Presidential service award suspension forces students, nonprofits to adjust
Student and nonprofit leaders are being confronted by a new volunteerism landscape that has lost one of its most recognized awards since the federal government suspended the Presidential Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) last year.
Established in 2003 by President George W. Bush, the PVSA certified volunteers based on cumulative hours served, offering bronze, silver, and gold awards to qualifying individuals. The award provided a form of civic recognition that student recipients commonly included in their college applications. Its suspension left organizations unable to certify volunteers and left students without a valuable milestone to tout.
Earning the PVSA was a two-step process. Volunteers tracked their own service hours and submitted them to an approved “certifying organization,” which were usually nonprofits. Once the hours were confirmed, the certifying organization ordered the award package and distributed it to the recipients, who received a personalized certificate of achievement, a letter bearing the president’s signature, and an official PVSA lapel pin.
In May 2025, AmeriCorps — the federal agency that administered the program — posted a notice to its website announcing the program was paused, with no explanation.
Liam Gershony, an 11th grade student at Eastlake High School who had previously earned a Gold PVSA after completing 100 hours of service, was shocked to hear of the suspension.
“The PVSA was a fantastic way for rewarding people who have had positive impacts on their communities. I’m worried that this will decrease community service initiatives and have a negative impact on cities around the U.S.,” Gershony said.
Eastlake junior Aviv Chatterjee had planned to submit his 70 hours of service for the PVSA and was disappointed when the program was suspended before he could. Chatterjee also saw the PVSA as an incentive for volunteering.
“It would allow you to get a prestigious award. I wanted the PVSA because then I would be able to track my impact through the hours I recorded,” Chatterjee said.
As for nonprofits, the effects have been uneven. Tesla STEM High School senior Vivian Li, who founded the non-profit Young Coders Sphere, feels that despite the suspension of the award, most of her members have remained dedicated to the organization and its cause.
“A lot of these students seem to care more about leadership opportunities and the content of what they actually do…I think it really depends on the culture of the organization. If you recruit people who don’t put as much emphasis on a title, then it will be fine,” Li said.
Some organizations have stepped in to offer similar certifications for volunteer hours to students. Volunteer Scholars, which had served as a PVSA certifying organization since 2022, launched its own replacement — the American Volunteer Service Award.
Another organization, Helper Helper, introduced a similar program called the National Service Honor. Neither carries the presidential recognition, but both offer students an award document to certify their service hours.
