More than studies Social Life

Community Engagement Certificate

Being active on a voluntary basis during your studies offers you the chance to give something back to the community or make a difference to the people around you. It also provides an opportunity to develop your social network, make new friends, and develop new skills or build on existing experience and knowledge, which will be an asset on your CV. With the “Community Engagement Certificate“, we would like to recognise and value your work as volunteers during your time as students at our University.

Procedure

To obtain a Community Engagement Certificate, you must have completed all four of the following points and send corresponding documentation, include your name, dates and a short description.

A minimum of 30 hours of community engagement, to be certified by recognised entitites.

Recognised are entities that encourage volunteering for social, cultural or community purposes; these entities can be internal or external to the University. The recognition of external entities will be made on a case-by-case decision, under the discretion of the OSL. Note: Please note that we cannot recognise volunteering work for political or religious groups.

A few examples would be:

Your own Capstone Project under the tutoring of a recognised entity, complete a project in service of the community. As a Capstone Project, you should be involved in the conception and/or coordination of the project.

Examples:

  • Work on a student activity/project/event (e.g. Quiz Night, workshop, others)
  • Coach and support future members of an association
  • Coordinating study groups as a student representative
  • Organizing informal meetings between the members of your field of study

 Short essay (1-3 pages) about your involvement in this voluntary work and your feedback on this engagement (benefits, recommendations and others), including a testimonial/quote*.

You can follow the following structure to guide your essay:

  • Description of your activity
  • What positive impact have you experienced from working as a volunteer?
  • What difficulties did you face?
  • Why would you recommend working as a volunteer? (or why not)
  • Would you recommend doing the steps to obtain this certificate and why?

*Testimonial/quote
With your permission, your testimonial/quote can be published to promote the certificate and volunteering during your studies. The publication can include your first and last name, as well as field of study, or anonymously; please specify whether or not you allow this when submitting the documentation.

If you work with young people, please note that you can also apply for a certificate from the Service National de la Jeunesse (SNJ), a governmental organism.