One component of the Professional Event Management Certificate is the required volunteer hours each student must work in the events industry. Your Website Portfolio will include the information that documents your competition of these hours. In RPTS 324, you must submit at least 70% of your hours documented for the draft deadline to earn a grade on that assignment and 100% must be submitted for the final deadline to earn a grade on that assignment.
These volunteer hours can range from working as a parking attendant or trash clean-up crew through running the event. You are allowed to volunteer as a part of the planning phase, implementation phase, post-event evaluation phase, or a combination of these phases.
These volunteer opportunities are to be found by you, the student. They do not have to take place in the BCS area. You can look at a city’s event calendar, the PEMC Facebook page, the Student Event Planners Association (SEPA) website, or other student organization event calendars to find opportunities.
- A minimum of 40 hours (unpaid) of service in conduct of event management and execution.
- These 40 hours must be conducted at at least ten (10) separate events (recurring events or events of the same nature can count as separate events).
- You must work each event for at least three (3) hours.
- No community service will be accepted; e.g., Big Event, Replant, can food drives, etc.
- No family/friend events; e.g., Ring Dunks, weddings, showers, birthdays, etc.
- These hours will be performed after you have been accepted into the PEMC program.
- Service hour requirements from RPTS 311, RPTS 320, and RPTS 321 can apply, if you earned those hours after acceptance into PEMC.
Great learning can occur from a greater variety of events. If you are still working towards your hour requirement, please consider events you have not yet worked as an outlet you may want to consider.