Volunteer Experience

Volunteerism wasn’t a really big part of my life during my sophomore year. I did the bare minimum though of at least 30 hours. That’s not at all bad for me to say but I could of definitely did more. Being a leader means putting time and effort into others. I could only do so much though because I was busy with getting my grades and classes in good shape. As a leader I always strive for better and I expect that I do better. This year was my earnestly worst time to volunteer. Yet, what I could do did make a difference none the less. For example, Sarah Cortez told me of all the benefits I would be doing for the community of Flint if I joined their F.A.C.T.S Team in the spring and I did! It was really cool. My leader was Jazmin from LAS and she did a great job at leading. What we did was we raked leaves and we also picked up a huge amount of trash. I was in shock on the state of Flint. I never have been in Flint till then and I assumed people exaggerated the living conditions. I know they over do the amount of deaths but honestly the amount of houses in shambles was not at all. I did at least 10 ish hours of service work that day. I don’t know if this counts but I also donated plasma every Tuesday and Thursday for the entire year. I don’t count it because I got paid but also it is volunteerism that made me do it because someone would benefit from my donation. I participated in several volunteer programs through the Program Board such as ushering for the Chris Fleming presentation on Ghost Hunting. I was also volunteering all day from 9am-5pm on picking up trash on Earth Day. Like it was not even an event I just wanted to pick up the trash because I love my Earth. It was good work and honest. I did serve I suppose another 30 hours toward getting my OA lodge all set for the year. Oh my God, I didn’t do bare minimum! I forgot about the OA events that I help put on! I am so happy. What I am talking about is I spent a total of 100+ as the OA service chair for Elangomating. I can’t believe I forgot. That is so great.

Alright, so the big take away is that I don’t care for number of hours of volunteering because I volunteer for the people that benefit from me. I don’t count the hours by the hour because what i do I do it out of kindness and I really don’t like it at all when I am required. It’s a basic human instinct to help others and I find it enjoyable. So I guess I can say that Leadership isn’t always about the work you put in BUT the impact that you will have on others. It all depends on how you see yourself and what you do as a person that makes the difference.