There was a time when I thought that volunteering was for over achievers and people who desperately needed help making friends. Which sounds mean (because it is) but I simply didn’t see the value. This was during a time when my philosophy for how to spend my time and ultimately live my life was highly utilitarian and the things that did fill my time had to have something in it for me. Motivated solely by the generation of my own happiness, I found myself on the outside looking in on volunteering opportunities. My perspective seemed to be that volunteering appeared to be really hard work and you didn’t even get paid for performing. Therefore, volunteering wouldn’t directly benefit me in any way. So then, obviously I wasn’t that interested…at the time.
“The less they pay you, the more they will ask you to do”
The above quote was spoken by a female business leader in my company and there are no truer words around volunteering. The statement really doesn’t seem to exude optimism, initially anyways. It is true that once a volunteer group recognizes that you as a volunteer are competent and reliable the list of tasks requested of you will only grow. So you do need be assertive and learn how to say “no” if it becomes too much. However, this type of reaction from other volunteers truly emphasizes the value that you can bring as a volunteer.
It wasn’t until I started volunteering in positions that related to my passions and put me in scenarios where my skills could really add value to the lives of others that I began to understand how volunteering had the potential to become a highly meaningful part of my life. I began to recognize how volunteering truly was able to increase the quality of others lives as well as my own, aid in the development of my soft business skills and help me to shape my own personal identity beyond my job title.
My favorite volunteer experience thus far has been becoming involved in Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement is a non-profit organization that has been inspiring and preparing youth to succeed by providing opportunities to learn financial literacy, entrepreneurship and work readiness skills by engaging programs through the help of dedicated volunteers. I became involved as a Company Advisor. Five to six advisors were assigned to teams of 25 high school students to assist them in starting and 
liquidating their own business while competing for Company of the Year with other teams of students just like ours (the picture on the right features a few of our student team members). I get really excited about entrepreneurship and to see that the students were so eager to learn and involve themselves in the program got me excited to attend every week. I did find the experience highly time consuming (especially once I became Lead Company Advisor because our lead lost interest) but it was a sacrifice that was very worth while. Some say that being busy is relative and that once you are doing something that you love you develop time affluence because you are enjoying yourself and thriving in your work. It was simply fantastic to be involved in a team setting and really get to know the other advisors and students in such a meaningful way by sharing an experience. I could recognize that my efforts were making a difference and I was able to make powerful contributions to the group.
Volunteering has taught me networking skills, informal leadership skills, and has provided me with new opportunities and an expanded perspective of other individuals circumstances. For this I am forever grateful and I hope that along the way I have been able to inspire others to pursue community involvement through volunteering.
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