Volunteering is the practice of voluntarily offering time, labor and skills to support a cause, organization, or community without expecting a financial payment. As time continues and inflation persists, help is appreciated in each of these areas, but how can providing your assistance benefit you in the long run?
As our graduation years approach closer and closer, the myth that community service is required to graduate continues to fill the air, leaving students in panic mode and frantic to find an organization to support. However, the truth is, this myth was never true.
“Way back when, before the pandemic, there was a large suggestion that seniors do a certain number of volunteer hours their senior year for AP Gov, College and Career Specialist Amy Ferguson said. “It’s not like this anymore, but the myth does still persist. AP Gov students were required to do a certain number of hours of political volunteering. They could be a poll worker, a volunteer candidate, or do campaigning, but they wanted students to have experience with the political system to consider if they’d be good for it.”
This experience of submerging in the world of politics was considered a test grade for the class, but it did not decide your fate on graduating overall.
“People will still come ask me, ‘if I don’t do community service, can I not graduate?’ And it was never that, it just was previously counted as a test grade,” Ferguson said.
Nevertheless, volunteering is still beneficial for yourself and the community, even without being considered a graduation requirement.
“Volunteering just benefits our community, whether it’s within the walls of Hayfield, or in your neighborhood, or in our community, country, world at large,” Ferguson said.
Lending a hand to those who may need it without the expectation of money in return can deepen your perspectives on the world around you and can offer you experiences worth more than an extra few dollars. It can encourage compassion and empathy, as well as expose you to things outside of yourself.
“Anytime you’re thinking how you can make another person or creature’s life better, then that is important for all of us because that is the only way we can survive as a society, by looking out for each other,” Ferguson said. “I think it benefits us and takes ourselves outside of what we have going on in our head and all the problems there, and gets us to think externally about all the stuff going on in everybody else’s lives.”
Offering your support can not only impact the world we live on, but can also provide advantages to you and your future. Community service is equipped with hands-on experiences, including both positives and negatives, that can help you to determine what you would like to do in college or as a profession.
“It can also be beneficial, perhaps somebody thinks that maybe they want to be a veterinarian, they can volunteer with a cat rescue or at the Humane Society and get in contact with animals, and not only see the fun stuff, but also the difficult stuff, and that helps them make career decisions because they’ve had some hands on experience,” Ferguson said.
Volunteering is a volition that isn’t always the train to acceptance for all of your college choices, but can definitely be a bonus in keeping your applications successful and on track. It shows colleges that you are willing to take the time to render assistance to those in need, and that you are willing to stand by and support organisations or communities that you take interest in or care about.
“Volunteer service isn’t necessarily the ticket to college admission, but it can be a part of a successful application,” Ferguson said.
However, community service is a time commitment that not every student is able to do. Many students at Hayfield fill their time by working, not only for themselves, but sometimes to support their families.
“We have a lot of students at Hayfield who are doing a lot of helping by working a lot of hours after school because they’re helping their parents to afford to live in Fairfax County, because it’s incredibly expensive,” Ferguson said. “And so, they don’t have time to join clubs and organizations and do all that other kind of stuff because they’re working. Those jobs count as extracurricular activities on their college applications.”
There are many volunteering websites and organisations that allow you to search for opportunities within your area, including the “Realize The Dream Organization,” run by Martin Luther King’s granddaughter, and “Volunteer Fairfax,” a non-profit organization.
Overall, volunteering can be a great way to pull you out of your comfort zone, and can help you to make decisions on majors and careers. Although it is not necessarily a requirement or “free ticket” to admission, it can benefit you in ways that you may not expect.
