Bright Futures Scholarships

Community Service or Paid Work Hours

To be eligible to receive one of the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Awards a student must complete community service or paid work hours. Students must complete the required number of community service, paid work hours, or the combination of 100 total hours. Service hours/paid work hours must be completed with an agency, company, organization, or business.

Community Service is defined as identifying a social issue in the community. This requires students to look beyond themselves and reach out to an issue faced by our society (i.e. poverty, abuse, elderly citizen rights). These hours will meet the requirement for the Florida Academic Scholars, Florida Medallion Scholars or Gold Seal Vocational scholarships. See the Florida Virtual High School Community Service or Paid Work Handbook for additional information.

Volunteer Service is defined as assisting where needed and does not necessarily address a social issue. Although these hours are not recorded on the transcript, students can keep a log of these activities for use when applying for college, job applications, awards and scholarships but may not be used for Bright Futures. Only Community Service hours, as defined above, meet the requirement for Bright Futures.

Paid Work Experience is defined as a job where students earn a weekly or biweekly paycheck and are able to document their work experience through timecards, W-2 statements, or pay stubs.  Paid work hours will be recorded on the transcript for the student.

Completing and Documenting Community Service or Paid Work Steps:

1. Carefully read through the Florida Virtual High School Community Service or Paid Work Handbook
2. Students determine where they want to complete their community service/ paid work hours.
3. Complete the Community Service or Paid Work Approval Form and submit to your school counselor BEFORE any hours are completed. 
4. Complete your service/work hours. Document your hours and reflect on your experience using the Community Service or Paid Work Log and Reflection Form
5. Collect any and all necessary documentation and signatures from the organization where the hours take place. Please note that you will need to complete one form for each organization you provide service/work hours for.
6. Submit the Florida Virtual High School Bright Futures Community Service or Paid Work Log and Reflection Form to your school counselor prior to high school graduation.