Published February 11, 2009
Written by Grace Chen
With only two years spent on campus, community college students often find that graduation is upon them before they have taken advantage of all the valuable opportunities available!
To make the most of your community college experience, consider volunteering with community college groups and organizations. Volunteerism can help boost your experience, your resume, and your professional network, while providing you with an array of additional perks.
Build Your Resume
Most community college students and graduates are aware of the highly competitive tensions in the job market. To ensure that your resume stands out from the rest, boost your credentials by including various volunteerism activities. Volunteering allows employers to know that you care about your community and that you work well in teams. Also, your volunteerism experiences can also provide employers with more insight into your interests, as groups that are devoted to environmental, regional, or other specific causes can say quite a deal about your character.
Include your various volunteerism activities on your resume to show more about yourself as a personable applicant. Additionally, include these activities to show how you have already gained valuable work experiences. For example, if you were the leader of your volunteerism group, explain how this experience has better prepared you for the career in which you are applying. Leadership and involvement are key attributes that can help boost an application and resume.
Gain Experience
Along the lines of building your resume, volunteering in groups or events that align with your major and desired career can set you apart from the stack of potential job candidates. For example, if you are majoring in education, try volunteering as a local tutor or classroom assistant. With these venues, you can more clearly articulate your readiness to begin working once you have earned your degree.
Social and Networking Opportunities
As most community college students choose to engage in volunteerism events along with larger groups or associations, volunteering with your fellow peers can help you to expand your social and professional network. If you are studying law, for example, many political science and legal groups and organizations offer their services to local residents while also working with legal professionals. By working with your peers, you can not only make more friends in your particular realm of study, but you can also begin to make greater connections with leaders in your professional field.
As Bunker Hill Community College, located in Boston, Massachusetts, further explains, “Because volunteering brings together a wide variety of people, it becomes a great chance for you to make connections with people who have different insights and who might become important references to use for resume enhancing or job references.”
Upon graduating, these contacts can prove to be key aides in helping you to obtain an interview, internship, or even a job!
Make a Difference
While there is an array of benefits to volunteerism opportunities, the core purpose of volunteering your time and talents is to help make a difference in your community or in others’ lives. Whether you are participating with a group that correlates with your major, or if you’re simply volunteering with a group targeted at alternative service efforts, volunteering your time can help support a larger cause.
Specifically, many non-academic volunteerism groups include organizations that serve meals at local food shelters, help refurbish schools, provide working parents with free child care, and other critical efforts. These activities not only make you a well-rounded job applicant with an expanded social and professional network, but they also help you to serve and aid others while working for imperative causes.
Enhance Your Collegiate Experience
Ultimately, with all of the perks of volunteering, most community college students assert that working with on-campus volunteerism groups helped boost their overall positive college experience. In fact, as the Community College of Philadelphia, located in Pennsylvania, explains, participating in various volunteerism events can even help boost your odds of earning a scholarship or financial assistance. As many scholarships base their standards on core values of service and civic involvement, becoming an active volunteer can alter the trajectory of your collegiate pathway, opening new doors for greater opportunities.
Resources:
Bunker Hill Community College, available at http://www.bhcc.mass.edu/inside/957
Scottsdale Community College, available at http://www.scottsdalecc.edu/slf/volunteerism.html
Glendale Community College, available at http://www.glendale.edu/cse/
Community College of Philadelphia, available at http://www.ccp.edu/site/current/scholarships/service.php
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