Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteering is an important part of many high schoolers’ requirements to graduate but also it’s a great way to demonstrate to colleges what you value and how you spend your most valuable asset– your time!
Why Volunteer?
There are many great reasons to volunteer– but did you know that colleges often favor students who complete volunteer work as part of their extracurricular profile?
Volunteering helps you demonstrate passion, skill development, commitment, and a sense of duty to your community. It helps you gain real-world skills beyond the classroom, your home, or your job.
Types of Service
There are many different ways you can spend your time volunteering.
Direct Service involves engaging in hands-on activities such as providing academic tutoring, offering mentorship, performing cleaning duties, and delivering personalized service with direct, in-person interaction.
Indirect Service encompasses a wide range of opportunities, including fundraising for charitable causes, collecting donations, organizing events to support a cause, providing administrative support for organizations, and advocating for social and environmental issues. It involves activities that indirectly contribute to the betterment of a community or a cause, often behind the scenes.
Advocacy may involve letter writing, public relations, social media campaigns, and influencing citizens. Advocacy involves actively supporting a cause or issue. This can include activities such as writing letters to public officials, coordinating public relations efforts to raise awareness, launching social media campaigns to engage and educate the public, and working to influence citizens to support the cause or issue.
Take Serve Virginia's Volunteer Quiz
Serve Virginia has put together a Volunteer Personality Quiz to help you pair your passion with purpose. Take it now and discover what kind of service might suit you best!
Serve Virginia also looks to bring individuals and organizations together for the betterment of all of Virginia. Check out what opportunities they offer if you’re local to the Virginia area!
Volunteering as a way to spend your summer:
Summer is a great time to log some volunteer hours. When you’re not busy with test prep, vacations, or other summer programs, try and block out some time to spend at the food bank, the animal shelter, or cleaning up trash at the beach.
Volunteer.Gov acknowledges that volunteer opportunities come in all shapes and sizes–virtual, single-day, and longer-term experiences.
Submit your volunteer application to thousands of organizations across the country– all located at federal agencies who need your time and talent!
VolunteerMatch.Org
VolunteerMatch is a fantastic resource that matches volunteers–like you!– with organizations and non-profits who want to make a difference.
VolunteerMatch has connected over 19 million people with volunteer opportunities with over 149k nonprofits.
Sort your search by your different location and interests: Advocacy & Human Rights, Animals, Children, Seniors, Computers/Technology, Education, and more!
Steps to Volunteering
- Find your volunteer area of interest
Spend some time seriously thinking about your long term goals and career interests. This is a great time to explore your interests, but you should try and choose activities that align with your interests.
For example, if you want to study computer programming: teaching technology skills to the elderly at a local nursing home might be in your best interest.
But also, remember to have backups!
- Contact your volunteer spot
Let the sites know your interest in volunteering and ask about any additional requirements for your volunteering.
Don’t give up if they don’t respond right away!
- Complete pre-volunteering requirements
Make sure that you have any requirements for your volunteering application done ahead of time.
Do your best to identify the on-site supervisor who can help you track and record hours.
- Be on time!
Be sure to show up at the assigned time with a good attitude! There are people depending on you– so make sure you don’t let them down.
Remember, you’re representing your school and classmates when you’re on the volunteer site– don’t ruin opportunities for other students.
- Record your hours
Make sure that you’re keeping an accurate log of your activities and have your supervisor sign it.
After you’ve completed your service record sheet, make copies and keep it stored in a safe place!
Logging Community Service Hours
When logging your community service, it’s important that you record all of the important information and gather signatures as the activity happens.
When filling out your form, you’ll want to record the date, the number of hours worked, the duties you performed (as specific as possible), the signature of your supervisor (if possible, it can be helpful to gather any comments your supervisor has), and any comments you may have about the experience to help you write about it later.
