Volunteering: The Personal and Educational Benefits for High School Students
High schools and colleges love to see students who volunteer; it shows a student who is considerate of others, caring about their community, and sympathetic to a good cause. Including volunteer work in a high school portfolio and on a college application is a foolproof way to make a solid impression. But it’s more than just that; it’s a tangible value-add for students both personally and educationally. The enrichment that comes from giving back is invaluable.
Volunteering can provide high school students with appreciable opportunities to give back to their community, while gaining dynamic personal experience. While many high schools expect students to satisfy a set amount of service-learning hours as a graduation requirement, it is highly recommended that all students experience volunteer work for the personal benefits as much as for the educational merits.
Benefits of Volunteering
Volunteer work has the potential to open the eyes of students who maybe haven’t participated in any community-based projects before. This may be their first opportunity to make a substantial impact in their area, and enable them to discover new personal strengths or a meaningful purpose.
Volunteering can also help zero-in on areas of interest as well as possible education and career paths—especially for our students who are undecided. For instance, a high school student who volunteers to help out in a preschool disabilities and early intervention classroom may just become inspired to study special education in college. Likewise, a student who volunteers with a beach clean up crew may be inspired to study environmental science and policy. You get the idea: volunteer experiences have great potential to enrich and enlighten the lives of our students.
On top of that, there are plenty of private-, public-, local-, and college-funded scholarships available to students who participate in volunteer work. Community service is an excellent way for students to earn money for college.
Here are just a few noteworthy programs and foundations that support college-bound students who serve:
What Students Should Know About Volunteering
Volunteer work can have a major positive impact on our students, but they need to understand the general requirements for community service: mainly, time and effort.
Volunteer work is typically performed during students’ free time, outside of school. Which means that students will have to donate their own time to the cause or project they’re helping out with. The commitment of their time—not just popping in for an hour and leaving, but actually staying and seeing the project or activity through—is what community service is all about.
In addition to attendance, students need to expect to show up and put in the work. Standing off to the side, talking instead of working, staring at their cell phones or the clock are not helpful, and not the point of volunteer work. If the project is a community garden, then they need to expect to get their hands dirty and fully participate in gardening. If the cause is a blood drive, then they need to expect to be making calls, hanging posters, and doing the legwork to rally participants.
To get the most out of a volunteer experience—both the experience itself and the resume benefits—students need to work hard and help make a difference!
Types of Volunteer Work
There are so many different volunteering opportunities, and a wide range of interests to support.
Here are just a few types of community service students can look into:
Human Rights
Disaster Relief
Poverty/Hunger
Animal Rights/Welfare
Disability Support
Leadership/Education/Mentoring/Youth Outreach
Shelter/Construction
Fundraising/Advocacy
Veterans
Conservation/Environment
Politics
Athletics
International Relief
This means that students have plenty of opportunities to tap into an existing passion or try something in a fresh direction that may just spark a new one.
Where Students Can Find Volunteering Opportunities
From government-sponsored to online or local programs and charities, there are plenty of opportunities for students to get involved!
Here are some resources for student volunteers:
AmeriCorps State and National: addresses education, health, environment, disaster, veterans, and economic needs locally and nationally. *(Must be at least 17 years old)
Disabled Americans Veterans: assists veterans in their local community.
TeenLife: an online platform connecting teens with local community service opportunities.
United States Youth Conservation Corps: a summer program that teaches environmental stewardship and civic responsibility through the national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and fish hatcheries.
Feeding America: a network of food banks and programs that helps provide food and groceries to local communities.
National History Museums: students assist with museum camps and programs.
Local Girl & Boy Scouts: students run or assist with camps and activities.
Local animal welfare organizations/shelters/orphanages: walking dogs, playing with cats, feeding, grooming, keeping the animals’ housing clean, updating online bios, fundraising events—students help keep animals happy while they wait to be adopted.
Local Wildlife Refuges: students assist with wildlife rehabilitation.
American Cancer Society: students can participate in fundraising efforts and patient programs.
American Red Cross: students are connected to their local Red Cross with a variety of volunteering opportunities available.
Red Cross Club Youth Program: specifically created for teens ages 13 to 17 for community service projects and events.
Local libraries: public libraries are often looking for student volunteers to help out with activities and events such as story time or craft time with young and elderly patrons.
Local Nursing Homes and Hospice Services: students help provide friendly visits to patients in nursing facilities.
Local Pediatric Health Services: students are often asked to play games, read stories, and socialize with the young patients.
Habitat for Humanity: students are put in touch with their local Habitat for Humanity to help out in either a local ReStore and/or a local Habitat construction project.
Special Olympics: students are asked to take part from cheering on athletes from the stands and helping alongside the athletes as they perform to assisting in the organization of events and fundraising.
As you can see, the opportunities to give back to one’s community are innumerable. There’s something for most students’ interests, and every one of them makes a huge impact on the lives of others and their communities as a whole.
As your students continue to develop their high school portfolios and begin their college applications, be sure to encourage them to add volunteer work to their repertoires—it’ll make a positive and lasting difference in their lives as well as others.
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