Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Volunteer Scholars’ director was a certifier for the PVSA from 2017-2025. Volunteer Scholars was a Certifying Organization (CO) for the PVSA from 2022-2025 when the PVSA program was suddenly halted. Because of past challenges with the program and future uncertainties, Volunteer Scholars has adopted the American Volunteer Service Award (AVSA) as an alternate honor for those who perform community service.

In May 2025, AmeriCorps, the federal agency that oversees the PVSA, suspended the program without advance notice to Certifying Organizations (COs). This abrupt pause was part of a broader departmental reorganization following federal budget reductions.

AmeriCorps and their fulfillment partner, Points of Light, stopped processing and shipping all awards, even for volunteers who had already qualified. COs were locked out of their online accounts, unable to access past records or pending applications. No official updates or timelines for the program’s reinstatement have been provided.

In response to this disruption, Volunteer Scholars has adopted the American Volunteer Service Award (AVSA) to ensure that deserving volunteers continue to receive meaningful recognition for their community service efforts.

Volunteer Scholars is unable to obtain personalized PVSA certificates or physical PVSA awards. If/when the PVSA program is re-opened and physical awards become available, Volunteer Scholars will order and ship items to members who earned awards but did not receive them for the 2024-25 year.

No. The President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) and the American Volunteer Service Award (AVSA) are two separate and distinct programs. Each has its own eligibility criteria, award process, and physical medals, which are not interchangeable.

The AVSA will be awarded exclusively to Volunteer Scholars members beginning with the 2025–2026 membership year and beyond.

If you completed volunteer hours toward the PVSA before the program was suspended, you may still list those hours and recognition on your record or résumé to reflect your service achievements.

If the President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) program is reinstated in the future, Volunteer Scholars will continue certifying for the American Volunteer Service Award (AVSA).

Volunteer Scholars has invested significant time and effort into adopting and integrating the AVSA program to ensure a reliable, sustainable, and independent recognition pathway for community volunteers. The AVSA allows us to maintain continuity of service awards without being affected by external program changes or federal funding decisions.

There are several important differences and a few similarities between the PVSA and the AVSA. While both programs recognize outstanding volunteerism, they are separate and independently administered.

Key distinctions include:

• Age Brackets: The AVSA uses four categories: Youth (ages 6–12), Teen (ages 13–18), Young Adult (ages 19–24), and Adult (ages 25+). These differ from the PVSA’s categories of Kids (ages 5–10), Teens (ages 11–15), Young Adults (ages 16–25), and Adults, ages 26+. The AVSA brackets better align with a student’s age, stage, and workload in school.
• Service Guidelines: The AVSA has extensive, clearly defined program requirements, covering multiple categories of volunteer work with detailed examples of qualifying service.
  By contrast, the PVSA listed only seven restrictions (donating funds, political lobbying, religious instruction, conducting worship services, proselytizing, court-ordered service, and service performed for family members.)
• Lifetime Achievement: The AVSA does not include a Lifetime Achievement Award, whereas the PVSA offered this higher-level distinction.
• Additional Products: Under PVSA policy, recipients were not permitted to upgrade or purchase additional items such as medals or pins beyond their original award package. If a certifying organization only opted to provide certificates, the recipient did not have access to physical awards. Volunteer Scholars allows AVSA recipients to purchase additional award pieces- for example, a medal to accompany a certificate or an extra pin for a uniform- once their service has been officially certified.

In short, while the AVSA shares the same spirit of recognizing meaningful volunteer service, it is a modernized, expanded, and independently managed program designed to provide greater flexibility and recognition opportunities for today’s volunteers.

No. Volunteer Scholars is not able to review and certify community service worked by individuals who are not Volunteer Scholars members. Volunteers who are seeking only certification can enroll as Essential members.

No. Volunteer Scholars is not able to review and certify volunteer hours worked by individuals who are not Volunteer Scholars members.

Possibly. No matter when you join Volunteer Scholars, you can go back and retroactively log your community service work back to September 1 of the award year. You may not count work completed before September 1 as that was a prior award year.

No. The cost of the Volunteer Scholars membership remains the same whether you join with 365 days or 1 day left in the award cycle.

No. Current Volunteer Scholars can upgrade their membership mid-year from Essential to Premier or Premier to Elite level by paying an additional fee.

No. Volunteer Scholars cannot review and certify community service work for a prior award cycle.

During the review process, the Volunteer Scholars team may identify activities that are not well explained or were for organizations that do not appear to meet program requirements. Most of these questioned items can be cleared up with a letter or email from the benefitting organization.

