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Volunteering: How Helping Others Helps You

This document discusses the benefits of volunteering, including gaining valuable life experiences and skills, meeting interesting people, getting academic credit, showing colleges commitment, and making a difference in your community. It provides tips for getting started like contacting local organizations, checking community websites, and reflecting on your interests and availability before volunteering.

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dnoller9
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46 views2 pages

Volunteering: How Helping Others Helps You

This document discusses the benefits of volunteering, including gaining valuable life experiences and skills, meeting interesting people, getting academic credit, showing colleges commitment, and making a difference in your community. It provides tips for getting started like contacting local organizations, checking community websites, and reflecting on your interests and availability before volunteering.

Uploaded by

dnoller9
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Volunteering: How Helping Others Helps You

Volunteering has a positive effect on your community — and it’s good for you too. Ben, a college freshman who did
volunteer fund-raising work, calls it “a win-win situation." He says, "You feel good because you're helping others, and the OTHER TOPICS IN GET
others feel good because they're getting help.” STARTED

Reasons to Volunteer For Parents

Giving back to your community is valuable in itself, but helping


others also offers many benefits. For example, it can help you
Volunteering can help Know Yourself

learn more about yourself and even put you on a path to your you learn more about Inside the Classroom
Building a Support Network
future career. Learn more about the reasons to volunteer below.
yourself and even put
Gain Valuable Life Experiences and Skills you on a path to your
Whether you build houses for the homeless or mail flyers for a
local politician, you can experience the real world through hands-
future career. Explore career options:
on work. And you can explore your major or career interests at What are you into?
the same time.
Select an interest and explore related
careers:
For example, as a premed freshman, Gregory spent his summer volunteering at a local health clinic. He picked a clinic in
an area with a lot of Spanish speakers so he could practice his language skills while observing medical workers. He also Select interest
found time to ask the doctors questions.
Find Careers
Meet Interesting People

Both the people you are helping and your fellow volunteers can give you new insights. No matter what groups of people
you’re working with, you’ll find that they have information and ways of looking at the world that can broaden your horizons.
STUDENT STORY
Get Academic Credit

Some high schools offer academic credit for volunteer work through service learning — a program that offers hands-on I really want to be a
learning through service to the community. To find out if your school offers service learning, talk to your school counselor. neurosurgeon

Show Colleges You’re Committed

Your volunteer work illustrates your interests and character. When you list your volunteer work on your college
applications, you show admission officers the value you’ll bring to their campus community.

Make a Difference

It’s eye-opening to realize that doing even small things can have a big impact on others. Rhea, a college sophomore, still Rosanne, college junior
remembers a visit she made to a senior home with a choir when she was in middle school. “An elderly man in a wheelchair
looked up at me after the last strains of ‘Frosty the Snowman’ and said in a gravelly voice, ‘You’ve made my day. This
means so much.’” She recalls, “No one had ever thanked me in such a way for doing something so small, and a stranger
no less!” RELATED RESOURCES

How to Get Involved Character Counts: What Are


Organizations everywhere need volunteers. Here are some ways to get started: Colleges Looking For?
What You Do In High School
Call programs based in your community and ask if they need help. Matters
Visit your town’s website. It may list volunteer opportunities in your area. Learning What You Love in High
Contact a local museum or other cultural institutions or get in touch with similar organizations that can point you in the School
right direction.
Exploring Careers Step-by-Step
Ask libraries, religious organizations and community colleges if they sponsor any volunteer groups.
The Scoop: What’s a Mentor and
Check out the following websites to learn more about causes and to find volunteer opportunities near you:
How Do I Get One?
United We Serve
Network for Good Extracurriculars Matter — To You
and To Colleges
Idealist
VolunteerMatch
DoSomething.org

Before You Volunteer


To get the most out of your experience, ask yourself these questions before you get involved with an organization:

What have I done in the past that I’ve enjoyed?


What do I want to do as a volunteer — and what would I rule out doing?
How much time can I commit?
What talents or skills can I offer?
What kinds of people do I want to work with?
What would I most like to learn by volunteering?

Recommended

EXPERT Q&A CHARACTER COUNTS: LEARNING WHAT YOU


WHAT ARE COLLEGES LOVE IN HIGH SCHOOL
How can you turn interests into LOOKING FOR?
career ideas? High school is the perfect time for
Did you know that admission you to explore your talents and
officers are interested in your hobbies, and find out what it is that
personal qualities as well as your you really enjoy doing.
grades? Find out what traits Read article
colleges look for.
Read article

Susan Kastner Tree, Director of


College Counseling, Westtown
School

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