Giving Back Through Volunteering

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Today I got up very early on the day I don’t have classes because I volunteered to help with the 2016 Homeless Count & Survey here in Houston. I enjoy volunteering and later in the week I plan on volunteering at the Ronald McDonald house with my student association.

The purpose of this post isn’t to talk about all of the volunteering I’ve done, but to encourage you to volunteer. You can go solo and meet new people or go with friends and have a fun experience together while doing something positive for the community. Another reason why I volunteer is because I don’t have much money to donate and when I donate my time, I know exactly what my contribution is going towards in the organization.

There are a variety of volunteer organizations and you can choose based on your personal interests, to network professionally, or decide what you want to do with your life by volunteering with something similar first.

Another thing to consider is whether you want to volunteer on a more regular basis or sporadically. Some organizations (such as hospitals) require you to commit to a certain amount of time since they invest in you by training you on protocols. If you are short on time you can always volunteer to help with one of the many walks that go on all of the time. I enjoy health related things, but you can help with community events for anything you are interested in. If your city is hosting something big like the NCAA championship see if you can volunteer for the event for fun! I recently found a company where you volunteer to build bikes that are given to reward students for academic performance. Mentoring and tutoring are also activities you can do on a volunteer basis.

Volunteering has enabled me to develop professional skills that are included on my resume because I was a regular with one organization for over a year and I was given lots of responsibility. It has enabled me to learn more about empathy and hear stories from a woman who was 103 when I volunteered at a local Hospice. These are experiences I would not trade for the world. 

To find places you can Google your city and volunteer, go to Volunteer Match or just ask around. What would you like to volunteer doing? This image is not my own and I got it from http://connectionstosuccess.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/volunteer-hands2.jpg. 


-XOXO

2 comments:

  1. Volunteering gives me the best feeling in the world, I swear!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It makes me feel the same way. The great thing about it is that if you don't have much time you can just do it here and there since there is always a need. Thanks for reading!

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