How Volunteering Can be more than a Requirement

It is not surprising that many people feel fulfilled when giving back to others. You don’t need to be someone like Malala or Gandhi to change the world. Fulfillment can come by starting off in your community. It is the reason why high school students are required to earn at least 40 hours of volunteer work before they can graduate. A majority of these students view this requirement as another chore, while some choose to look at volunteering under a brighter light. Those that do discover the benefits these 40 hours provide them. Here are some of the advantages volunteering can provide you with.

1. It can broaden your view of possibilities.

Some students have a very clear image painted in their minds of what they want to do in the next 10 years. However, that image is not permanent and has a chance of changing. For example, a student who aspires to be a nurse but does not consider exploring different career paths, may find that he/she dislikes working in a clinical setting and does not feel passionate about the job. By volunteering early on, one can try new things and figure out what they would never do again and what they would want to do 100 times over. You might be good at teaching, creating, leading, planning, or public speaking, but how will you ever know?

The great thing about volunteering is that there are no consequences for not liking the type of volunteer work you do. Volunteering is only a test-run that will help develop your skills and bring out new ones that you never knew you had.

2. Volunteering can make your resume stand out.

As students grow older, they may be required to build a resume in order to get their first job. A resume shows a glimpse of a person’s skills, achievements, and experience. Almost all jobs and careers require people to hand in their resumes so employers can see who is qualified. This is where volunteering comes in. If you think getting the best grades in your class is going to get people to turn their heads and say, “Wow! I want to hire him,” think again. Nobody cares if you got a 90% in math and a 95% in French, because actions speak louder than words.  Did you care for senior patients in hospitals? Did you mentor children and teach them how to read? Did you plan an event that raised awareness for a certain issue and contributed to local charities? Did you serve your community in some way and achieve something? Having those experiences on your resume will make you a slightly more attractive job candidate.

In the workforce, experiences are considered to be more valuable than your test scores or GPA, because numbers cannot define your success and they do not prepare you for handling a professional career. However, it’s great if you can get those excellent grades!

3. You have a chance to do something meaningful.

You’ve probably had guest speakers come to your classroom and talk about an organization such as Me to We or UNICEF. They sounded passionate and started to encourage you to make a difference. And while you might have felt that spark of inspiration, you didn’t necessarily feel the drive to get up and do something. You were probably thinking, how could I accomplish something so big? Where do I even start? The guest speakers weren’t suddenly changing the world like it was nothing, they had to start somewhere and work their way up, and most of them started by volunteering. So to make those 40 hours seem less like a pain, try to find an issue you deeply care about, such as animal abuse, poverty, or women’s rights. Or, you can find something that incorporates your hobbies, such as playing sports, dancing, visual arts, or gardening.

There are always ways to include your strengths in a job that can serve a purpose. If you love sports, volunteer as a sports instructor; if you love the arts, gain experience as a graphic designer; if you love to garden, make your community’s garden the best looking one in the city.

The more you volunteer, the more your name will be remembered, the more footsteps you will leave behind for your peers to follow.

I used to volunteer for the Scarborough Rosewood Food Drive. My job was to collect non-perishable food items and donations and deliver flyers door to door. My first day there was terrifying. I was required to go house-to-house and talk to strangers. I was shy and trying to convince these people to give donations seemed impossible. Somehow my friend and I overcame our shyness after exploring three neighbourhoods and we soon realized that when we brought up the issue of children suffering from poverty, we received more donations. These donations would provide help for families in Scarborough. We had managed to go through several neighbourhoods in Scarborough and, it is fair to say, we have raised awareness of poverty throughout this city. My friend and I look forward to volunteering there again this summer because we had fun and made a difference.

There are plenty more benefits that volunteering can provide you, such as meeting new people, gaining confidence, and taking on new challenges. It would definitely be worth it to obtain more than 40 hours.

Since volunteering is unpaid work, by doing more than what you are required to do, people will witness your ambition, passion, and desire.

The type of volunteering a person does can give you some insight of their personality and can present new job opportunities. Best of all, volunteering serves as a platform for people who have the desire to make an impact.