Volunteer Day Eligibility and the Certificate Checklist
A notice for a Summer Volunteer Day is posted at a high school. It reads: "Volunteers must be at least 15 years old by July 20. Students under 18 must bring a signed permission form. The morning session runs from 9:00 to 12:00 and is for park cleanup. The afternoon session runs from 1:00 to 4:00 and is for library shelving. Volunteers may join one session only. To receive a certificate, a volunteer must attend the full session and submit a one-page reflection within three days." Ken is a second-year student. His fifteenth birthday is July 25. He has a signed permission form and wants a certificate. He can attend only the afternoon session because of a morning club activity. He plans to stay from 1:00 to 3:30 because he has a family dinner.
1. Is Ken eligible to receive a certificate? Answer using only the notice's conditions.
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No. There are two independent failures. First, the age rule says a volunteer must be at least 15 by July 20. Ken turns 15 on July 25, so on July 20 he is still 14. The signed permission form does not fix that; the form is an additional requirement for students under 18, not a replacement for the age rule. Second, the certificate requires attending the full session. Ken plans to leave at 3:30, but the afternoon session runs until 4:00. Even if his birthday were earlier, his planned attendance would not satisfy the full-session condition. The correct judgement is to check each condition separately rather than assume that having a permission form and wanting a certificate is enough.
2. Suppose Ken's birthday were July 18 and he stayed until 4:00. What else must he do, and by when?
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He would then meet the age condition (15 by July 20), have the signed form, and attend the full afternoon session. The remaining requirement is to submit a one-page reflection within three days. The notice does not give the event date, so the exact calendar deadline cannot be calculated from the notice alone; "within three days" is relative to the session. A careful answer should state the rule and the missing information: he must submit the reflection no later than the third day after the volunteer session. This tests whether the reader notices that "within three days" is not the same as "by July 20" or "by the end of the week."
3. What is one ambiguity in the notice, and how would you rewrite it to make the condition clearer?
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One ambiguity is "at least 15 years old by July 20." A reader might wonder whether the volunteer must have turned 15 before July 20, on July 20, or by the event date. A clearer version is: "Volunteers must be 15 or older on July 20." Another ambiguity is "within three days": it does not say whether the three days include the volunteer day itself. A clearer version is: "Submit the reflection no later than three days after the session." Rewriting matters because the original notice uses two different time anchors, and a candidate who confuses them will misjudge Ken's eligibility.