Partner Since: May, 2016 Student Users: 800+
Hours Logged: 23,818 (thru 12/2017) Economic Impact: $561,145
Faculty and students wanted an intuitive solution with good support
Service Learning and Leadership Coordinator at Mercy Academy in Louisville, KY, Rick Blackwell, has been with the school for more than 30 years. He’s led the service learning programs for Mercy, which are mandatory for all students, for several years.
Over that time he has tried different solutions to capture all the data. “We used a system built for education for a while but it was clunky. So we converted to x2Vol. It was clunky too, but the real issue is that the students were always complaining that the solution wasn’t up or wasn’t working properly. The students hated it so much, they wanted to go back to pen and paper. But the administrators wanted to find a solution that worked,” says Blackwell.
As they struggled, a startup in their own backyard, MobileServe was created to address exactly those issues. Blackwell points out, ”Administrators and students alike will tell you how easy it is to use and they never complain about MobileServe. It’s night and day between x2Vol and MobileServe. Night and day.”
New features allow for tracking underclassmen in five key service areas
They started with just the senior class, but have expanded to all of their classes and several clubs. “Teachers really like the reflection component, which enables us to do more than just track hours. The students love it because it’s very simple and easy to use on their phone.”
Mr. Blackwell also offered praise for MobileServe’s continued development of valuable features in the solution. “Every year MobileServe has added some great functionality that has gotten us more excited and made it all easier. We love the goals feature – seniors have to do work for five different committees and now we can set goals and track all of them. That was awesome to be able to let the students know where they are in real time. It’s really been wonderful for us and for our program.”
Super responsive support team
At the end of the day, the functionality of the platform is what brought Mercy Academy to the solution, but what keeps them there is the support. “Any time I’ve had questions or issues, the MobileServe team calls back almost immediately with either a long-term solution or a work-around that will get the job done until they can build what I need. Plus they like to hear about ideas for ways to improve the solution going forward- several of our ideas have already been incorporated.”
New opportunity offers another chance to use MobileServe
After 32 years at Mercy Academy, and leading the service learning program, Mr Blackwell is moving on to become the President at another high school. “It’s a new challenge and I hope to bring MobileServe to my new school,” says Blackwell affirmatively. Good luck Mr. Blackwell!
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