I Don't Like Volunteering

Applying to College
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<p>

How do you judge if your volunteering brings "nothing special"?</p>

<p>When my family came to this country, we were almost entirely dependent on help from other people. They gave us somewhere to live, food, clothes, and people who were just high school kids spent hours and hours tutoring us, teaching us English, interpeting for us. My brother is at MIT now, and I am at Yale. I don't know if we will change the world, I think that is very hard to do, but I do know that we now have those opportunities that you see as being so important for your own ability to help people, and we wouldn't have them without all those people doing "some stupid thing" </p>

<p>My brother and I tutored and interpreted throughout high school, perhaps one of those people we helped will go on to change the world, or one of the people they go on to help, or one of them. Perhaps one of the people who had soup ladelled for them will go on to make a real difference. A small thing done now can have an impact far into the future and far outside your own life. To me, that is taking a long-term view and understanding the whole situation, not wasting the opportunities of today because tomorrow I'll be a hero.</p>

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<p>" but i just "volunteer" in the stuff that I like to do.
for instance, i love making websites and designing graphics so i opted to help out a nonprofit organization with their website. it didn't feel like volunteering because it was fun, but it still counts as volunteer time."</p>

<p>You put your finger on exactly what makes volunteering so much fun for so many people: They choose an activity that they enjoy, and they do it for an organization, cause or person whom they like.</p>

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<p>"the very people who will never volunteer to help at school are the first ones to complain that things are not right" -- so true!!! I was the committee chairman of my son's cub scout pack back when he was young. We had over 100 cub scouts in our troop and were located in an affluent, suburban area. We couldn't even get enough moms to volunteer to be den mother's so that each level could have their own group -- so many stay at home mom's were too busy to help out. But those very same mom's complained regularly to me about what a poor experience the den meeting was with 15 boys to a den and only one mom. Unbelieveable!</p>

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<p>Find something you would really enjoy doing. My D had many problems volunteering the usual way-- no time with all her classes, EC's, total lack of transportation (no license, no public trans., parents working, live in rural area), and is quite "shy" about going up to someone with no introduction. Her high school has a graduation requirement of working or volunteering. D had grown up with pets, but when the last one died this past year, we decided no more, since she would be leaving for college in less than a year. At the same time, our city/county cut all the funding for our local animal shelter because it had a "no kill" policy. They desperately needed money and volunteers. One day, when school was closed due to a "terrorist threat" (really), I sent her down the road to the shelter. I would not go in with her. I told her to introduce herself and just ask "what can I do?" She did, and believe it or not, all they wanted was someone to "play with the kittens and puppies." No prescribed times, come in any time you want, "we are just happy to have you." Of course, she LOVED it! Gee, does it count as volunteering when you are having so much fun? She stayed all day the first time. Now she has learned to take care of the animals, too, and she is organizing other kids to help out at the shelter, plus fund raising. Looks good on paper, but she doesn't even realize that. She just loves going.
I understand kitties and puppies might not be "your thing." But there is probably something that is. Be creative.</p>

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<p>Wow, there are so many good replies here!</p>

<p>Northstarmom, your posts are the ones that have come out strongest in this thread. I admire what you said, and I also admire anyone who volunteers genuinely. What makes me nauseous is that I don't think my Asian friend is genuinely volunteering. I saw his NHS application, and he had listed many volunteer activities twice. When he's asked if he has a job, he will say, "kind of," and describe how he volunteers. I know that volunteering is very much like a job, but it seems as though he is just saying all this to make it look like he isn't lazy.</p>

<p>I do help people when I get the opportunity. At my job I help people every day, since I work in retail. When people ask me for help (at work, at school, or on CC), I try to the best of my ability to help them. But I don't get a sense of fulfillment from helping people.</p>

<p>About finding my passion: Easier said than done. I don't want to shoot down everything people have said on this thread, since it's all very good advice. I have been taking piano lessons for 6 years, and I would say that my playing is better than average. But I could never see myself teaching piano. I have little patience with my own playing, so I feel that I would not be a good teacher to someone who is just beginning. </p>

<p>I doubt I will do my NHS volunteering grudgingly. I will be with my friends and others I know, and we'll be doing the same thing. I can handle that. Even for our class fundraisers, I always sign up for a leadership/management position because that's what I enjoy doing the most out of all the activities. Last year I helped coordinate a very successful dinner. </p>

