You are encouraged to participate in community service whenever and wherever you can. However, for our purposes, the following guidelines need to be adhered to in order for your submission of hours to count and apply toward NHS, Honors Diploma, and/or Gold Cord.

  • All hours must be completed during the TAMS school year. You cannot submit hours earned over the summer.
  • You are encouraged to perform community service during the school breaks (Thanksgiving, Winter Holidays, and Spring Break). However, you are limited in the number of hours you can earn during these breaks as follows:
    • Fall Break - 8 hours
    • Winter Break - 15 hours
    • Spring Break - 8 hours
  • All submissions must be turned in within 30 days of the date the service was completed.
  • Submissions that are incomplete (i.e., no contact name or contact information, etc.) will be automatically denied without notification to the student - you will need to pay attention when submitting your requests and track your approvals and denials on your tamsIam site.
  • You can only submit hours for time actually spent doing community service - drive time to and from an event can not be included.

Examples of hours that will NOT count are as follows:

  • Club Activities
    • General club activities, including building web sites
    • Unless it is specifically a community service project
  • Fundraisers
    • Fundraisers for TAMS clubs or organizations
  • Tutoring
    • Tutoring of other TAMS students that is not officially sanctioned through the Academic Counselors.
  • Service that is paid
    • Anything where you or your club/organization gets paid for the service
  • Family
    • Service to your family
  • Non-Charitable Service
    • Service that does not help those "in need" - for instance, volunteering at your high school annual band competition, singing for services at your local religious organization, etc. will not count
  • Service to for-profit entities
    • for instance, stocking at your Uncle's grocery store will not count even if you are doing it for free
  • Political or Religious activities
  • Internships
  • Independent, Unapproved Project.
    • Individual projects that are not connected with some sort of service organization or agency unless prior approval has been received - for instance, "I spent 3 hours walking around campus with a friend picking up trash" will not fly.
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