The Hypocracy of Volunterring

College Confidential Community
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<p>I'm a community college student hoping to transfer to a decent in a year or two. Anyway, here's something I've never been able to work out: Isn't it hypocritical to do volunteer work just to so you look like a more attractive applicant to a college? If I ever want do volunteer work--say Habitat for Humanity for instance--I think I'd want to do it for the sake of doing it. Wouldn't knowing that I'm going put it on my college application kind of spoil the idea of volunteering? I mean, you're supposed benefit from doing volunteer work in a spiritual, personal growth type of way I guess--but surely not in a way that can affect where you go to college?</p>

<p>In short, are universities just creating hypocrites?</p>

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<p>"spiritual, personal growth type of way"</p>

<p>I can't measure "spiritual growth," therefore it probably doesn't exist.</p>

<p>Just do the volunteering, write a glowing description of it, and live happily.</p>

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<p>so what? if people are helped that is what matters</p>

<p>hopefully most will actually grow from the experience, while other, well, kind of sad they have no desire to help others</p>

<p>sometimes people need a nudge to do good works, and often they continue</p>

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<p>Yeah...unfortunately that is the common case nowadays. But I would think that the people who really want to help for the sake of doing it are the ones that overextend themselves and really stand out from the others who just do it to make themselves look good.</p>

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<p>Hypocrisy?</p>

<p>It's not hypocritical, which would be more like saying not to volunteer and then volunteering yourself. Many join volunteer organizations just to put it on the app; others because they actually enjoy it and want to make a difference. The colleges aren't "creating" them -- they just like to see a person giving back to his or her community.</p>

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<p>It's a question of whether or not those who do volunteer would've done so without the incentive of it looking attractive on their applications. In short, the students seem to be doing it for personal gain rather than for the nobler purpose of volunteering for the sake of volunteering.</p>

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<p>Kyledavid is correct. It is not "hypocrisy" to volunteer due to multiple motives.</p>

<p>Colleges know that students do it for various reasons (some high schools even make it a graduation requirement!). </p>

<p>Students also go to high school for various reasons (not just the passionate desire to learn). </p>

<p>And work (not just due to the overwheming need to fulfill their life's dream to be a French fry cook.)</p>

<p>The list goes on and on. If they made admission choices solely based on selfless motives or pure intelluctual curiosity, I think their classes would be very small.</p>

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<p>I think this is one of those times where doing the right thing for the wrong reason is ok. People are helped and does it really matter if it is because the volunteer wants to go to a good college or because he really wants to help...plus who knows after doing it for the wrong reason, how many continue to do it but now for the right reason. It is a learning experience and like everything else in life different people get different things out of it.</p>

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<p>To me, it really doesn't matter what their intentions are, so long as they volunteer and be productive in their task, they should be credited.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I mean, you're supposed benefit from doing volunteer work in a spiritual, personal growth type of way I guess

[/quote]
</p>

<p>To me, the benefits of volunteering does not go to the volunteer, but who he or she's volunteering to since it's free labor. This "spiritual and personal" growth is just a bonus and you can get those from jobs, internship, extra-curricular activities, or from any new experience for that matter.</p>

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<p>^^ precisely. That sort of growth should happen in all areas of life.</p>

<p>But I do see the OP's point that many students ONLY do it to put it on the app. Sad, to a degree.</p>

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<p>Would you rather like to have less people volunteering with good intentions or college-paranoid smart high-school students that number into THOUSANDS to join these volunteer programs?</p>

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<p>lol I was trying to refrain from saying that...</p>

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<p>Yeah, I am sometimes a little cynical about it. On the parent mailing list at my children's high school, parents were trading ideas for "quick, no commitment" ways to get volunteer hours -- one day shifts at a food bank, etc. One parent chimed in about about a particular one-day thing by saying that it was "especially good because [volunteers] get exposed to the dregs of society -- homeless people, addicts, all that". That just <em>really</em> turned my stomach, that parents would be using volunteering like some sort of drivers ed film for kids -- "Do your homework! Stay in school! Do you want to end up like these people?" </p>

<p>My son refused to volunteer just for the sake of "All students must have 20 hours of community service on their transcript." He waited until one day, he found a particular thing he felt really passionate about -- peer crisis counselling via chat rooms -- and got involved in that.</p>

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<p>People take classes to look good to collleges and employers even if you happen not to like the classes. So, there's nothing wrong with volunteering to look good.</p>

<p>I happen to love volunteering, as does S, 19. Both of us gladly would volunteer whether or not we got any career or educational advantages of it. We both enjoy volunteering for things that we care about.</p>

