The TCS Foundation (FARO) offers new community service opportunities in February to HS students who need to accumulate social service hours for 2021. 

Due to the global pandemic, it has been difficult for HS students, especially seniors, to accumulate these community service hours because of biosecurity reasons. FARO’s goal is to help less fortunate children in Las Palmas and keep students safe.

“We have a lot of programs with the foundation and NHS, but due to biosecurity reasons, we have only been able to offer two options so far,” Andres Rendon, HS Counselor, said.

The government requires at least 80 hours of community service to be able to graduate. This has been extremely difficult for seniors to gain community service hours for nearly two academic years. They have been in lockdown and haven’t been able to go to campus.  

‘‘It’s actually been a great struggle for us seniors as there aren’t many places that are offering voluntary work, and there are still many seniors trying to accumulate these hours,’’ Isabel Jaramillo, TCS Senior, said.

The main goal of FARO is to help out less fortunate students in surrounding public schools in Las Palmas. Due to their low-quality education, they haven’t been able to gain enough knowledge in certain topics or have the facilities to develop new skills.

‘‘We would like to improve the quality of education in two certain public schools, which are Alto de las Palmas’  school and Martin Ebardo Rios school, as they have a lack of knowledge in many subjects,’ ’Camilo Polanco, Head of TCS foundation, said.

Many new options are going to be offered by FARO and will vary from environmental work like planting trees to teaching STEM topics such as robotics to local students.

‘‘For tech and innovation, we are hoping to teach less fortunate children STEM subjects and robotics, and for environmental work, we want to help plant trees, teach these students biology and some environmental skills,’’ Polanco said

Currently, there are few choices for social service hours. Approximately 50 students have expressed interest in FARO’s offer of community service. Many of them have looked outside of school but have not participated in these community service hours due to biosecurity reasons.

‘‘Students have looked for other options outside of school but have the same issue, everyone wants it to be in person, but due to Covid, it isn’t possible,’’ Rendon said.

Teachers and shareholders consider the foundation a great choice for students, and they should take advantage of this opportunity as they can ensure some community service hours.

‘‘The foundation is great as it’s easily accessible for students, and you’re also helping the school community and surrounding schools,’’ Jaramillo said.