ODA took a giant step forward with the uses of technology in the 2011-2012 school year with the establishment of Seholo, a community service website created by current Out-of-Door Senior, Kevin Moody. Seholo is a website that allows students to track and submit their community service hours, as well as see community service opportunities locally happening. Seholo also has a calendar of events that students can use to sign up for community service opportunities.

Every school year at ODA, each student is required to complete 20 hours of community service, and 25 if they wish to qualify for the Bright Futures scholarship. Seholo makes this process much easier than ever before. It is quick and easy to use. Log on to www.sehlolo.com , and the username is the first two letters of your first name, last name, and your graduating year (e.g. josmith2015). The starting password is 93a70b. Make sure to change your password once you are in your account. Once you’re in, you submit your hours, which have to be verified by your adviser and the agency you completed the hours with. The school will be able to see your hours and put them on your report card, so there is no more need to worry about turning in slips of paper. It’s that simple!

In the 2011-2012 school year, the Out-of-Door Academy students competed an incredible amount of community service hours. At the end of the year, there were 10,747 hours completed and 132 agencies served. Seholo has given the ODA students many more opportunities to find community service agencies, and discover their passions in the community service realm.

Kevin Moody first began working on Seholo (Service Hours Logger) when he was a Freshman, his reason being because he was tired of having to worry about turning in paper slips for community service. Having no idea how to create a website, he took to watching YouTube tutorials, and started drafting the first version of Seholo. After months of tedious work, Kevin shared the idea of Seholo with the ODA faculty, who loved it, and decided to make the switch from a paper to an online based community service logger.

Although the current version of Seholo has been highly successful within the ODA community, Kevin is nowhere near finished with his plans for the website. Kevin hopes in the future to create a version that is more customizable, so he can sell Seholo to other schools, churches, and businesses. The newest version he is currently working on is going to have new features, such as suggestions for volunteer opportunities based on where you have previously volunteered.

Because of Seholo, tracking and logging hours has never been easier. If you have any ideas on how to improve Seholo, share them with Kevin! He is always open to hearing new ideas for how to ameliorate his website. In the meantime, check out all of the features Seholo has to offer!