Improve yourself while improving your community
By EMILIE BROWN — emrbrown@ucdavis.edu
At the end of our lives, when we are on our deathbeds, we realize that all the money, all the popularity and all the things we bought, sold, owned and collected don’t really matter. In the end, the only thing that really matters is the impact we have on other people’s lives.
Community service provides all of us with the opportunity to truly make a positive impact on other people, which is an incredibly rewarding experience. Volunteering benefits your community, your health and your future, and brings us one step closer to a brighter world.
Community service allows you to give back. By volunteering your time and resources, you can help to make a real difference in the lives of others. Whether you’re volunteering at a local food bank, participating in a neighborhood cleanup or helping out at a community event, your efforts can have a positive and meaningful impact on the people around you. In my opinion, there is no better feeling than that.
Additionally, volunteering can help your health and overall well-being. Personally, community service has helped me feel needed and powerful and has given me a sense of purpose I was previously lacking. I believe it can do the same for others. In fact, a study by the Corporation for National and Community Service found that those who volunteer have lower mortality rates and lower depression rates, so community service can quite literally help improve your mental and physical health.
If you’re still in need of reasons to volunteer, community service is also a great addition to your resume. Not only can you learn new and valuable skills through volunteering, it also provides an opportunity to network with others in a setting you would not usually come across in your everyday life. Community service activities on your resume also tell your potential employers you are a kind and well-balanced person — the type they would want working for them.
Now that you know why you should start participating in community service, you’re probably wondering how to get involved as a student. Luckily, the Community Service Resources Center group of the Internship & Career Center has you covered. They keep a list of over 500 local community service organizations and ways to get involved today. You can find this list at icc.ucdavis.edu/find/volunteer/list. Get involved today, for yourself and for others!
Written by: Emilie Brown — emrbrown@ucdavis.edu
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by individual columnists belong to the columnists alone and do not necessarily indicate the views and opinions held by The California Aggie.
