As part of the Honors College mission to develop service-minded "innovation citizens," a minimum of 30 hours of approved service work is required in the first three years. The deadline for submitting service hours for all Honors College students is May 1 of your junior year or one year before your graduation date. If your graduation date has changed and you will not be graduating by your fourth year in the Honors College, please see the "Deadlines" section below for details. The service requirement can be credit or non-credit bearing; paid internships or work will not fulfill the service requirement.
There is no maximum of service hours you can acquire within the Rutgers and New Brunswick/surrounding communities, as long as they are pre-approved by the HC Serves Coordinator; you may earn all 30 service hours through Rutgers and New Brunswick/surrounding community service opportunities, though it is encouraged you look into additional opportunities. A maximum of 15 hours total can come from a community service opportunity outside of Rutgers and New Brunswick/surrounding communities. To verify whether an opportunity will count towards your total or if you have a general question about community service, you may contact HCServes@echo.rutgers.edu.
The Honors College is committed to creating a culture of community service and we encourage you to continue logging your service hours even after you have met the requirement.
Logging Service Hours
In order to get credit for your service, you must log your hours on the HC Serves form. On the form, you will need to include the name of a supervisor or advisor who can verify that you completed your service; they may be contacted to confirm your service with them. You can either submit one form with the total hours of service at each site, or you can log your hours individually per session.
Service Hours Portal
All students can view progress towards their service requirement on the HC Community Service Record portal.
Changemaking Communities and Points
All Honors College students are eligible to receive up to 10 Changemaking Points—which count toward your overall community service hours—per year by participating in one of our Changemaking Communities.
HC Serves Leadership Team and Programs
The HC Serves Leadership Team is a student-led group that provides Honors College students with community service opportunities based on the service learning model and the integration of learning objectives with community service, while upholding the HC mission of curiosity, knowledge, and purpose. The HC Serves Leadership Team creates various community service opportunities for social issues such as healthcare inequality, education, environment, social wellness, and social justice, among other things. All programs held by the HC Serves Leadership Team can be found here. You may also join the HC Serves GroupMe, in which you can be updated on upcoming HC Serves events and other community service initiatives.
HC Changemaker Award
The Honors College is committed to creating a culture of community service and we encourage students to continue logging service hours even after they have met the requirement. Students who demonstrate exceptional awareness and commitment to service will receive additional recognition in the following areas:
- Eligibility for the Honors College Changemaker Award
- Recognition as a Changemaker in the Honors College Convocation program
Deadlines
Listed below are deadlines for the HC Serves Community Service Learning Requirement based on graduation date. Please note that the graduation dates are based on the completion of your four-year degree (if you are graduating early, you are still expected to complete the requirement a year prior to your graduation date). EMSOP students are required to complete the service requirement by May 1st of their junior/third year.
- Graduating January 2026: January 1, 2025
- Graduating May 2026: May 1, 2025
- Graduating January 2027: January 1, 2026
- Graduating May 2027: May 1, 2026
- Graduating January 2028: January 1, 2027
- Graduating May 2028: May 1, 2027
Service Opportunities
HC Serves: Featured Opportunities
All hours of service completed at Rutgers University or in the New Brunswick community will count toward a student's 30 total hours of community service.
HC Serves: Not Approved for Service Hours
The following events and programs DO NOT count for service hours. You will find clarifications for each of the commonly logged types of service that have not counted for HC Serves Hours.
HC Serves: Additional Opportunity Hours
Additional opportunity hours will count for a maximum of 15 hours toward a student's 30 total hours of service.