V stands for Volunteering

Sannah Pham, Reporter
April 16, 2012
Filed under Features, News

Volunteering. When you think of this word, you may think of a non-profit organization, helping the poor, or helping animals. Although these are all types of volunteer work, there is much more to volunteer work than you may think. Often times, students may choose a type of volunteer work simply because it is available. Even though this is a good way to obtain the required volunteer hours for graduation, students should reconsider their choices.

When students are faced with the question ‘What do you want to do as a career?” many can confidently answer with what they chose. Yet, the reality is, those students may not know what that career may encounter everyday. One way a student can get hands-on experience is volunteering at the career he or she has chosen.

“Students who participate in community service projects that are interesting to them find the experience more rewarding and meaningful. For example, a great opportunity for students going into a health care field is to volunteer with Porter Adventist Hospital over the summer.” Counselor Tara Boisson said.

Volunteering at one’s choice career not only offers experience in that field if one were to apply at job offerings in the future, but also will display what the career is like and what a person might go through each day.

“[Students should] do some soul searching and find out what they are passionate about and what they want to do as a career.” Boisson said.

After volunteering at his or her choice career, one may find that the occupation he or she chose is enlightening and is looking forward to his or her future. On the other hand, one may find that the career he or she had initially chosen was not the right career and is free to move on to another career that may interest him or her, rather than wasting time and money on a displeasing career.

Volunteer work may seem like a tedious task towards many students, but it may hold the key to their future.