsicek explained that within these favors they are making pumpkins and Halloween cards for the office ladies, raking leaves, wiping off windshields when it snows, collecting socks for the homeless shelter, and writing letters to soldiers in the army.  All of these five different favors have created excitement for the freshmen to pursue their significant ideas.

As for Team 19, it held a book drive in freshmen seminars and within the NHS community during the first week of November in anticipation of the used book sale at the craft fair. Plankey said that Team 19 kept track of how many books are turned in from each seminar.  The seminar with the most books donated won Root beer floats from A&W.  (Congratulations to team 1!) Team 19 collected, organized and arranged the the books for the Helping Hands Craft Fair hosted at NHS on Nov. 7.  According to Plankey, used books netted $630.

To date, only three of 23 seminars implemented community service projects, so the NHS community anticipates more service projects soon.

Requiring community service in Freshmen Seminar exposes students to opportunities and builds resumes.  As they get older and start filling out applications, colleges ask what students have been involved with in terms of volunteerism or community service. Therefore freshmen will be able to put down what they did in relation to their Freshman Seminar classes.

Great opportunities have been offered through Freshmen Seminar for students to make a difference.  With one-third of the Freshman Seminar curriculum dedicated to community service, it gives freshmen ample time to make a meaning contribution to community.