Volunteering

Once you start researching about your child's college admission, you will mostly come across the below statement:

• Colleges are looking for students with well-rounded profile and not just academic performance. Even if your grades are not high you can compensate, for example, by demonstrating your interest in serving the community

When I first heard this, my first reaction was – "Have my daughter do MANY HOURS of community work whenever we could find a few free hours of her time". This is a bad idea...

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Below are a few tips from my point of view. A disclaimer though - These are purely based on my experience and I request you to make the most appropriate decision for your child.

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1. Try to find an activity that your child loves to do. This is very important. If you force your child to volunteer for an activity against his/her interest, it will not last for long.
   
   

2. Building on above point, colleges look for sustained volunteering in an area. Avoid starting one activity, doing it for a few months, stop it and start another activity and so on. This is a CLEAR indication to colleges that you are volunteering "JUST FOR THE SAKE OF COLLEGE ADMISSION" and you do not have a genuine interest in serving your community.
   
   

3. Try to find a leadership role in whatever activity you engage in. This doesn’t have to be on day-one. However if you do the same activity for a year or more, you will develop the required skills to lead and demonstrate your ability to lead a set of volunteers who have varied background/age.
   
   

4. Do not think of "NUMBER OF HOURS". There is no rule followed by colleges to determine if a student has done sufficient number of hours of volunteering. Just like many other things in life, Quality matters and not Quantity. Still if you are looking for a benchmark, I recommend spending between 100 to 200 hours over a period of 3 to 4 years. That's around 30 to 50 hours per year.
   
   

5. Try to start volunteering from 8th grade, but it is highly recommended to start at least in 9th grade. If you start in 10th or 11th grade, it leads to the conclusion that you are volunteering "JUST FOR THE SAKE OF COLLEGE ADMISSION"
   
   

6. While volunteering, the student should think about documenting his/her experiences as this will help in college essays. Think about the impact you have caused in the community. Think about how you felt blessed with so many luxuries in life, how you felt while interacting with those who need help.
   
   

7. Focus the safety of your child. Do not take risk in sending them to volunteer in risky environments. Even though this might look good on the college application, it is not worth the risk. If your child is interested in serving in such places, I recommend one of the parent OR a guardian also to volunteer along with the child. This ensure safety.

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Below are a few examples of volunteering activities for your quick reference:

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1. Volunteer in a nearby church to work in care center that donates food and essential items to those in need.

2. Volunteer in a library

3. Volunteer in a church to teach younger kids various skills like sewing, reading, math and so on..

4. Volunteer in Feed My Starving Children in various activities like packing non perishable food. Link: https://www.fmsc.org/