Track Your Service Hours
Add Your Impact
You can track all of your service hours and community engagement through EngageDeis. EngageDeis calls this "adding impacts." All Brandeis students have an EngageDeis account, which means ANY student can add impacts.
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Tracking your service/volunteer hours by adding impacts is mutually beneficial for students, community partners, and the university! Here's how:
- Tracking allows Brandeis to provide a unique and detailed service profile to students that can be shared with potential graduate programs and employers (medical schools ask for proof of campus involvement)
- Tracking provides a quantifiable way for students to track their impacts and develop their service story
- Hour requirements are needed for the Commitment to Service Award Program
- Brandeis is able to quantify the number of service hours students commit to serving the community, which helps us find and secure grants and national recognition
- Grants and recognition allow Brandeis to invest in resources for both students and community
- Finally, tracking helps us stay motivated to continue serving throughout the year and acknowledge the work you've put into causes you care about
If you need to submit a report of your service hours, either to potential employers and/or graduate programs, here's how:
1. To print a summary of your service, select "my activity" in the top right corner of your screen next to your profile icon. Then, select "impacts." This will give you an overview of your impacts. Select the "print summary" button on the right-hand side of your screen. See minute 6 of this video for visual instructions.
2: If you have hours logged in both SAGE and EngageDeis, AND/OR want your hours broken down only by organization/club and hours, you can download our template and fill out the summary report. We have both an editable PDF and/or a Word doc. version of the templates.
Instructions
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First, login to your EngageDeis account using your Brandeis credentials.
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Navigate to your profile icon on the top, right-hand side of your screen and select the "add impacts" button from the drop down menu.
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You will select where you created your impact and then fill out the impact form.
For more instructions and information about how to add your impacts on EngageDeis, check out how to add impacts guide or our Resources and Support page.
Request Forms for Tracking Hours
If your group and/or individual service project is not on EngageDeis, you will need to submit one of the request forms below to join the platform. Applications are due on the 25th of each month and will be reviewed by the 15th of the following month by the Commitment to Service Award (CTSA) Advisory Committee. If your application is submitted after the 25th deadline, it will be reviewed in the next cycle.
Once your request has been approved, a Department of Community Service staff member will reach out and assist you with uploading your project and tracking your hours. Until your project is approved, you should continue to independently track your service hours.
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An individual project is defined as an initiative that aims to serve the greater Brandeis or Waltham community that is undertaken by one person.
Individual projects include volunteering with established organizations as an individual (e.g., volunteering with the Salvation Army alone or with a few friends)
This is the link for individual project requests.
A group initiative is defined as a structured effort to serve the community undertaken by a group of people united by a common mission. Group initiatives can include, but are not limited to, clubs, programs, and organizations.
Please work collaboratively with your team to complete this request form and note that only one request per group needs to be submitted.
This is the link for group project requests.
Brandeis Service Policies and Framework
Community service and community engagement are any individual or collective actions and partnerships that center community voice and needs, works toward the common good, promotes a more just and equitable society, and generates social change. To learn more about Brandeis' service policies, and if your individual/group project falls under the Brandeis definition of service, please review the policies below:
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STATEMENT OF TRANSITION & PROGRAM UPDATES
The Department of Community Service (DCS) is committed to supporting all students in connecting with and taking part in community engaged work, which centers a community’s voice and needs, works toward the common good, promotes a more just and equitable society, and generates social change.
The intent of this emerging framework is to expand, rather than constrict, the ways Brandeis University acknowledges and reflects the close partnership between our students and our many community partners. Thus, the Commitment to Service Award Program (CTSA) is undergoing revisions to better reflect these pillars, which we strive to hold at the center of our programs and initiatives. During this time, we appreciate your patience and feedback as we continue to evolve our policies and expand our definition of community engagement. We highly recommend reading and browsing the policy below, as there are many opportunities to participate in this transition.
DCS recognizes that there may be situations where it is difficult to determine whether or not an activity or event aligns with the current CTSA policy, and we encourage students to submit an EngageDeis request form and/or email the department at engagedeis@brandeis.edu with any questions or concerns.
Service hours completed in the following activities and categories are approved for tracking service hours (impacts) on EngageDeis and/or for the CTSA program:
- Direct community service activities (e.g., tutoring, building homes, visiting elderly)
- Indirect service activities (e.g., fundraisers, community organizing)
- Community Organizing (e.g., voter registration drives, community gardens)
- Mandated community service hours
- Service-related spring break trips
- Self-initiated community volunteer work independent of Brandeis (e.g., independent volunteer work such as volunteering with a non-profit organization) but conducted while a current student
- International Brandeis-related community service initiatives, including those that occurred while participating in a University approved study abroad program
- Religious education (e.g., teaching Sunday School or Hebrew School) or volunteering at your place of worship
- Advocacy-related activities (e.g., organizing a voter registration drive, collecting signatures for a petition, writing letters to legislators, etc.)
