<p>Okay so for the past two years I've been volunteering at Kumon, which is a kid's educational center. I've recently realized that volunteering there was probably not the best because Kumon is a profit organization. I thought I was benefiting the community by helping kids out with their Kumon assignments....but since Kumon is profit oriented, does it look like I only helped people make money? ): It'd make me upset if all my work there was for nothing. ):</p>
<p>of course not. if you helped kids learn… theres never anything wrong with that</p>
<p>Don’t obsess. You will be fine. My kid did minimal volunteering and got in wherever he applied.</p>
<p>And BTW - There are very highly paid medical professionals - we call them “doctors” - that help people out - and get paid for it…</p>
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<p>Yeah, 'cause if I helped people and I can’t get anything out of it…</p>
<p>Seriously, this is nothing to worry about. For one thing, despite the “conventional wisdom,” as nugraddad says, you don’t have to do any volunteering. For another thing, anybody could tell that even if you were donating your services at a for-profit agency, you weren’t profiting from it.</p>
<p>I do find it a little remarkable, though, that Kumon got you to donate your services there. If they offer to let you whitewash their fence, you should turn them down.</p>
<p>If they were billing students for your tutoring and not paying you, I would think you could sue them for back pay. You might want to talk to a lawyer if you can document a large number of hours over the past two years.</p>
<p>However, I agree with other responses that doing a good thing is never wasting time.</p>
<p>to Sparkly: rank the following in terms of importance to colleges</p>
<p>a) 15 hours/week at McDonalds for extra spending money
b) library volunteer (shelved books, tidied facility, read to kids) for X hours
c) 20 hrs/week on parents farm
d) shadowing a physcian for X hours one summer
e) volunteering at Kumon for X hours
f) 30 hrs/food pantry or homeless shelter
g) doing nothing</p>
<p>For the VAST VAST number of colleges, the answer: a) to g) are equal. Because most colleges take no ECs or voluntarism into account.</p>
<p>For the few that do, a) to f) > g) but are otherwise equal. Maybe the farmworker (due to its uniqueness) might get the nudge.</p>
<p>But you’re seriously over thinking things.</p>