Thirteen students from Texas A&M University-San Antonio received presidential recognition with the President’s Volunteer Service Award.
The President’s Volunteer Service award is awarded to U.S. citizens or lawfully admitted permanent residents, who exceed 100 hours of volunteer service during a 12-month period.
The awards consist of three levels- Bronze, Silver and Gold- depending on age and the amount of hours completed. Awardees are honored with a personalized certificate, an official pin, medallion or coin and a congratulatory letter from the president of the United States.
Kenny Martin, a junior and business major at A&M-San Antonio, expressed how excited he was to receive the Bronze award for completing a minimum of 100 service hours.
“For one, I was very surprised, very excited and very honored because I’ve never gotten any recognition for doing what I do,” Martin said. “I have been thanked by whoever I’ve volunteered for but never to where I’ve gotten an award. So that did take me by surprise, but it was a good surprise.”
Monica Gomez, a senior English major at A&M-San Antonio was also awarded the Bronze award for completing more than 200 service hours through her involvement in Girl Scouts.
“Girl Scouts has become my passion since my daughter joined when she was six years old. Now six years later, she has grown and earned her first Bronze Award in Scouts,” Guerra said. “I really do love this community service and hope others join to volunteer.”
Christina Guerra, the civic engagement coordinator of the Mays Center, aims to have even more awardees next year by sending emails encouraging students to self-identify, provide evidence of volunteer service and use the Give Pulse system.
The Give Pulse system can be found on jagwire under “Service Learning and Volunteerism.” It’s a system that tracks community service hours and provides volunteering opportunities for students with community partners.
“There are a lot of students who are going above and beyond that did not self-identify,” Guerra said. “So that’s something that we’re working towards with the Give Pulse system, to make sure that we honor all those students who are giving back.”
Give Pulse is fairly new but Guerra encourages students to use it because it’s a useful tool and it’s important to work towards presidential recognition.
“It’s directly from the nation. It’s showing…that America is investing in the civic education of its students and acknowledging that we want [students] achieving,” Guerra said. “We want them to be successful academically, but it also matters that they are good people who are giving back. I think that means everything in democracy.”
According to a university press release, the 13 awardees collectively contributed more than 2,500 volunteer service hours in 2017.