<p>I'm not sure how much time I'll have for volunteering, since I'll be working about 9 hours/week, researching in a lab, taking piano lessons, competing with the quiz and debate teams, and maintaining a jam packed schedule at school. I'm sure other people do more, but I think I'm as busy as I want to be. Next summer I'll be working 45 hours/week.</p>

<p>I just thought of something I could possibly do. My school's computer administrator is extremely busy, and it's really taking a toll on her since she's...well...not young. I can design web pages, and I know a lot of the programming involved in creating web pages. The school website is not efficient, and it would be better if someone had time to update it frequently. If I helped with something like this, would that be volunteering or just something I should do anyway, since I'm taking one of the administrator's classes?</p>

<p>I appreciate all the replies I've had so far, and I don't want anyone to think I'm being selfish simply because I don't like volunteering. But I think I might face an obstacle even if I start volunteering more. Will colleges think I'm a student who suddenly discovered that college is just around the corner and needs a resume boost? I can definitely see how it would look that way with most of my volunteer work coming during my junior and senior years.</p>

<p>By the way, I'm a little unhappy with the featured thread description because I feel that it doesn't really capture what I meant in my original post. I apologize if I came out a little strong.</p>

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<p>If your people skills are not that good as you said and you genuinely don't want to find people, don't apply to Princeton... (Spend the application fee on something else)</p>

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<p>The college admission process ought to be based on one thing only - academic potential. Volunteerism's consideration in the process is a meaningless distraction from the goal of selecting individuals who can be trained to thinking intelligently about the world. It's an unnecessary injection of politics into the sphere of academia. </p>

<p>One does not need to work x hours at a soup kitchen and y hours volunteering canvassing to save the rain forest to do good for humanity. One can be just as likely to discover the cure for AIDS or whatnot being motivated by the lure of fame and monetary gains as by a desire to help humanity.</p>

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<p>Absolutely bartleby. If researchers discover something that drastically improves or prolongs my life, I will not care what sort of people they were personally (if they volunteered, went to church, were faithful to their spouses, etc). I want my doctor, my lawyer, my accountant, my mechanic, etc, to first and foremost be really good at their jobs! If they are great human beings too, all the better.</p>

<p>Arguments could be made for the other pov too. For example, I think much of the dissatisfaction with doctors stems from the fact that med schools do not assess qualities that would make a good doctor, but rather they assess who could perform the best in undergrad academics. This method tends to favor people who don't necessarily have very good interpersonal skills.</p>

<p>I don't think that everybody should be pressured to volunteer and be penalized for the lack thereof. Still, for what it's worth, H and I are avid volunteers and enjoy making our little corner of the world a better place. I hope we have passed that feeling of community responsibility on to our kids.</p>

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<p>JB -- it sounds like what you should have titled this thread was "I don't like the volunteer opportunties that are known to me". And your people skills can't be that bad if you work in retail (and they will only get better in that environment).</p>

<p>working on the school website is an excellent was to volunteer -- you recognize a need and help out. Not only are you volunteering, but also gaining the experience in doing websites -- that might come in handy later on.</p>

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<p>On this topic we really broadened what 'volunteering' meant. To most people, volunteering is strictly things that will get you community service hours - not things like spending your time helping out various organizations or the school website, etc.</p>

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<p>I wouldn't be too certain on that "to most people" phrase -- my son's school definitely considers time involved helping the school out to be volunteer work. He has help put together new student binders, installed new computer software in the lab and taken prospective students on a school tour. All that was done on his own time (not school time), for no compensation.</p>

<p>To me and my son's school (and the people that I know) volunteering is something that benefits someone (with the qualification that the beneficiary is a non-profit entity), that no monetary compensation is received for and that is done on the volunteer's own time (not while being paid at work or getting credit for hours in school). working on the school's website would certainly qualify unless the student was doing it as a "class".</p>

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<p>hsmomstef, say one is a prospective biotech major and works without pay for Genentech. How is that not volunteering? The work some for-profit companies are in do a lot more good for humanity than washing a hobo's feet. </p>

<p>EDIT: I'm not asking you to justify the school's policy, but merely why you agree with it.</p>

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<p>I'm not huge on volunteering either. I don't know why, I'm just not motivated. I mean I help people all the time, but I don't go out of my way to save the planet or anything. </p>

