Volunteerism

On Saturday, February 19th, One To World is hosting a volunteer event in partnership with Publi-Color, a nonprofit dedicated to engaging teenagers in school by involving them in improving their learning environment. Through their efforts, Public-Color hopes to keep disengaged students in school and off the streets while teaching them a marketable skill – commercial painting – that can help them break the poverty cycle and eventually pay their way through college and to a better future.

By participating in this activity, you can not only make a difference in someone else’s life, but you can also experience the service-oriented culture that is popular for students throughout the US. Is public service a popular concept in your home country? In the US, public service plays an important part in education as students are often encouraged to volunteer and ceremonies are held to recognize their contributions to the community.  

This push to cultivate volunteerism in students can start as early as Junior High School, when students are around 10 years old. Induction ceremonies for Arista and Archon – nationally recognized honor societies for outstanding academic achievement and outstanding service to the school and community, respectively – are held every year. And at the college level, students are bombarded with opportunities to volunteer. Have you volunteered in your home country? What did you do? Volunteer experiences in the U.S. can range widely from  picking up garbage off the highway to building water treatment plants in Nicaragua.

Arista/Archon inductees are conferred with pins in their schools' colors.

Even after their formal education is over, the US’s volunteer culture continues to have a strong grip on students. Many students are encouraged to take a “gap year,” a period of time when students take a break from formal education to travel, volunteer, study, intern, or work. Is there something similar in other countries? A number of students also end up participating in service-oriented programs like Teach For America, AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, Green Corps, and City Year, all of which offer a living salary in exchange for a full year or two of service.

Generally speaking, if you want to volunteer in the US, it isn’t hard to find an opportunity to do so. With sites like VolunteerMatch and New York Cares, you can dictate nearly every criteria of the activities that you want to volunteer with. Whether your criteria are simple (you’re just having a bad day and suddenly decide that you need some karma)  or elaborate (must work with Children, must be next to the L line, and must be on Wednesday night), you’ll be sure to find a volunteer opportunity that suits you. So even if you can’t attend the volunteer event on February 19^th with One To World, you can always find some other meaningful things to do!