Below are remote service opportunities available for Honors College students. Certain opportunities hosted by the Honors College, Rutgers departments, or local New Brunswick and surrounding communities partners will count towards your full HC Serves total. You may also find remote service opportunities on your own as long as you contact the HC Serves Coordinator for approval beforehand.
Rutgers-Affiliated and New Brunswick Remote Opportunities
All students can complete the following remote opportunities towards their "Rutgers-Affiliated/New Brunswick" service hours.
The Happy Hair Challenge was created in partnership between Kier's Kidz, a nonprofit that supports children with cancer and pediatric cancer research, and Songs of Love, an organization that creates and performs personalized songs for children undergoing cancer treatment. To participate in this challenge, share a photo of your own unique hairstyle and donate to the cause. Students who donate and participate in the Happy Hair challenge will receive 1 HC Serves Hour. Learn more and participate in the challenge.
School of Arts and Sciences Honors Tutoring Program Through the SASHP Tutoring Program, students in the SAS Honors Program and Honors College volunteer their time and knowledge to provide one-on-one tutoring for Rutgers students needing help in a wide range of academic subjects. Tutors choose the subjects and times in which they can offer assistance. Learn more and apply.
Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. We invite teachers, students, and researchers to join us in creating open educational resources and collaborative learning communities. Learn more by contacting Faculty Fellow Dr. Mazzeo.
Additional Remote Opportunities
All students can complete up to 15 hours of service with these organizations to count towards their total. The below opportunities must be logged as "Additional Service Opportunities" in the HC Serves Portal. If you have other ideas for remote service opportunities that you would like to have approved, please e-mail HCServes@echo.rutgers.edu.
Crisis Text Line allows volunteer counselors to answer texts from people in crisis and support them during a time of need. Volunteers will attend a free, 30-hour training focused on reflective listening, collaborative problem solving, and crisis management. Volunteers commit to serving four hours per week until 200 hours are completed. Both training and volunteer hours will count towards the HC Serves requirement. Learn more and apply.
Translators Without Borders offers translation services for non-profit organizations, including humanitarian and development agencies. Volunteers can translate medical texts or translate for crisis response from English to a range of possible foreign languages. They can also apply for roles in project management, graphic or web page design, and fundraising. Learn more and apply.
7 Cups of Tea is a website that provides online therapy and counseling to those looking for emotional support. Volunteers will take an active listening course, receive certifications, and gain coaching from mentors. Once certified, volunteers will engage with people seeking help through an anonymous and confidential chat. Both training and volunteer hours will count towards the HC Serves requirement. Learn more and apply.
Catchafire is a website that connects volunteers with service projects that align with participants' interests and skills. Choose from over 150 online service opportunities in areas ranging from social media and organizational strategy to time management coaching and flyer graphic design. Projects can last anywhere from one hour to 15 weeks depending on the needs of the organization. Learn more and apply for a project.
Distributed Proofreaders provides a web-based method to ease the conversion of Public Domain books into e-books. Registered volunteers may contribute by proofreading, "smooth reading" pre-released e-books to check for errors, managing projects, providing content, or even helping develop improvements to the site. Proofread one page at a time, as many as you like, as often as you like! Learn more and register.
Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data online. Volunteers can help researchers learn the best ways to break down stereotypes by completing Project Implicit tests. Learn more.
Shopping for Seniors in Ocean County - Jersey Cares, in partnership with the New Jersey Office on Aging, is seeking volunteers to help with grocery shopping and delivery for seniors in Ocean County who are unable to leave their homes. Volunteers will be able to accept flexible assignments. All deliveries will be performed using contact-less practices, including front door drop-off. To participate, volunteers must agree to a background check and are expected to cover the cost of the background check. Volunteers will pre-pay for the groceries and will be reimbursed through Venmo after proof of delivery. Volunteers will receive HC Serves Hours for participating. This project is through Jersey Cares. Learn more and apply.
Amnesty Decoders is a platform that allows digital volunteers to sift through large data banks of social media messages, images, documents, and other information to advance human rights work. Volunteers need either a computer or phone to access the website, and no previous knowledge is required. Learn more and apply.
Smithsonian Transcription Center allows digital volunteers to transcribe historical collections from the 15th century to the present day to make materials readable and searchable. As documents are transcribed, they become more accessible to the public. There is no minimum required time commitment or number of words transcribed. Learn more.
Paper Airplanes is a nonprofit organization that pairs conflict-affected individuals with tutors to bridge gaps in language, higher education, and professional development. They are seeking volunteers to tutor young adults affected by conflict as well as interns to assist with activities such as translation, video editing, research, graphic design, and more. Learn more and apply.
Zooniverse allows volunteers to contribute to research projects by analyzing and classifying data from topics across the sciences and humanities. Much of this research is used to produce research papers and open-source sets of analyzed data. Volunteers are not required to have particular backgrounds, training, or expertise to assist research teams at Zooniverse. Learn more.
Interfaith-RISE Tutoring provides the opportunity for Honors College students to tutor, online or socially-distant (outside). Interfaith-RISE is a refugee resettlement agency based in Highland Park with many families all over Mercer and Middlesex counties, working with refugees and asylees, families and individuals, who have been in the country between one day and five years. The organization is looking for tutors to work with children(K-12) over Zoom on school work and ESL, as well as ESL tutors for adults and community college students. Visit interfaithrise.org/volunteer/ for more info. You can also email fida@interfaithrise.org and provide basic information about yourself, your availability, any languages you speak, and what age group you might like to work with.