Current/Returning Volunteers
Welcome Current College
Volunteers!
Please
refer to the home College Volunteers page for up-to-date information about
deadlines/dates and registration information.
Submitting Hours
If you volunteered off-site (a location other than
UNC Hospitals or the ACC), please use the below form
to submit your hours. We need your hour totals by each month (they do
not need to be broken down by each day) when you submit them. For
example, if you volunteer four Tuesdays in March for 3 hours each
shift, you will tell us in the form that you volunteered 12 hours in
March.
If you forgot to sign in or out one week or are missing hours for some reason, please use the form below to give us the information to manually enter your hours.
Only use this form if you did not log in/out at one of the kiosk desks!
**Hours Submission
Form: http://tinyurl.com/collegehours **
CPALS (Carolina Pediatric Attention,
Love, and Support)
CPALS has an official webpage for those interested in learning more and for 1:1 pal members with passwords to get updates. Find their page here: cpals.web.unc.edu.
We've complied some of the most asked questions by current college volunteers and will refer you here for many answers.
GENERAL
QUESTIONS
I am volunteering somewhere
other than UNC Hospitals or the ACC. What are my transportation
options?
VOLUNTEER
HOURS QUESTIONS
REGISTRATION
QUESTIONS
GENERAL
QUESTIONS
If
you are going to be out sick or are not able to make your volunteer
time for some reason, you are responsible for contacting your area’s
liaison. This is the contact that is given to you at the beginning of
the semester; their name and contact information are located in the top
corner of your schedule. Volunteer Services does not need to know you
are unable to make it. *DO NOT CONTACT THEM LAST
MINUTE!*
You
are not expected to volunteer during holidays or school-scheduled
breaks. Please remind your liaisons that you will not be
volunteering, particularly if you are from a school other than
UNC-CH. You are still welcome to volunteer. If you are in a clinic area
or other office, please make sure they are going to be open. During
inclement weather, we do not expect our volunteers to work. Since many
of you are within walking distance however, we would appreciate your
help if you can come in, especially since staff and employees who
travel are not always able to make it in.
Students who, in the first two weeks of
volunteering, feel they are unable to commit to volunteering for the
semester can drop without penalty by notifying the student coordinator.
After this “drop/add date” if volunteers cannot continue to work, they
will be considered as not meeting the 25 hour minimum to remain in good
standing and will have to wait out a semester. In any case, if you
cannot commit to volunteering, please let Volunteer Services know
immediately so that we can open up your spot to other interested
volunteers.
The
Volunteer Association awards eligible volunteers who submit an
application and go through the scholarship process for college
scholarships each year. The scholarships are awarded to rising seniors
(those going into their last year of college education) who have
completed a minimum specific number of hours (in Spring 2012 it was 125
hours) and demonstrate their commitment to volunteering. Information
about the scholarships goes out to students in a letter/email each
spring.
Throughout the
semester, we send out emails for additional volunteer opportunities,
office help, or to inform you of upcoming events. It is possible that
we do not have the correct email address for you. Or, since emails are
sent to current volunteers, if you do not have any recent volunteer
hours logged in our system yet, you won’t get any emails. If you
have not gotten any emails a few weeks into the semester, it is
important that you inform us so we are able to fix the problem. Making
sure you have kept your hours up to date and that we have the right
email address is important because the returning volunteer registration
process is done via email.
I am graduating,
but will be in the area and would like to continue volunteering. How
can I transition to an adult volunteer?
If you are going to
be around for 6 months or less, you can just continue to volunteer in
the student program. If you are going to be here and available to
volunteer for more than 6 months, just email Volunteer Services about
transitioning into the adult volunteer program.
Parking (free or otherwise) is not
available to UNC Chapel Hill
students in the hospital parking decks as per the University’s
regulations. As a UNC-CH student, even during the summer session
you are not permitted to park in the Hospital lots.
Many buses go to and from UNC Hospitals and walking or getting a ride
are always options. UNC students volunteering after 5:00pm or on
weekends may try to look for parking in designated lots on campus.
Students from other colleges may obtain a free parking pass from
Volunteer Services. More information about transportation options can
be found on this
site.
I am volunteering somewhere
other than UNC Hospitals or the ACC. What are my transportation
options?
Sites other than
the Hospitals (Children's, Women's, Neurosciences, Cancer, Memorial,
Anderson, etc.) and the ACC center do allow students to park
there. (Side note: The ACC does run a shuttle bus around UNC Hospitals
for students coming from campus/the hospital.) More information about
transportation options can be found on this
site.
