Posted on December 31, 2011 by Kayvon Ghoreshi

Volunteerism is something everyone should be involved with. However, there is consistently a demographic that feels insignificant in this space; students. As a high school student myself I can attest to the fact that being so young and not having a lot of resources can make it seem like you don’t have anything to give and even if you do it is very infinitesimal. This simply is not the case. As an advocate for student volunteerism, I’m here to tell you that there are indeed plenty of ways students can get involved in volunteerism.

But before that, there needs to be a reason for students to get involved with volunteerism. Aside from bringing in more soldiers for the army of volunteers, it is something students should be exposed to. Getting students involved with volunteerism not only gives them real life awareness and connection about the struggles that go on around them, but it gets them interested at an early age so that they can be even more involved in their adult life when they have more resources available. What students volunteer in though can be largely attributed to their talents.

Athletics

Many students love being involved in their schools sports. Whether they are players or just understand the game really well, it is what they would call their forte. Turning your athletic prowess into a career can be near impossible, but turning it into an avenue of volunteerism is very simple. Many towns and cities likely have recreational or even private sports leagues. As an athlete you can offer your time as a coach to kids who are just learning a sport. This may not seem like much, but as an individual if you can get kids excited about sports at a young age, it is a great help in the grand scheme of obesity that is an ever growing concern. Helping out kids who also may not be able to perform at your athletic ability due to disability is also a great way to give back as these individuals are often neglected in the world of sports.

Academics

So say sports aren’t your thing and you’re more comfortable in the classroom. This can let you be a volunteer as a tutor. Many students often have tutoring as a job, but doing it as a volunteer is a much more worthwhile experience. For starters, you are focused more on getting the student to succeed rather than how much/when you are getting paid. Also many kids who are in great need of tutoring can’t afford a tutor regularly, making your efforts that much more meaningful.

Writing

Say you aren’t the brightest bulb in shed, or teaching just isn’t something you’re good at. If you can write then that can help you become a volunteer as well. It doesn’t matter if you like writing about animals, the internet, movies, video games, or really anything else. How do you turn that into involvement in volunteerism? Sites like Squidoo let you write and publish articles online. Then any money that you make you can send to a charity of your choice. The best way to tackle this is to have a parent set up an account for you to start writing. You can even get your friends to join you or even get your whole school involved in writing and make it a school wide service project.

All the above ideas, and many others that aren’t mentioned, have the same concept throughout. As a student your most valuable resource to offer is your time. Just asking yourself how you can make use of your time and talents to help others is the first great step in getting involved in volunteerism at an early age.