Service
How to Report Service Hours
Download the Suitable app and login with your SIUE credentials. There are two ways you can record your service:
Before you can begin, be sure that you are in JMHP Pursuit side of Suitable–not Engage.
- Search for the monthly “Service Hours” activity, and fill out the associated form. This method will allow you to earn points for your service and is offered once a month.
- Search for the form "JMHP Service Hours Submission AY 26-27". You can find it in the forms tab. Fill out the form and submit. This method does not accrue Suitable points.
Both methods record your service hours. The monthly activity awards points to encourage you to continue your service throughout the academic year.
What is Service?
Service is time that you freely give, without compensation, for the primary purpose of benefiting other people, a community, or a public or nonprofit cause.
What does NOT Count?
Not every activity that “helps someone” counts as service. Work that primarily supports a business or helps an individual or organization earn a profit is not community service, even if you are unpaid.
For example, helping at a food pantry, volunteering at a nonprofit community event, or cleaning up a public park would count as service. Working an unpaid shift for a business, helping a family friend with their store, or volunteering at a for-profit company's promotional event generally does not.
When considering an activity, ask: Who primarily benefits from my work? If the work primarily serves the community, people in need, or a public or nonprofit cause, it may qualify. If it primarily supports a business or someone’s commercial interests, it does not.
Religious Engagement
Religious organizations often offer opportunities that qualify as service, such as operating food pantries or organizing clothing drives. Eligibility depends on the activity’s purpose, not simply its affiliation with a religious organization.
SIUE follows CNCS AmeriCorps guidelines that exclude the following activities from eligible service hours:
- Conducting worship
- Providing religious instruction
- Proselytizing
- Creating or maintaining buildings devoted to religious worship
Activities whose primary purpose is religious rather than charitable do not count toward the Honors service hours requirement.
Why Service?
Community service is one of the foundations of the Honors experience. It is designed to make students aware of issues that exist in the real world and to show connections between what is being learned in the classroom and the world beyond college.
All Honors students are required to complete 50 hours of service before they graduate.
Service completed for other programs on campus may also count toward the Honors requirement, but must be submitted directly to the Honors program through the form described above.
Where to Find Service
Check the Weekly Newsletters/Updates from Honors
Check JMHP Pursuit in Suitable
Throughout each semester, many different opportunities to serve arise. Honors will post these to our newsletter and JMHP Pursuit in Suitable. Check the Upcoming Activities tab periodically and search for “service.”
Service Opportunities
Honors Student Association (HSA) and Multicultural Excel (M.E.)
Our honors student organizations create and host multiple service opportunities each semester. For more information, contact either organization and watch for their announcements in the JMHP newsletters and JMHP Pursuit.
Honors Alternative Spring Break
Each year, the JMHP sponsors a week-long service trip during spring break or at the end of the spring term. On past trips to New Orleans, students have worked with organizations to rehabilitate housing, maintain community gardens, and support people with disabilities. Participants also engage in guided reflection and explore the area’s cultural offerings.
Kimmel Service
Student Affairs periodically provides site coordination and transportation to students seeking service opportunities. Students can complete service projects addressing community issues such as homelessness, poverty, animal welfare, food insecurity, environmental sustainability and home repair.
Campus Food Scarcity
The Cougar Cupboard, located in the Morris University Center serves students, staff, and faculty who are experiencing food insecurity.
Service on Your Own
Students can create or find their own service opportunities in the St. Louis metro, Edwardsville/Glen Carbon area, or in their hometown. These opportunities must adhere to the Service Guidelines and must be reported in the Honors Service portal.
