The Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement released new statistics on service at Elon University, with increases in student participation and completed service hours.
Over 3,000 student volunteers completed 128,869 hours of service during the 2014-2015 academic year. 140 students held leadership positions within Elon Volunteers!, a student-run organization which connects students to various service opportunities in the community.
Academic service opportunities also increased from the previous year. Twenty-eight students participated in the Civic Engagement Scholarship Program, which combines academic service-learning courses with hands-on service projects to help scholars understand the needs of the community around them.
Fifty-eight academic service-learning courses were offered with students completing almost 36,000 hours of service. Nine faculty members received grants to launch collaborative service projects with students and 285 students participated in alternative break programs throughout the academic year.
Mary Morrison, the director of the Kernodle Center, said that the number of service hours completed have increased steadily over the past ten years, but do not show all service at Elon.
"I feel we are underreporting," she said.
Morrison noted that students tend to not report their service activities if they do not need the academic credit. She encourages all students to report their service to the Kernodle Center in order to demonstrate the importance of service in the Elon community.
"It's not so much about giving yourself credit, but acknowledging the culture of service at Elon and we want to share that message with the rest of the world," she said.