We are just over halfway through the 2025-2026 school year: The numbers are in, and the impact of the Ryan Nece Foundation’s Student Service Club is hard to ignore. Across 16 Hillsborough County Public Schools and one Pinellas County High School, students are logging volunteer hours, discovering their leadership potential, and showing up differently in the world.
The Numbers Tell a Story
With 1,349 student survey responses collected across 16 schools, we’re getting a clear picture of what’s happening. Students in 9th through 12th grade are engaged, they’re reflecting, and they’re acting. Volunteer hours have climbed steadily from 9th to 12th grade, which is a sign that as students grow in our program, they grow in their commitment to service.
Perhaps most telling: 48% of students in our Student Service Club self-reported that they had never volunteered before this school year. That’s more than 600 young people who came in with no prior service experience and are now building habits that will last a lifetime.
For the first time this school year, students have the opportunity to participate in a service-learning trip to Feeding Tampa Bay, putting the lessons from the classroom directly into the community. These hands-on experiences are exactly what the Student Service Club was built for: Closing the gap between learning and doing.
Lessons That Land
This year’s curriculum has been anything but ordinary. From “How Values Influence Decisions and Actions” to “Mastering Time and Tasks” to What is (my) EQ?, each lesson is designed to meet students where they are and challenge them to think bigger. Add in a financial literacy session with guest presenters, Career Panels, and even a career pathways trip to the BICSI Winter Conference in Orlando, and you will find that we have built a program that bridges the classroom and the real world.
The students themselves put it best:
- “The Pomodoro method helped me stop procrastinating… I continued to make to-do lists.” — East Bay (10th)
- “What’s My EQ helped me understand my emotional intelligence and the importance of staying true to myself.” — Brandon (12th)
- “Ryan Nece teaches us things not just about our academics but skills we will use for the rest of our life.” — Sickles (9th)
And the most powerful midpoint takeaway came from an 11th grader at Durant High School, who wrote about our Fork in the Road lesson:
- “My number one takeaway from the lesson “A Fork in the Road” … I had to choose this or that in my life…either to get back on track in school so I can graduate or continue choosing bad choices… I knew what was best for me and that was to get back on track because I can see so many good things in my future… The only way to accomplish that is to push myself to do better to reach my goals… That topic is what is pushing me to push up my grades.” — Durant (11th)
That is servant leadership in action.
Who Makes This Happen?
First and foremost, we want to thank TECO Energy and United Way Suncoast for being our funding partners. None of this would be possible without you.
Additional thanks to our School Site Coordinators, whose tireless work behind the scenes keeps every classroom partnership running smoothly. From building relationships with teachers and school administrators to showing up consistently for students, our coordinators are the heartbeat of the Student Service Club. We are so grateful for the passion and commitment they bring to this work every single day, and for the incredible teachers who open their classrooms and partner with us to make it all happen. Together, you are developing the next generation of servant leaders across Tampa Bay, and we could not do it without you.
What’s Coming Next?
The best is still ahead. Next year, the Student Service Club will expand further into Pinellas County Schools thanks to a generous two-year donation from Pinellas Community Foundation.