VOLUNTEER HOURS
QUESTIONS
If you
are not going to be volunteering ever again with us (i.e. graduating,
transferring, etc.), we ask that you turn in your ID badge to Volunteer
Services and let us know you will not be volunteering so we can keep
our systems/files up-to-date. We ask that you do not donate your
Volunteer Polo with the UNCH logo to a used clothing place for security
reasons, but appreciate it if you would like to donate it
back to us as a spare or pass it on to another volunteer.
If
you volunteer somewhere other than UNC Hospitals or the ACC, students
may submit their hours using the hours submission form.
Volunteers should tally their hours by each month and submit at the end
of each month. Only students that volunteer off-site should follow this
process. All students that work at UNC Hospitals or the ACC must sign
in and out at one of the kiosks (which are located in Volunteer
Services, Women’s Info Desk, Cancer Hospital Workroom, and the
ACC).
You
may use the hours
submission form to let us know the hours you missed. We can add
them into the system manually.
Volunteers may view
their hours in the “My History” tab on the web kiosk sign in (the touch
screen computer where volunteers login) at any time. Volunteers should
print a copy of their hours for their own records, especially students
who need them to apply for schools. Printing hours is an option on the
kiosk under “Report” and hours will be printed to the front office at
Volunteer Services. An automatic email is usually also sent out near
the end of the semester with an update of the Volunteer’s current total
hours.
If you do not complete the minimum hours you
will be penalized and asked to sit out the next full semester (spring
or fall; summer does not count). If you choose to re-register after
sitting out a semester, you will have to go through walk-in
registration. You will not be required to attend another orientation
though. The requirement is 25 hours per semester TOTAL, not per
area. This means if you are volunteering in more than one area, you
only have to meet the 25 hours as a combined total.
Currently, there are only a few areas that we
do not hold students to the 25-hour minimum: Doula, Labor &
Delivery Tours, CF Friends, and MEDWORLD. For all other areas, we
expect students to complete at least 25 hours of services per semester.
For these areas, you must commit for at least two consecutive
semesters. If you are in one of these areas, you will need to
re-register every fall to let us know you are continuing your
commitment (we will expect you to continue in the spring if you
registered in the fall and you do not need to re-register in the
spring).
If you are not completing about 2.5 hours a
week or have missed some volunteering, you should take advantage of the
opportunities sent out over email to supplement your area. All hours
done for additional projects, office help, or answering some other need
from the emails sent out count towards your 25 hours. You can also
arrange to make up shifts or come in for extra hours with your area’s
liaison. Don’t wait until the end of the semester to try to make up
hours!
REGISTRATION
QUESTIONS
If you sat out a
semester because you did not meet the minimum required hours of
service, you must come in through walk-in registration. If you are in
good standing, have volunteered within the last year, and did not sit
out a semester because you failed to meet the minimum hour
requirements, you may register with returning volunteers through an
email process. An email from the student coordinator is sent a month or
two prior to the start of the new semester of
volunteering.
It it has been 2
years since orientation, you need to come though walk-in registration.
If it has been less than two years, email the student
coordinator.
Students who have
volunteered within the last year will receive an email regarding
volunteering with instructions on how to register at the approximate
times for the following semesters:
Summer: End
of April
Fall: End of
July
Spring: End
of November
Students will
receive a listserve email regardless of whether or not they plan on
volunteering. Those wishing to volunteer will need to follow the
directions in the email. If you have not received an email by these
times and have volunteered in the past year, you should contact
Volunteer Services.
Volunteers should
remember that we have around 500 volunteers that register as returning
volunteers each semester. To make sure that you are placed in an area
that you are interested in, please put AT LEAST THREE CHOICES
for the areas you would like to volunteer in. Due to the large number
of volunteers, we are not always able to give everyone their first
choice, so having at least three choices helps us to place you
successfully. Also, please give us as much availability as
possible - basically all the time that you are willing to volunteer
- you may designate your prefered times to volunteer and we will
go with that first. Having all the times you can volunteer helps us
place you into a spot without having to email to ask you if you are
available. If we have to email back and forth to ask more
information of you, you lose your place in the pile and we lose a lot
of time.
Yes, returning
volunteers are welcome to move to a different area when they register
for a new semester.
While we sometimes
discourage new volunteers from working in more than one area,
returning volunteers can volunteer in more than one area. Just simply
note your desire to do this in your returning volunteer application.
During the summer, since there are fewer volunteers, we are also able
to allow new volunteers to volunteer in more than one area if they
choose.
Volunteers who are
registering as returning volunteers do not need another TB test. All
that is necessary for registration is to complete the returning
application, sent out by email.
