A high school diploma is the goal for virtually all high school students, but here on campus, many students also strive for some of the honors awarded at graduation such as leadership and service cords. However reaching the requirement for the service cord has been changed for some grade levels.

“The number of service hours are not necessarily increasing,” administrative assistant Sara Yaeger said. “The school decided how many service hours a senior needed to have in order to get recognition for it. It just kind of depended where you were in the class, so each senior needed 400 hours, that was the ultimate goal.”

The new policy was created by a leadership board in 2012.

“If you were a senior that year (2012) they weren’t going to expect you to get 400 hours in one year, so it would’ve been 250,” Yaeger said. “The leadership board voted on it in 2012 and their goal was to phase in the policy of gaining 400 hours.”

While 400 hours may seem like a lot, the school feels it’s an achievable goal with proper time management.

“Essentially it is 100 hours each year, so they are just going to have to time it better,” Yaeger said. “Because you don’t have to get a hundred hours every year, you can get 400 hours in one year if that’s what you decide to do, or two hundred in one year and another 200 in the next. I don’t know that it is going to really affect students. I know it seems like we are requiring more, but we are not.”

Some students, especially freshmen, still feel 100 hours per year is overwhelming.

“It would require a lot of time, and I don’t think I will have enough time to do 100 hours per year,” freshman Natalie Demarest said. “I have other things, such as band and homework to work on. And as we go to sophomore year, then we will have even more homework and less time to spend getting service hours.”

Students can use service hours from clubs, such as Key Club and National Honors Society to gain the total amount of community service for the cord.

“I think that more people will join Key Club,” Key Club sponsor Amanda Beller said. “If they have to get so many hours anyway, then I think that a lot of people will see it as an opportunity to get more hours and also an opportunity to have it on their resume and application.”

The change in the number of service hours is about making students apart of something more.

“It makes you more rounded, and gives you opportunities to do things to help out in the community,” Yaeger said. “It helps be a part of something that is bigger than yourself.”