Common activities that generate questions include, but are not limited to:

• volunteer identifying their honor society, service, organization, or scout troop as the benefitting organization instead of the end-user benefitting organization of the service
• volunteer reporting more than 8 hours in a day, particularly in the school year
• volunteer clearly “lumping” dates/shifts together
• volunteer abbreviating or shortening the name of the benefiting organization so our team cannot tell what it is
• volunteer working for a for-profit business
• volunteer doing work for his/her own school, club, or team

Sometimes Volunteer Scholars identifies activities that do not qualify for a particular an award. An example is a student who claimed volunteer work for participating in an awareness campaign or tutoring her own cousins. Rejected hours will be subtracted from a volunteer’s recorded hours, and, yes, it is possible that the reduced hours may correspond to a lower level award. The volunteer should still be honored for the work that they accomplished. Volunteers can avoid this situation by reading the Program Details, particularly the “What Qualifies/Does Not Qualify as Community Service?” section.

Yes. If some of your activities were rejected for not qualifying, you can perform some additional community service to make up for the deficit. However, the additional hours must be completed and entered before August 31. A volunteer who submits activities close to the August 31 deadline may receive notice of rejected hours but will not have any time to work additional hours.

No. Just because a school or club “approved” your hours or another organization “awarded” hours, does not mean that Volunteer Scholars can accept these hours if they fall outside of allowed activities, were completed before the start of the award year, or are specifically categorized as ineligible activities. Volunteer Scholars must uphold consistent standards for its members. The Volunteer Scholars guidelines are detailed and specific so that we can ensure a “level playing field” for all of our members, regardless of their age or where in the United States they are performing their community service.

Other organizations may have varying criteria for community service, and something approved or allowed by a school, an honor society, or even a charity itself may not be recognized by Volunteer Scholars. All members should review all program guidelines and FAQs so they are not surprised when an activity they expected is not counted.

No. Volunteer hours can only be counted in the award cycle in which they were completed. They cannot be “saved” and counted in another year.

Example: Jose, age 15, volunteered in his community hospital’s gift shop during the summer after 9th grade. He averaged 20 hours per week during the 12-week summer break (20 X 12 = 240), and the hospital team thanked him with a pizza party on August 20, right before he went back to school. As a teen, he only “needs” 100 hours for the gold PVSA award. Can he use the “extra” 140 hours for the following award year?

No. In this example, Jose completed all 240 hours in the summer and concluded on August 20, just in time for the August 31 deadline for that award cycle. While he should be commended for his effort, for Jose, he will start the next award cycle on September 1, with 0 hours, like everyone else. Jose may want to investigate other awards that may be available in his community to honor youth service.

Yes/No. A member can continue to add hours to his/her online Activity Log until midnight EDT on August 31 of the award year unless the member had indicated ‘Complete’ and had an award processed. Once a member checks ‘Complete’ no additional entries can be added, and Volunteer Scholars will prepare to finalize their review and ship an award, if applicable.

Yes. Members are encouraged to complete their community service work early in the year, especially if they want the award for a local ceremony, event, or graduation. Activities are reviewed as they are received throughout the year, and awards are shipped on a rolling basis throughout the year, generally bi-weekly or monthly. Awards cannot be shipped “on demand” or expediated, and those who submit activities closer to the August 31 deadline will experience longer wait times.

No. In order to have awards shipped, a member must check the box in the portal indicating they have completed their entries for the award year. Physical awards will be shipped together in one package. Awards completed earlier will be held until the member has completed their additional awards. For example, a member who completes her NDSLA by November 30, her ACA by April 15, and wraps up her AVSA work in early August, will have all awards shipped together once all qualifying activities for the year are finished, entered, noted as “complete” and reviewed/approved by Volunteer Scholars.

Our review varies based on the time of the year and number of students and activity entries in the queue ahead of you. Historically, this is 1-2 weeks in the “off season” (generally September- June) and 3-4 weeks in the final weeks of award season. It is highly recommended that you record activities as you go throughout the year. When many members enter their entire year’s worth of data at one time, delays can occur, but reviews take longer. You do not need to continue to email us inquiries. Further messages from the members and/or their parents only further backlog our communications and delay the review process.

As an example, in the 2022-23 award year, a large percentage of members waited until late August to submit so there was a substantial backlog, and the review and follow-up took 30 days. As the Volunteer Scholars member “class” grows, review times might extend.

Add-on award items will ship in one to two weeks if in stock at Volunteer Scholars.

Yes. A letter or email from each organization you volunteered for will speed up the review process. Since we have Volunteer Scholars members all over the country, we do not know every civic organization or volunteer opportunity available, and many have similar names. A letter, email, or time-tracking log prevents us from having to research and call each organization. See our video on activity documentation for additional information.

No. Volunteers do not need a signature for each shift work unless that is the practice of the benefitting organization. Volunteer Scholars prefers to get a letter or email summarizing the volunteer’s time for the award year or other term (summer, camp session, etc.)

