President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA)

What is it?

The President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) is a national program that recognizes accomplishments in service. The national program is run by the AmeriCorps program and the Points of Light Foundation. YCS is an official certifying agency for this award. Please visit the PVSA website for more information and history of the award.

Who can apply for the PVSA? 

Anyone over the age of five who has completed the required number of hours for their age group is eligible to apply for the PVSA through YCS. Please note that you do not need to complete your service hours with YCS in order to apply.

What counts as service?

Most generally, service means helping others. For more detail on some of the gray areas of what counts as service, check out the guidelines we follow, which were created by Palo Alto High School and also adapted for Gunn High School.

How do I apply?

You must be a student living or attending school in San Mateo County or Santa Clara County, California. We are a small non-profit and cannot process applications outside of our geographic area.

Please fill out this form and send it to service.award@youthcommunityservice.org to be reviewed. If you are a Gunn High School student, please email us first, as we may be able to use the service hours submitted through their system to approve your service hours.

Support the work

Please help us continue to offer the certification of the PVSA by making a donation to cover shipping costs and processing fees from Points of Light. A donation of $20 for each award helps us to be able to continue to offer this service to the community. You can make a donation by clicking Donate at the top of this page.

Have a question about the PVSA or Gunn High School service tracking? Check out our FAQ.