The face of community service at Choate was transformed at school meeting on Tuesday, January 29, when Director of Community Service Ms. Melissa Koomson and Director of Information Technology Mr. Andrew Speyer announced X2Vol, the new platform dedicated to tracking student service projects.
X2Vol has the potential to do more than simply track Choate students’ ten service hours-per-year graduation requirement. Students can supply a contact, so the Community Service Department can seek out more information about a service project. The website also has no character limit for written reflections, enabling students to elaborate as much as they’d like, and features a space to upload photos and certificates of hours.
Students previously logged community service hours on the ChoateSIS portal, with which there were many drawbacks such as character limits for reflections and inaccurate hour-tracking. After her appointment as Director of Community service in August 2016, Ms. Koomson began talking with Information Technology Services to improve and expand upon the previous model.
Ms. Koomson, Mr. Speyer, and Ms. Noreen Virgulto, Manager of Information Systems, were primarily involved in the development of X2Vol. They also collaborated with Associate Head of School Ms. Kathleen Wallace, as well as other departments, in order to bring the project to fruition.
“This is something that the School had to purchase. There was the cost factor. We had looked into a couple of other programs. I had spoken with one or two other schools to find out what kind of platforms they’re using to capture information regarding students’ community service. So there was the logistical piece that had to be taken into account, and a financial piece, as well,” said Ms. Koomson.
With the innovative platform, Ms. Koomson hopes to be able to expand the scope of community service at Choate. The new system, she says, will hold “all of the information about all of the projects that students are doing, so it’s a great way to run a report and to see how many hours our students are doing, and to see the variety of projects that our students are doing. It just gives a much more accurate reflection of all the awesome projects that students are doing.”
Some students have expressed confusion over the implementation of the new system. “We’re still in the process of pulling information over from ChoateSIS to the new platform,” said. Ms. Koomson, “and so the feedback that I’ve mostly heard from students is worries that, you know, ‘I did all these hours, are they going to get counted?’ Of course, we’re going honor what you did previously that was put in ChoateSIS. It’s just a matter of timing and logistics of pulling everything over to the new system.”
Ms. Koomson shared a tidbit of advice for those confused students: “Don’t create a new account for yourself, because ITS has already done that. Students just need to read the directions that are on the portal for that one-time initial setup. And then once you do that, everything should be pretty smooth sailing. But always come see me—open-door policy. Stop by, and we can figure it out. We’re all learning this together at this point.”
Along with the new website, Community Service has added new information to guide those having trouble getting started with service. “We have a new brochure up that helps students and families answer some questions concerning what students can do for their community service,” Ms. Koomson said. “It’s kind of like a how-to, choose-your-project, and that’s also available on the student portal. So I would encourage folks that are feeling stuck and are not sure how to fulfill their requirement.”.
Ms. Koomson expressed the sentiment that, with the release of X2Vol, Community Service is now in a good place, a place where they can “celebrate.” In the future, she said, “I hope to find our rhythm with all of the new-ness, if you will, of the community service program.”