No. Everyone seeking a AVSA award is required to fill out the online Volunteer Scholars Activity Log. Volunteers may submit a time-tracking log from a beneficiary organization as back-up provided the log clearly has the organization name in a header or title. These should be uploaded as a pdf attachment to your entries. A generic time-tracking log that a student created or a log from an umbrella organization, such as a school or honor society, will not be accepted since it is not from the beneficiary organization.

Yes! The list of organizations is a sample, partial list of the places our members worked in the last year. Members are always encouraged to identify and work with organizations in their own community. Volunteer Scholars is unable to maintain a comprehensive list of all qualifying organizations and opportunities in all communities because of the sheer number and variety.

No! Volunteer Scholars does have its own community service work opportunities. Most members already have organizations and opportunities identified in their own community.

No, Volunteer Scholars does not recognize the travel time getting to and from a volunteer position as volunteer time. If driving is performed as part of the volunteer shift, such as delivering meals to the elderly or taking senior citizens to doctor’s appointments, then it may be counted. Volunteers may want to check with their tax preparers, as the mileage to and from a volunteer role may be a tax deductible.

The Volunteer Scholars team can see your submissions as soon as they are submitted. You will not receive a confirmation for these, as the Activity Log is visible to the member and the review team. Feedback will be provided for each activity line item such as, “Approved”, “Rejected”, or “Request Additional Information.” Furthermore, the review team will often write specific comments related to your item which you will be able to see in your message center.

No, because of the large number of activities our review team has to discuss, supplemental information must be entered as online comments or attachments in the Activity Log. When additional information is provided, the activity item is placed back in the queue for the team to review again. Emailed discussions are not able to be properly linked to the activity in question. Volunteer Scholars does not maintain a phone number for inquiries.

Volunteer Scholars is a volunteer-led organization, and our administrative team often works during evenings and weekends rather than traditional business hours. Because of this, we are unable to consistently answer phone calls during the day.

Most questions from prospective and current members can be answered by reviewing the award guidelines and the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) available online. These resources provide detailed information to help you find answers quickly and conveniently.

A graduating senior should confirm with his/her own school principal about what regalia may be worn with graduation gowns. In addition to the medals and pins that can be earned through Volunteer Scholars, a graduation honor cord is available to Platinum members who are seniors in high school.

Members can wear an award pin on their scout uniform if permitted by the scout leader and/or council. In some cases, non-official scout insignia must be worn on the back of the uniform vest or sash.

Yes. You should correct your name in the member portal and request a correction by emailing info@volunteerscholars.org The certificate will be re-uploaded using the name in your profile.

If a package was lost or misplaced by the postal service, the member should contact Volunteer Scholars. Volunteer Scholars will file a USPS claim. If the post office will not process and pay the claim because the member provided the wrong shipping address or the USPS system shows the item as delivered, Volunteer Scholars can ship a replacement award, but the member would be asked to cover the cost of the replacement, re-shipping, and handling.

No. Volunteer Scholars memberships fees are not refundable if you change your mind, have a change of schedule or change in circumstances which prevent you from completing the anticipated community service.

Volunteer Scholars is a program of The Scholarium Foundation, a 501c(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. Membership fees are considered donations to Volunteer Scholars and The Scholarium Foundation in accordance with IRS Publication 1771, and are thus non-refundable.

No. A refund would not be given because the parameters of the award year are explained on the website. Volunteer Scholars does not certify volunteer work older than September 1 of the current award cycle, but the member is welcome and encouraged to continue to volunteer and track/ submit hours in the current award cycle.

Volunteer Scholars is a program of The Scholarium Foundation, a 501c(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. Membership fees are considered donations to Volunteer Scholars and The Scholarium Foundation in accordance with IRS Publication 1771, and are thus non-refundable.

No. Volunteer Scholars memberships fees are not refundable if you change your mind, have a change of schedule or change in circumstances which prevent you from completing the anticipated volunteer service.

Volunteer Scholars is a program of The Scholarium Foundation, a 501c(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. Membership fees are considered donations to Volunteer Scholars and The Scholarium Foundation in accordance with IRS Publication 1771, and are thus non-refundable.

No. Volunteer Scholars membership fees are not refundable in the event you do not like the decision of the committee that reviews activity submissions. Having fewer hours approved than you wanted is not grounds for a refund. Having no hours approved is not grounds for a refund. Awards are earned, not guaranteed with a membership in Volunteer Scholars. All award guidelines are published and available to the general public before purchasing a membership and are “accepted” by members at the time memberships are purchased.

Volunteer Scholars is a program of The Scholarium Foundation, a 501c(3) tax-exempt, charitable organization. Membership fees are considered donations to Volunteer Scholars and The Scholarium Foundation in accordance with IRS Publication 1771, and are thus non-refundable.