Overview
Students at Immaculate Heart Academy put their faith into action by serving their immediate community and ministering to people in need through interactive service opportunities. By participating in the IHA Service Program, students apply their Catholic values by practicing them in projects that expand the students’ awareness of God, others, and themselves.
Based on this call to action, IHA requires students to complete hours in two categories: Social Justice and Volunteerism.
Requirements:
All hours must be completed with a legitimate non-profit, and not at the service of family, neighbors, etc. All hours must be logged through students' Mobile Serve accounts. Paper records will not be accepted. Students failing to complete the service requirement are not permitted to take final exams and will have a notation made on their report cards.
Students at IHA have two pathways to select from in order to complete their service requirement:
Option A: Standard Requirement Pathway
Freshmen: 6 hours of Social Justice; 6 hours of volunteering
Sophomores: 8 hours of Social Justice; 8 hours of volunteering
Juniors: 10 hours of Social Justice; 10 hours of volunteering
Seniors: 12 hours of Social Justice; 12 hours of volunteering
Social Justice is defined as any unpaid work and tangible acts of service performed by an IHA student with a legitimate 503c non-profit organization for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation responding to the Gospel call to minister to those truly in need of love, hope, and compassion. Within Social Justice, students engage directly and face-to-face with individuals with special needs, the poor, the sick, or the elderly (not virtually). Students are supported by a student-led Christian Service Board that helps to keep their peers on track.
Volunteering is defined as performing acts of supportive service to our immediate community. Students learn the value and importance of serving in the places they live, study, and worship. Volunteering includes serving your parish, the IHA community, your town, or a non-profit organization through events and activities that make a difference.
Option B: IHA Service Sampler
Students will serve at the following events throughout the school year and must attend a total of four events from the list below. One of the events must include an IHA Midnight Run.
- IHA Campus Ministry Halloween Event
- One (1) IHA Midnight Run - Ministering to the homeless in New York City
- IHA Senior Citizen Thanksgiving Dinner
- IHA Powderpuff Tournament
- Camp Acorn Dances
Note: If a student misses or cannot attend one of the events listed, they will be re-routed to the traditional requirement for the year.
Students must register at the beginning of the school year for the IHA Service Sampler. They must also log all hours in MobileServe, and include photos and Ms. Ash’s email as supervisor.
President's Volunteer Service Award
Immaculate Heart Academy is a certifying organization for the President’s Volunteer Service Award. This award, given by the White House, recognizes students who complete more than 100 hours of service to the community in a calendar year that begins in April. Freshman students may use hours accumulated in the summer before they attend IHA for this award. However, those hours can not be used to suffice their IHA requirement. Incoming freshmen may not begin counting hours for the IHA service requirement until the start of the school year in September.
Banned Service and Service Organizations:
IHA’s service requirements outline that students must complete tangible acts of service for the betterment of the wider community. For this reason, serving with the following organizations does not qualify for the IHA service requirement:
- Color-a-Smile
- Fostering Animals
- Serving with IHA Athletics (This is an extracurricular, but not service.)
- Running social media campaigns for non-profit organizations.
- Serving with any organization that exists to promote values in opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
*This list is not extensive; all hours must fall within the definitions above. Please reach out to Ms. Ash with questions.
Students interested in social justice or volunteering beyond school requirements have the opportunity to get involved with CARE, a student life club that provides both Social Justice and Volunteerism initiatives. Additionally, a mission trip, Mission@theheart is held every other year for students of all grade levels.
Please contact Ms. Emily Ash '19 at
[email protected] for more information about IHA's Service Program.
SERVICE & FUNDRAISING POLICY
The Service & Fundraising Policy is directed toward students, parents, faculty, alumnae, and non-profit organizations seeking to utilize the students or services of the IHA community for the purpose of serving or supporting a cause or effort. This also applies to all IHA clubs, organizations, and honor societies.
IHA will only participate in fundraising events that are facilitated by and vetted through IHA’s Office of Campus Ministry. Each spring, the Office of Campus Ministry will open an application to the entire IHA community, wherein individual students, moderators, and clubs may apply to run an all-school fundraiser for next year. The fundraising committee will vote on a total of four events for the upcoming school year. Those events will be the only fundraising events IHA will run for the coming year. Every group must reapply every year. Events are not guaranteed year to year.
IHA Athletics teams may run their own fundraisers once per season, but these must also be vetted through IHA Campus Ministry and the fundraising committee.
Exceptions will be made for adding dress down fundraising events for major world or community crisis events (i.e., natural disasters, the conflict in Ukraine). There will be only one dress down day or fundraising event given per major world event for the year. Paid dress down days are reserved exclusively for these purposes and senior class fundraising.
IHA will only fundraise under these guidelines for organizations that are in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church. IHA will not fundraise for other schools. IHA fundraisers cannot subsidize clubs or grade-level specific events, with the exception of senior class fundraising. IHA clubs may only fundraise through bake sales approved by the Assistant Principal of Students.
All requests for any fundraisers must be made through Ms. Ash, who will then take them to the committee. Contact Ms. Ash at [email protected].
Please note, the above policy is intended for all service-related, student-led fundraisers and drives, including those being proposed by athletics and/or IHA clubs. Any fundraisers unrelated to student life or service and not serving a community service organization are run through the Office of Advancement.