Universities Track Student Hours
Volunteer Empowerment
Data Collection
Modern Technology
University upgrades from a burdensome tracking system to something easy to use and sees increased engagement
Amongst many roles that Kelly Milo plays at the Center for Social Concern at Johns Hopkins University, she also manages more than 1000 volunteers who are participating in the HopServe50 service challenge using Track it Forward. In 2016, the Center for Social Concern began the HopServe50 program that challenged students to complete 50 hours of civic engagement activities during their academic year. According to Kelly, the majority of students weren’t using their existing service hour tracking platform for a variety for reasons so they decided to look for something that was easy-to-use, cost efficient, and could easily track student service hours for HopServe50.
When they began testing Track it Forward, the founder (James McBryan) spent a lot of time ensuring that Track it Forward was a good fit for their needs. When they finally made the decision to utilize Track it Forward, James continued working with them to improve the system and help tailor it to their needs.
So what changes have they noticed?
“Ever since we’ve started using Track it Forward, we’ve had more and more students logging their hours. It’s been great! The mobile app has been really useful and makes it much easier for them too,” says Kelly.
When working with students, having a mobile app is a must. It makes things much easier to log hours and view submitted time when you can do it on the go. Kelly really also enjoys the email feature that Track it Forward offers. She says it has helped her to quickly filter and identify students who are behind in HopServe50 while providing the ability to encourage others to keep logging hours.
When asked - What’s the biggest takeaway? She comments:
“We’re able to track hours, finally…. (YAY!) and students are using it more and more which has been a challenge in the past. The ease and simplicity of the system has been extremely helpful and we’re now able to determine who is doing what, when, and where.”
In the last 2 years, hundreds of students have volunteered thousands of hours during the school year. The hope is that every year, more and more students will join in since Track it Forward is so easy to use.