I love malicious people; their uncaring hearts are very enticing. I know they are too cool to help out the helpless puppies at the animal shelter, and I know they are too “young” to associate themselves with old people. Mixed with egoism, holy smokes—they’re almost close to perfection.
Um… no.. I was lied. I hate cruel egoists. Rather, I believe in service. As Ghandi said, ”The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Volunteering/service is something that I like, and it is also something that colleges want to see.. in your long list of extracurriculars. So, how does this whole volunteering work anyways so that you can be “outstanding” amongst other students that also do community service?
So WHERE should you start? I first began my community service with Interact, a community service club in my school, during my freshmen year. Through school clubs, you can do many things in your community. These service clubs require that you fulfill certain number of hours per semester. You should keep your eyes open during the beginning of school year because that’s when the applications for those clubs start rolling in. Often times, students miss their deadline for the applications, always a shame. Even if you miss the deadline, make sure you talk to the officers of the clubs; in most cases they will let you join the club. Worth a try, don’t you think so?
Other people like to go to different countries, like Nicaragua or Zimbabwe to help the poor kids there. However, colleges want to see consistency. The whole experience at a third world country might sound exciting but not so much on Common Application. Whenever you add an activity on Common App, you are also required to write how many hrs/week. What number will you write? 24 Hours just because you were there for a whole week? Then it asks how many week,s which will typically be 1-4. That’s pretty impressive… right? These kind of things will be great for your personal statement, but consistent service seems better. You are better off doing Beta/NHS/Interact/etc for all four of your years in high school than going to Zimbabwe to build houses for just a month.
Then again, you don’t have to be in a club or go on mission trips to serve others. Typically, retirement houses and pet adoption places are always looking for helpers. For me, I really liked dogs so I took a visit to the pet adoption place. I asked the lady for volunteer info, and she immediately gave me an application. Another thing you can do is activities through other organizations, like Pennies for Peace(http://www.penniesforpeace.org/).
Nowadays, many people complain, “Oh No! I don’t have enough time to do Community Service!” That’s a big lie. Just replace your Facebooking time or napping time with service—honestly, it won’t kill to help out others.
