American Citizenship Award (ACA)

Candidates for the ACA award must submit an essay in their own words. The essay shall be no more than 500 words and shall answer the question,

What I learned about Citizenship this year through the citizenship service and/or citizenship education activities I completed.

All essays must be typed into the designated text field of the member portal. Younger members who do not type independently are encouraged to dictate their response to a parent or teacher who can type their reply online. The ACA pdf form is no longer accepted and should not be uploaded to the portal.

The complete written response must be the member’s own words and thoughts. AI may not be used to write a response.

Individual members must have a valid, current membership at the Premier, Elite, or Elite Senior level to pursue the American Citizenship Award.

A member must be age 6 by August 31 (in other words, the student may have completed some activities while 5 years old, but must turn 6 by the end of the award cycle). There is no upper age limit for the ACA. Although Volunteer Scholars is predominantly a student organization, adults are also welcome to enroll.

There is no US citizenship requirement for this award.

The ACA award year shall run from September 1 through August 31 each year. All ACA activities, hours, and documentation must be entered in the Volunteer Scholars online portal by 11:59 pm on August 31. Applications received after that time cannot be counted for the closing year, nor can they be carried forward to the next year.

All citizenship activities and hours must be entered in discrete entries in the Volunteer Scholars online portal with dates, detailed descriptions, accompanying documentation, and the benefitting organization (for citizenship service).

Members must submit back-up documentation demonstrating that they have completed the hours they reported on their Volunteer Activity Logs.

Citizenship Education Activities

Back-up documentation for education may very based on the activity. Some documentation

• Tours: tickets, reservation confirmations, photographs
• Lectures/Speakers: tickets, reservation confirmations, program, photographs
• Classes/Workshops: catalog description, syllabus, certificate of completion
• Televised, Recorded, Streamed Programming: screenshot, photograph of screen
• Book: picture of cover, member’s written summary/review of the book

Citizenship Service Activities

Back-up documentation for service must contain the beneficiary organization’s name, institutional address and website; supervisor’s or volunteer coordinator’s name, signature, phone number, and email, and either the start/end or duration and date(s) worked or the total number of hours worked. Forms of accepted back-up documentation include:

• Letter from organizer/supervisor at the beneficiary organization on the organization’s letterhead.
• Email from organizer/supervisor at the beneficiary organization. An e-mail should come from an organization’s email account, not a personal email.
• Certificate from the beneficiary organization
• Thank You Note from the beneficiary organization
• An Organization’s Time Tracking Log from a single charitable organization, such as a public library’s log or hospital volunteer management system, provided it comes from their system and contains a clear identifier such as the organization’s logo and/or contact information. (See note below about school and organization logs that are not accepted.)
• Logbook where each entry shows date worked, start/end times, total time worked, beneficiary organization name, task(s) completed, and beneficiary organization’s representative’s name, phone number, email address, and signature.
• Photographs of you performing the work. If a member provides photographs as documentation, the photographs must clearly show the member actively engaged in service (please, no photos at the organization’s sign or front door.) Photos must be submitted for each date or shift. A photograph cannot be submitted to cover a range of dates.
• Volunteer Scholars Time Tracking Sheet

All applicable restrictions of the American Volunteer Service Award for qualifying and non-qualifying activities shall apply to the American Citizenship Award.

Ordinary Classwork
Work completed in a routine, age/grade leveled class on civics or government. (For example, a teen who takes a semester or year long high school class on Civics or American Government) does not qualify for this award. The applicant must make an effort “above and beyond” ordinary classroom work.

Members who have carefully reviewed these Guidelines and do not see their specific citizenship activity addressed may contact Volunteer Scholars to ask whether the activity is likely to qualify. A Volunteer Scholars team member may provide an opinion and general guidance; however, this correspondence is not a guarantee of approval. Additional details, context, or supporting documentation may show that an activity does not meet Volunteer Scholars’ criteria.

Please note that approval by a school, club, or other organization does not guarantee that Volunteer Scholars will accept the hours. Activities must meet Volunteer Scholars’ guidelines, even if another group has approved, awarded, or recognized the hours.

Volunteer Scholars is unable to provide individualized guidance about qualifying activities to non-members.

All activities must be reported in the online Activity Log within the member’s Volunteer Scholars portal. Each activity entered by date or shift must include appropriate supporting documentation, as described above, and must be submitted for review and approval. Activities left in “Draft” status will not be reviewed.

Activities may be approved upon first review or returned to the member with one of the following flags: Documentation Requested, Revision Needed, or Question. The member must make the required changes, attach supporting documentation, and/or respond to reviewer questions, then re-submit the activity for review.

Please note: Updating an activity, attaching documentation, answering a question in the Message Center, or sending supplemental details by email does not automatically send the activity back to reviewers. The activity must be re-submitted before it can be reviewed again for approval.

Members who have submitted all citizenship activities and/or reached the required number of hours may consider themselves finished for the award year. If they do not plan to submit any additional hours for review and certification before the August 31 award deadline, they must indicate completion by checking the “Entries Complete” box in their member profile.

If this box is not checked, Volunteer Scholars will assume the member is still actively adding hours and is not yet ready for final award review.

For the American Citizenship Award, all members receive the enameled pin in a jewel box.

Volunteer Scholars will review all citizenship service entries and maintains the right to contact beneficiary organizations to verify work completed. Volunteer Scholars may reject any entries that are incorrectly documented, unsubstantiated, or that are of an excluded type of participation.

Rejection of one or more of member’s citizenship activities shall not be grounds for a refund of the annual membership fees.