Christian Service

Students put together care packages in Cassidy Commons

St. John’s lives by the Lasallian motto, “Enter to learn, leave to serve.” Service is an integral part of our Lasallian education and who we are as people of faith. The Christian Service Program is designed to bring students, through experience and reflection, to a mature understanding of their personal responsibility to those the most in need. The service our students perform reflects the religion curriculum for each grade level.

Three main categories of service:

required curricular hours for your class year
required SJC Flex hours
extracurricular hours

All student service hours are recorded on their MobileServe account.

“We have an obligation, as Christians, to help others in need. The greatest gift we can give is ourselves: love of others and respect for human dignity.” Kelli Brookshire ’16

Service Requirements

4-Year Totals

Total High School Christian Service Hours: 90

Year	Curricular Requirement	SJC Flex Hours	Total Hours
Freshman	10 hours with and/or for your family	5 hours MUST be completed at or with St. John’s	15
Sophomores	20 hours direct service at a worshipping community or faith-based service organization	Complete 5 additional hours at your curricular service site or complete at/or with St. John’s	25
Juniors	20 hours direct service with and/or for the poor, marginalized, sick, elderly, or persons with disabilities	Complete 5 additional hours at your curricular service site orcomplete at/or with St. John’s	25
Seniors	20 hours direct service at a worshipping community or with and/or for the poor, marginalized, sick, elderly, or persons with disabilities	Complete 5 additional hours at your curricular service site orcomplete at/or with St. John’s	25

Freshman

St. John Baptist de La Salle began his service at home, and our freshmen begin their journey in the same way. Each 9th-grade student forms an intentional relationship with a member of their immediate family and serves that individual in a meaningful way for a minimum of 10 hours. Projects range from tutoring a sibling to spending dedicated time assisting grandparents. Freshmen will also complete a minimum of five (5) SJC Flex Hours their freshman year, helping them find their place of belonging in the SJC community.

Sophomore

St. John Baptist de La Salle’s progression of service led him to serve the Church through the priesthood. Continuing in our founder’s footsteps, sophomore Christian service is focused on the student’s faith community. Sophomores must complete 20 hours of direct service at a worshipping community or faith-based service organization. If they are not active in a particular faith community, we encourage them to 1) join one or 2) partner with a friend who is active in his/her worship community. Their supervisor must be someone other than a relative. Additionally, students must complete 5 SJC Flex Hours.

Junior

The founder’s service to the Church was not the end of his path. De La Salle focused his attention on serving the poor of society, specifically, educating the poor. Juniors must spend 20 hours in direct service to the poor, marginalized, sick, elderly, or persons with disabilities. All hours must be completed at one organization and the supervisor must be someone other than a relative. Additionally, students must complete 5 SJC Flex Hours.

Senior

Seniors are challenged to act on their adult faith, serving those who can benefit most from their personal gifts. Each senior must complete 20 hours of direct service at a worshipping community or with and/or for the poor, marginalized, sick, elderly, or persons with disabilities. It is our hope that by their senior year, students will have found a cause or an organization that they feel strongly about and wish to continue to serve. Their supervisor must be someone other than a relative. Additionally, students must complete 5 SJC Flex Hours.

SJC Flex Hours

SJC Flex Hours provide St. John’s students of all grade levels the opportunity to serve with and/or for the St. John’s community as part of their required total Christian service hours. The five (5) SJC Flex Hours means the type of service is flexible outside of students’ curricular service requirements; “Flex” does not mean they are optional. Each grade level must serve 5 SJC Flex Hours per year.

SJC Flex Hours are more broadly defined service experiences that encourage student integration into the SJC community through service. Students may serve with their SJC team, club, class, theatre group, choir, band, Cadet Corps, or during a Mission and Ministry (M&M) service event.

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors can complete their required SJC Flex Hours at their curricular Christian service site, or they can complete their SJC Flex Hours with and/or for St. John’s. For example, a junior might serve 20 of their 25 hours at a soup kitchen and participate in SJC service events for the additional required 5 hours.

Freshmen must serve their 5 SJC Flex Hours with and/or for St. John’s to find their place of belonging in the community.

SJC Flex Hours do not need to be direct service (i.e., making sandwiches or creating care packages for an organization “counts”). Flex hours are more broadly defined. For example, service within leadership of an on-campus liturgy, an eco-club park clean up, or an athletics team volunteering with an animal welfare group, could all count with the approval of M&M. These are examples of things that would not qualify for the curricular class year Christian service hours but would for SJC Flex hours.

SJC Flex Hours Include

SJC Flex Hours Include

Sophomores, juniors, and seniors: completing 5 flex hours at their curricular service site
Serving with an SJC club with approval of moderator and M&M
Serving with an SJC athletics team with approval of athletic director, team coach, and from M&M
Serving with an SJC Theatre, choir, band, Cadet Corps, SGA, or other recognized SJC group with approval of program director and M&M
Serving a specifically planned M&M event or service opportunity
Serving an event that is pre-loaded into the MobileServe app by M&M
Class service projects that are M&M approved
Initiatives of an SJC department that are M&M approved
An SJC faculty member’s special service event that are M&M approved

**Organizing a drive through an SJC organization is a special case that needs approval from M&M.**

SJC Flex Hours Do Not Include

SJC Flex Hours Do Not Include

Extracurricular Hours

These are hours that are “extra” in one of two ways:

If you go over the required number of hours assigned for your year
Any service done outside of the curricular or SJC Flex Hours requirements, such as working with animals on your own time

These hours are unlimited. They will appear on your transcript.