Ask high school students about volunteering or community service and immediately they think of it as a punishment. The goal of volunteering is to help solve, or attempt to solve, a problem in the community. Colleges desire well-rounded individuals attending their schools, which includes students that positively represent citizenship and service. Students need to demonstrate an interest in serving their communities.
Types of Volunteering
There are three main types of volunteering: for the school, for the immediate community, and for the state/national/international level. School volunteering is assisting the school in an area of need. An example can include fundraising to purchase updated textbooks for a social studies class. Volunteering in the community can include donating time and energy to build a playground for a local park. Finally, students volunteering on the state, national, or international level identify a need that affects a larger audience and assist in solving the issue. Participating on mission trips to third world countries is a good example of this type of volunteering.
Degrees of Volunteering
The two degrees of volunteering include active/invested and passive. Active volunteering is when a student creates and leads a project and carries it through to the end. For example, a student from Minnesota started a nonprofit organization that collected used computers and refurbished them. The computers were then donated with internet access to economically disadvantaged families in the community. This experience required hours of investment and energy.
A passive volunteer experience is donating time to different experiences on a smaller level. An example of this type of volunteering is a walk-a-thon where only a few hours are served. Colleges will expect students to represent volunteer experience on a more active level.
How to Begin Volunteering
A first step in volunteering is to evaluate oneself and one's interests. Volunteer experiences should be tailored to a service to which the student wants to provide a solution. If a high school cheerleader enjoys cheerleading, then a natural volunteer activity would be to teach elementary students the basics of cheerleading in an afterschool program. If another student is interested in helping animals, then fundraising to build a new humane society facility would be a great example. Students need to attempt to make their volunteering experience as substantial as possible. Limit experiences that are superficial and are completed in one to two hours.
Resources for Volunteering
Begin to look for volunteer opportunities locally like humane societies, hospitals, libraries, and schools. The internet hosts volunteer databases like Volunteer Match and 1-800-Volunteer that can also assist students to find local opportunities. School council advisors, national honor society advisors or school counselors may have further examples and opportunities.
Volunteering can be a great and gratifying experience for students. The opportunity can showcase the student's commitment to serving the community. Experiences that are more detailed and substantial are appealing to college admission committees, as the experience demonstrates citizenship, maturity, responsibility, determination, and a number of other positive characteristics. In addition to academic potential, colleges want students who can also parlay their community spirit to the college campus.