<p>For example, I shovel my elderly neighbors sidewalks in the winter and stuff like that, if they need help bringing out the trash or what have you. I'm not going to do things just so I can get in somewhere. They can either like me or hate me, either way I don't really care.</p>

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<p>"Will colleges think I'm a student who suddenly discovered that college is just around the corner and needs a resume boost? I can definitely see how it would look that way with most of my volunteer work coming during my junior and senior years."</p>

<p>Lots of people start new activities junior and even senior year just because they are interested in those activities, not to try to show off to colleges. Presumably, during the rest of your life, you'll continue to try out new things whether or not there's a career benefit to doing so.</p>

<p>My S's #1 EC ended up being something that he got involved in summer after junior year -- out of genuine interest, not to try to jazz up his resume. Because of his concern about some violence that had occurred at his school, he got facilitator trained in a nonviolence program, then made it an official part of an organization that he had been involved with for several years. In part because of his assertiveness in trying to get the organization involved in the program, he was elected president of the organization. </p>

<p>S had been fairly shy before getting facilitator trained. During the training, however, he found that he loved helping out people as a facilitator, and when he was helping people like that, he was so focused on helping others that he forgot to be shy. He became an excellent facilitator -- down to earth, funny, and kind. He also ended up leading workshops for people ranging from about age 5 to 80, and he got a countwide award for his work with the program.</p>

<p>Anyway, if there's something that you want to volunteer with, and you have the time, do it. Don't try to mind read what the admissions officers will think. You have no idea how they will regard your activity, and you also can't predict what the activity may lead to for you.</p>

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<p>I am trying to picture a decent member of society who would find volunteering unappealing. I know the OP clarified his position a bit in his last post, but I was thinking about this notion before I got to the end.</p>

<p>In earlier times there were members of society who were considered "odd". That word meant something different than it does today. Odd people had a place at the table, so to speak, and were accepted for their eccentricity. Perhaps if we could go back in time we would diagnose them with something (like Asperger's). In any case, I could picture a hyperfocused scientist or mathematician (an "odd" type) who by his very nature was somehow repelled by getting his hands dirty in relationships or humanity. This might be someone who felt more comfortable in a lab or working with numbers, or only liked to work in a very narrow area. A citizen such as this could be a very valuable member of society through his regular work (perhaps by contributing to advancements in his area of expertise).</p>

<p>I just thought I'd throw in my $.02 that there could be brilliant contributors (and not just scientists or mathematicians - I would also include writers, artists, explorers, etc.) who deserve "a seat at the table", yet do not like volunteer work. I think that top schools should still consider these people, if their potential academic contribution could help to move humanity forward.</p>

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<p>As a nurse I want to give a giant thank you to the kids who don't volunteer at my hospital. I wish more of your peers would follow your lead. Every so often we get a kid who really wants to be there. The vast majority hide in the lounge and watch TV. It frosts my cookies that they get credit for volunteer hours for this. Perhaps they say the same thing down at the soup kitchen. If your heart isn't in it, don't do it. Chances are you just may be making someone else's real life job that much harder.</p>

<p>I also don't think it's a dire prognosticator of doomed humanhood for a teenager to not want to serve others. It's by nature a self-centered age. I don't think volunteer hours should be on the clock anyway. The kid who takes 20 minutes to shovel a neighbor's sidewalk may be doing something huge for that person. I think it's far more important to encourage spontaneous random acts of kindness than credited hours in a formal volunteer program.</p>

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<p>^ very, very true</p>

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<p>Great point, Momoffour.</p>

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<p>How would one count volunteer time like that? For instance, if I listed all the times I've helped people or made the community better, I could have several pages of items. But none of that stuff adds up. When students at school ask me for help with their homework, I might take 5 minutes and explain something. For that reason, I kind of gawked at the spot on the NHS application where it said "no. of hours per week". My Asian friend had a whole cacophony of things to put down that added up to "no. of hours per week," yet when someone asks him for help with homework, he is either too busy or doesn't understand it either. That's the part of volunteering that's really unfair. What he does probably won't make a difference in anyone's life.</p>

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<p>"I don't think volunteer hours should be on the clock anyway. The kid who takes 20 minutes to shovel a neighbor's sidewalk may be doing something huge for that person. I think it's far more important to encourage spontaneous random acts of kindness than credited hours in a formal volunteer program."</p>

<p>Exactly. Colleges should recognize this.</p>