With summer quickly approaching, President Barack Obama is giving us another dose of change.

Last month, he signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, to reauthorize and reform national service laws.

This act authorizes a substantial funding increase for AmeriCorps and other volunteer programs, as well as the creation of new programs for seniors and veterans according to OpenCongress, a website dedicated to delivering official government data.

The act will require students from 6th to 12th grades to participate in mandatory volunteer work in a summer program called “Summer of Service.” If students complete 100 hours of community-based service learning summer projects, they become eligible for an educational award of up to $500 from funds deposited in the National Service Trust.

The agency can also decide to increase the award to around $1,000 for economically disadvantaged participants and allows all participants to earn a maximum of two summer of service educational awards for their participation.

It’s still unclear as to how this act will be regulated. On paper, it appears to have good intentions. Sure, we want to instill high standards in students and offer them the opportunity to better themselves, but mandatory volunteerism seems to defeat that purpose.

Students should volunteer because they want to; there are plenty that do. However, I think they should have a choice and not be told to participate.

When I was in middle school and high school, I put in several hours of community service, but it was because I wanted to help make an impact. I did it because I wanted to, not because someone made me.

While reading the bill, it was hard to see exactly how this would be regulated. That is one of the biggest flaws.

The language of the bill seems really unclear. As mentioned earlier, “If students complete 100 hours of community-based service?.they become eligible for an educational award of up to $500.” What does this entail? Is this implying that not every student will receive the $500 toward college?

Students become eligible?well how exactly? If I’m a student, I’d like to know more about what I am signing up for before I put in the 100 required hours.

Another issue with this act is that, especially with the way the economy is today, everyone needs money. High school students are no exception and, for those 16 and older, the summer is the perfect time to get a part-time job to earn some cash. The problem is that balancing a job and “community-based service learning summer projects” does not seem like an easy task.

If the regulations in this act were more clear, and students had a better sense of what they were working for, this act would serve them in a positive manner. Obama is definitely doing his part to change things, but I wish it were change that I understood.

Kyle Kershner can be reached at [email protected]