<p>However, I see nothing wrong with people volunteering to get ahead. The bottom line is that volunteering makes a positive difference in the world. I don't care whether the people who do it are volunteering for purely selfish reasons. </p>

<p>If people are simply doing whatever volunteer work is easiest for them, they are the ones missing out. As TrinSF posted, volunteering for something that one cares about is awesome. That's when everyone -- including the volunteer -- really benefits. Who who misses out when people volunteer for whatever is easiest is the volunteer, who spends hours doing something that at best they find boring.</p>

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<p>This is precisely why I didn't have any volunteer work on my college application, weirdly enough no one really cared, I still got into every school I applied to.</p>

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<p>Yeah, volunteering should be done for the sake of being a good person.</p>

<p>But, i also don't see anything wrong with doing for the sake of looking good on a resume. What matters most is that you're helping other people out.</p>

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<p>Don't you mean hypocrisy?</p>

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<p>I'll say this here because it's an anonymous message board and unless one can brag on their screen name it's not really being boa****l...but I am very service-oriented...out of selfishness. Everything I do is because it makes me feel good. Sometimes I even like to be acknowledged for my efforts. That feels good when people notice. Sometimes I boast about what I do...although that's often to challenge others to step up and follow my lead in contributing to a cause that I believe in. And encouraging more people to get engaged in causes that I support is...selfish.</p>

<p>I think it's absurd to think that the only "pure" form of volunteering is the kind where you suffer and receive no benefits.</p>

<p>Doing it to get an edge on a college application is just a shade of grey alteration from the motivations all of us have when we volunteer. What's hypocritical is looking down one's nose at someone who volunteers because you believe their motivation is somehow less pure than yours. (I'm stating this generically, not as an attack on anyone here.)</p>

<p>Some things I do quietly. Others -- like donating blood platelets -- I do very publicly because I was motivated to start doing it myself by a world record holder for blood donations and now I give the maximum number of times per year at the maximum volume allowed by the FDA. And in the process, as I have fun trying to keep up with others (oh and I've got this great bumper sticker that says I've donated blood to save a cop's life and -- believe me -- that's been a HUGE benefit!)...there are these people with cancer who I don't know and won't ever know who receive my platelets after chemo and their lives are a little less miserable because of my platelet donation. And that warms my heart...which, of course, is a very selfish thing. And so I tell people because it warms my heart even more if I can convince more people to donate platelets and make more cancer patients a little more comfortable. How pathetically selfish is THAT?</p>

<p>Plus, I itemize my tax return and am meticulous about taking every penny I'm allowed as a deduction for charitable giving. And, yes, I give more than I otherwise would because I'll get a deduction. So that, too, is selfish.</p>

<p>After a while, I can go through dozens of ways in which good things I do are, at their core, motivated by selfish purposes and when you get right down to it...it becomes difficult to find a meaningful distinction between any sort of volunteering or charitable deeds that I do and the kinds of deeds that others do in an effort to be a more appealing college applicant.</p>

<p>The best part about kids who get connected with programs like Habitat and tutoring disadvantaged kids and anything else...is that sometimes they discover that there are these other selfish benefits...even if it's only the rush they feel when that kid they tutor comes to them with her first "A" in math EVER...and they keep coming back to tutor for what we might describe as "pure" reasons for volunteering.</p>

<p>The fact that someone made the effort, for any reason, is wonderful. That's someone who -- compared to the non-hypocrite who sits on the rear-end -- will be more likely to stumble upon some great charitable effort that they'll later become passionate about, even without the carrot of college dangling in front of them. How cool is that? </p>

<p>So, no, I don't see them as hypocrites (at least no more so than the rest of us). I see these people as people who are on their way to doing more great things. That's pretty marvelous. I'd want as many of them in my college as possible!</p>

<p>EDIT: The bo*****l = BOAST + FULL</p>

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<p>I don't see why it would be hypocritical to volunteer just to build a resume...there are lots of other things people do solely to build resumes, and lots of other reasons people volunteer than for 'personal growth' or whatever. Much like what D'yer Maker says, I believe that pretty much everything you do is inherently selfish, even if it's something like volunteering that ends up benefiting others more than it benefits you. You wouldn't do it in the first place if you didn't derive any benefit from it, even if the benefit is just that it makes you "feel good" or something. I joined volunteer groups because I wanted to meet people, make friends, and have activities to go to. The fact that it happens to benefit other people as well is secondary.</p>