Volunteering Offers Benefits Other Than a Paycheck
In addition to enhancing your student’s resume for job or college applications, volunteering has other benefits.
Why It Matters
- There are personal benefits.
Volunteering is a way for your student to explore career interests, as well as discover and strengthen new skills. Interacting with new people and places develops and strengthens interpersonal skills and provides your student with a different perspective of how others live and what is happening in your own community. - There are health benefits.
Mental and physical health benefit from volunteering by counteracting the effects of stress, anger and anxiety. Those who volunteer have a sense of purpose about making a difference in others’ lives, which provides a feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment, thereby boosting self-esteem and confidence. - There are future benefits.
Volunteer experiences should be added to a resume and college applications for career and college pursuits after high school.
What Your Student Can Do Now
- Make a list.
Refer to your student’s most recent career assessment results and make a list of every career option that looks interesting, as well as the skills required for that profession. Your student can then compare that to volunteer positions within the school and community. Using an effective comparison tool like Microsoft Excel may help your student develop or strengthen another skill that is very beneficial to have in both school and career. - Start with the school.
Many schools offer a number of ways to volunteer, from tutoring to groundskeeping to office work or assisting teachers. Community organizations frequently contact schools to advertise volunteer or paid positions they have available. - Check local and national resources.
Find a local listing of nonprofit organizations like United Way, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, an animal rescue service or a hospital. Volunteers are always needed in a number of capacities in order for full-time staff to focus on other important tasks. The national website DoSomething.org provides a host of different campaigns in which to become involved.
What Your Student Can Do Later
- Review the career list.
Seeing the day-to-day job duties as a volunteer can help in evaluating if a career in that field is worth pursuing. A volunteer who spends time socializing cats and dogs at an animal shelter may not end up pursuing a veterinary medicine degree, but better to find out before investing years and money into such a specialized and significant career choice. - Add to the resume.
Your student should keep a list of new skills that have been acquired through volunteer experiences, as well as any existing abilities that are strengthened. As your student progresses through high school, those experiences and skills should be added to the resume for future college scholarship applications.
What You Can Do
- Share your insights.
Offer encouraging suggestions as your student is evaluating the career options with the volunteer opportunities that are being explored. Suggest other matches that don’t appear on the list and help your student do some research. Offer to pair your student with someone you know who volunteers in some fashion. - Invite your student.
If you volunteer in your community, share the history of your involvement and how any skills you gained from volunteering have been useful in obtaining jobs, as well as in your current career. Be prepared to show the purpose and possible global impact behind different volunteer efforts.
Registration is open now for a scholarship for Iowa high school students, not just seniors. The scholarship awards $1,000 College Savings Iowa deposits, which can be used when your student is ready to pay educational expenses. Register at www.IowaStudentLoan.org/ScholarshipSignUp.
Next Steps
Be sure to complete the survey questions at the end of this article to be entered into the 529 deposit giveaway!
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