<p>I have recently considered preparing myself for going to graduate school to earn my master's to become a high school counselor. I haven't had too much experience in interacting with students so I have been looking for opportunities to volunteer as a peer counselor or something along those lines in order to gain experience and help out others. After some research, the main groups in the Berkeley area that do peer counseling are Student to Student Peer Counseling, L&S Peer Advisers, and the Peer Counseling Collective. However, each of these groups are either not seeking for volunteers immediately or would force me to wait a semester or next year to be involved (I plan to graduate this Spring 2010) from what it looks like.</p>
<p>Does anyone know of any on-campus organizations or opportunities within reasonable distance of UC Berkeley where I can volunteer as soon as possible? Thank you for any answers or guidance you have.</p>
<p>The biggest problem you have is having waited so long, as you know, to decide to volunteer. Most groups, by now, have already done workshops for the volunteers and prepped them. Only two other alternatives you didn’t mention that you might want to check out are: (1) disabilities services, as they do look for peer mentors (DSP is located around the corner from the Golden Bear Cafe, across from the student store and the fountain at Sproul); and (2) the Tang Center. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for the info UCLA77. Part of the reason why I waited so long is because this plan of mine has only been of serious consideration only recently. That was something that I feared, but I do have some volunteering experiences and I hope I’ll be able to find something that will work well for me.</p>