NOTE: Examples of activities that do not count for advocacy related activities include but are not limited to door-to-door proselytizing; protesting outside of a group of underrepresented individuals convening; and service hours related to political campaigning in support of a particular candidate or political party.
NOTE: Service completed during a semester in which the student was not enrolled at the university or in a Brandeis-sponsored program cannot be logged for ethical data purposes. Students on a leave of absence are not eligible to participate in the CTSA program during the leave, but are able to resume participation upon their return.For mid-year students, if you participate in a Brandeis approved program prior to arriving to campus in January, the direct service hours can be included with the submission of an hours verification letter.For transfer students, if you participated in a similar program at a different university and are seeking to transfer these hours to the CTSA program, please have a staff advisor from your previous institution submit a letter on official letterhead documenting your community service hours by mail or email.
Service hours completed in the following activities and categories are approved for tracking service hours (impacts) on EngageDeis and/or for the CTSA program:
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Meeting hours spent planning a community service activity (planning group social/bonding activities cannot be tracked)
- Office hours can only be counted for time spent engaging with students and/or community (for example, if you are "on call" for 5 hours but only spent 2 hours actively engaging with a person or service related activity, you can only track those 2 hours).
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Projects sponsored by student clubs/organizations that provide a service to the local community.
- Trainings for service related activities
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Projects sponsored by service clubs affiliated with the Department of Community Service. For a list of these student clubs and organizations as well as organization-specific policies (e.g., BEMCO), please visit the DCS website.
Service hours completed in the following activities and categories are approved for tracking service hours (impacts) on EngageDeis and/or for the CTSA program:
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Direct service projects, planning activities, and reflection hours (only reflection hours that happen outside of class in a community project should be counted, NOT in-class reflection) associated with a community-engaged learning course.
NOTE: For hours spent working on an independent or collaborative research project under all academic disciplines (biology, psychology, history, etc.) that has a community service component (e.g., citizen science and other community-based research), please complete the EngageDeis request form.
Service hours completed in the following activities and categories are approved for tracking service hours (impacts) on EngageDeis and/or for the CTSA program:
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For internship hours related to a program or department at Brandeis, please submit an individual request form. This includes (but is not limited to) the HSSP program internship component, social impact courses at IBS, and student teaching and practicum hours.
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For other internship hours (e.g. with a non-profit), DCS encourages students to complete an individual EngageDeis request form.
NOTE: Observation or practicum hours (e.g., hours spent shadowing a physician, medical professional, or teacher) that are part of a degree requirements and do not include direct community service are not approved for tracking.
Service hours completed in the following activities and categories are approved for tracking service hours (impacts) on EngageDeis and/or for the CTSA program:
Currently, activities and work for which a student is paid wages or a stipend is under review, except for the following qualifications:
- Participation in some, but not all, community engaged fellowship programs (e.g., Roses in Concrete, the Community Engagement Ambassador Program [CEAP] and the Rich/Collins Community Leadership and Impact Fellowship [R/C CLIF]).
- Work in the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative (BEJI).
- Participation and hours from some, but not all, service scholarship programs may be transferable.
NOTE: DCS strongly encourages students to submit a EngageDeis request form for paid and compensated work that centers a community’s voice and needs, works toward the common good, promotes a more just and equitable society, and generates social change. Please contact the department at engagedeis@brandeis.edu with any questions or concerns.
As of Fall 2021, the Department of Community Service and its advisory committee has not finalized the approved categories of service that directly impacts the university and is seeking feedback from those involved with student clubs, organizations, leadership positions, and activities which fall in this category, including (but not limited to) the following:
Student Union
Graduate Student Association
Admissions & Orientation Leaders
Cultural Clubs and Affinity Groups
Undergraduate University Departmental Representatives (UDR)
Undergraduate Teaching Course Assistants (UTCA)
Senior Week, Family Weekend, Kindness Day, Brandeis Peace Vigil
Student Accessibility Support Fellows
Sustainability Fellows
SSIS, 6talk Hotline, PARC
Student Working Groups
DCS strongly encourages interested groups and individuals to complete the EngageDeis request form to provide more information about the ways in which the organization, activity or event centers a community’s voice and needs, works toward the common good, promotes a more just and equitable society, and generates social change.
Transportation hours are defined as any hours spent in transportation to and from a service related activity.
The Department of Community Service will approve up to 15 hours per semester for transportation. This means that travel time to and from service related events, up to 15 hours, can be logged on EngageDeis and counted towards your total hours served.
Please note that this policy is currently under review. If you have specific questions about the policy, please contact engagedeis@brandeis.edu