Say hello to Xello; Frisco ISD dropped x2VOL in June to instead use the college and career readiness application as the new way for tracking students’ volunteer hours. 

According to the counseling department, the change was made in an effort to cut expenses.  

Students are to enter any new hours of volunteer work into Xello. None of the hours previously approved within x2VOL were migrated over to Xello, though the counseling secretary has a report of each student’s total approved hours categorized by student ID for the classes of 2021, 2022, and 2023. 

For students like junior Gauri Pala, who received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for the past five years in all three levels of gold, silver, and bronze, the switch to Xello wasn’t ideal.

“I didn’t like the switch from x2vol to Xello at all because we already got so used to using x2vol during freshman and sophomore year,” Pala said. “So the switch to Xello was so weird and I still don’t even know how to completely use it.” 

Completing the Community Service Program’s 100 hour requirement isn’t needed to graduate, though students who meet such criteria are recognized at graduation with a cord and named in the ceremony program. 

According to Pala, when her x2VOL account wasn’t available anymore, her ability to see each of the past activities she entered disappeared. 

And since she already met the graduation cord and recognition requirement, learning how to use Xello is simply inconvenient. 

“I just stopped logging the hours into Xello because I already reached the 100 hour minimum,” she said. “There’s not really any point for me to go through the hassle and figure out how to use it.” 

The switch presented other problems for students like senior Laura Young, who now has to enter already submitted hours for a second time.

“One thing about the change to Xello that bothered me is that I have to resubmit hours that weren’t verified in x2VOL before the change,” Young said. 

Others, such as senior Olivia O’Brien, enjoy the multitude of uses that Xello has compared to x2VOL, which was only used to track volunteer hours. 

“Along with being able to enter hours easily, it really helps me look at colleges that provide my major and find some colleges that I didn’t even know about,” O’Brien said. “It helps me decide between majors and future careers too.”