Benefits of Volunteering for College Students
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Through community service, college students are able to gain real-world experience, develop professional skills and improve their sense of well-being
8 Benefits of Volunteering for College Students
It’s no secret that helping others and contributing to one’s community through positive, impactful action makes people feel good. For college students, spending some time volunteering can be especially beneficial in a variety of ways.
Serving others reaps many benefits spanning a student's health, community and even career prospects. As they make new connections and learn skills to advance their career, student volunteers feel happier and healthier. They strengthen ties to the community and broaden their support network.
Read on as we explore some of the innumerable advantages of volunteering for college students!
1. Improve Mental Health & Well-Being
The life of most college students can be super busy, if not downright chaotic. Assignments, exams, late night study sessions, social and work expectations can sometimes become overwhelming and even stressful. As students learn to manage their schedule and become more independent, outside of the classroom experiences like volunteering can help improve time management skills and emotional well-being.
Volunteering in particular has been shown to help reduce and counteract the negative effects of stress, anger and anxiety which can lead to depression or substance abuse troubles. Some key mood-boosting opportunities inherent to community service include engaging in social interactions, helping and uplifting others, making a positive impact, and becoming a part of something bigger than yourself.
2. Practice Social Good
One of the greatest benefits of community service is simply the rewarding and personally enriching act of helping others. Consequently, one of the main reasons college students may be drawn to social work is to help people and communities in need through worthwhile causes. Volunteering gives students the opportunity to give their time and talents to support a cause that’s important to them.
Giving back also helps students to pause and reflect on their own impact. In a climate often encouraging a constant flow of material, media and tech consumption, the contributions they make through volunteer work positively reinforce an important key to success: even the smallest tasks make a big difference to the lives of people and organizations in need. They are not just living in it; they are making the world a better place!
Making new connections in a service-oriented role helps expose college students to new perspectives, new ideas and new friends
3. Build Community & Expand Network
Networking is an important part of building students’ careers. By volunteering in a group, students are able to meet and work with people who share common interests, expanding their overall network of diverse mentors and peers.
Their new connections — other change-makers, volunteers, employees, board members — can motivate and inspire them and even open up some professional doors for them in the future! During college, after graduation and well into one’s career, they will be able to call on their professional network for career advice and key introductions in their field.
They’re not only doing good for the community but also for their future career prospects!
4. Gain Real-World Career Prep & Experience
Even when college students have top grades and test scores, employers may also want to see relevant work experience on a resume. The good news is that it doesn’t matter if it comes from paid or unpaid work! Service learning offers skills-building opportunities while improving the lives of others. The hands-on learning inherent to volunteer work gives students the competitive edge needed as they enter the job market.
Through community service, students are able to apply their in-classroom education to real-world scenarios with real implications in an industry of interest to them. They will develop key career functions in leadership, time management and problem-solving, all of which lead to greater confidence during job search and interviews.
5. Determine Career Goals
Volunteering is a fantastic and efficient way to explore diverse career paths and opportunities! When it comes to choosing a field, volunteer work can help students discover first-hand if a career choice is a good fit. Despite what you think you know or want, until you actually dip your toes in, it’s hard to be sure a particular career is something you will enjoy.
A pre-law student, for example, may benefit greatly from volunteering with a law firm, legal non-profit, government or political organization. They will be able to broaden their knowledge, build transferable skills and demonstrate a committed interest to a legal pathway -- a great asset to a law school application! To top it off, they get to try it out first, before pursuing the commitment to several years of graduate level education, along with the accompanying tuition bill. This empowers students with confidence in knowing they have chosen the right path for themselves.
6. Bolster Your Resume & Improve Job Prospects
Make your resume stand out among other candidates! Volunteer work can help make finding that first entry-level job easier for college students and recent grads. Hiring managers want relevant work experience, and many new grads may not have developed these professional skills yet.
Students who are doing volunteer work set themselves apart in a stack of applicants. They should be encouraged to communicate strategically about the skills they have developed during their service work. Let recruiters and hiring managers know about the administrative and collaborative experience they have gained while working on volunteering projects! This helps demonstrate their career preparedness and complements an individual’s academic and co-curricular transcripts.
7. Refine Valuable Soft Skills
Volunteering during college gives students the opportunity to practice and develop an array of social, relationship and other soft skills beneficial to career ambitions.
Some examples include:
Resourcefulness: Volunteering offers students an opportunity to learn more about solving real-world problems creatively, while managing time and scarce resources effectively.
Collaboration: When a student has volunteer experience on their resume, this demonstrates commitment, empathy and a deeper understanding of interpersonal interactions and teamwork, as well as highly sought after skills in communication, leadership and customer service.
Initiative: Volunteering by its nature is voluntary, which means recruiters can easily see that a student is motivated and takes initiative, even without the compensation of wages or personal gain. This reflects an entrepreneurial spirit and proactive approach to their work.
8. Expand Your Perspective
Ever feel like you’re stuck in an echo chamber of voices and lenses that look and sound a lot like your own? It can be easy to fall into social circles of people who share your personal and even political perspectives. Volunteering, however, can be a great way to mix things up.
When a college student volunteers in a service-based organization, whether abroad or locally, they will get to work with many different people, groups, ethnicities, ages and socio-economic backgrounds, all of whom are invested in the same goal or cause that ties them together. Learning to work with and tailor communication with different types of people and populations has an extremely positive impact on a college student’s future professional life as they become more empathetic and mindful of perspectives that differ from their own foundation.
College is all about cultural awakening and broad sharing of big ideas; working in a volunteering role is a great opportunity to practice open-mindedness outside of the classroom!
Getting involved with community service during college helps inspire and empower college students to make an impact in their world and springboard their careers. Their new skills, enthusiasm and flexible schedules make them ideal volunteers!
As you can see, there are a multitude of reasons for college students to sign up for a cause, campaign or volunteer organization that is important to them. Even with a packed schedule, volunteering just a few hours a week on weekends or summer break will enrich their college experience in a big way.
We’ll wrap up with a few tips on how campuses can help support and encourage college students who would like to help others.
Integrate service learning opportunities in campus programming, both in and outside of the classroom
Promote departments like Greek Life, Student Affairs and Alumni Associations that incorporate community service into the fabric of campus life
Reward volunteerism by recognizing the most active students through incentives, giveaways, badges and academic credit
Establish a campus-wide community service award for students who contribute substantial time and effort to a cause
Encourage students to track their service hours and reflect on their impact for a more meaningful component to their learning experience
Offer scholarships to civically engaged students
Reduce financial barriers for working students
Keep students engaged all year by connecting them with summer programs, alternative spring break, mission-based study abroad opportunities, campus food pantry programs and more
Centralize volunteer opportunities into one webpage or job board for students to easily browse and apply to positions that match their career interests and goals
Are you a higher education professional leading campus life initiatives or service learning programs? Contact us to chat about how CampusGroups can help you cultivate an environment of happy, active and engaged students on your campus. We’d love to hear from you!
