Don't Just Count Your Hours, Make Your Hours Count: The Essential Guide to Volunteering & Community Service

Students repeatedly ask the same questions about community service & service learning... How do I find an organization that fits my interests? My schedule? My transportation needs? How do I get in touch with someone at the organization to sign up? What do I need to know before my first visit? How do I log my hours and get them approved? What do I do if I find the service to be boring?" This guide was created to answer such questions. "Don't Just Count Your Hours, Make Your Hours Count" provides students with basic information about community service, service learning, and volunteering, so they can then focus on the big (and arguably much more important) questions, like: How does what I'm seeing while volunteering connect to the social issues we're studying in class? What is this experience teaching me about social, environmental, and economic issues, both locally and around the world? What am I learning about myself and what will I carry with me as I plan for my own future, as a community member, leader, and change maker? The book includes best practices, tips, lists, "How to's", "Don't do's", popular wisdom, academic research, real-life experiences, student volunteer etiquette guides, and more. It is THE essential guide to volunteering & community service for students.

Dr. Kristin Joos is on faculty at the University of Florida, and is the Director for the Young Entrepreneurs for Leadership & Sustainability: High School Summer Program at UF. In 2005, she brought Social Entrepreneurship to UF and created and directs the Innovative Sustainability and Social Impact Initiative in the Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Kristin is a UF graduate, earning her bachelor's degree in Psychology with minors in Sociology, Religion, and Women's & Gender Studies. In 2003, she graduated with a Ph.D. in Sociology and a graduate certificate from the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research. Her research interests center around youth & emerging adults, social entrepreneurship, community service, service learning civic engagement, and creating positive social change. Kristin is passionate about teaching students to use the skills and strategies of business to create innovative & sustainable solutions to social, environmental, and economic problems locally and around the world. In 2007, she received UF's Service-Learning Professor of the Year Award because of the community service she and her students do. From 2003-2006, she served as the Coordinator of Admissions & Student Activities for the Honors Program at UF. She is now a lecturer, teaching courses in Sociology and Social Entrepreneurship.