Community service is a task at the heart of citizenship. As citizens, we have an obligation to contribute in some way to benefitting the society. However, some of us do it in drastically different ways. When you think about it, the possibilities of serving the community seem endless. The only dictation being your day job and how much time goes into that, but in reality that day job may fulfill community service. City employees: parks, police, fire department, sanitation, other city agencies; Doctors, lawyers, even just attending a community board meeting is serving the community.
As a student, time is limited and the vast majority of time is, rightfully so, towards educating oneself and maybe more importantly attaining and maintaining the grades so that one can get accepting into the graduate school or profession/career of his or her choice. However, is this as selfish as it may sound? Especially since many of these careers may benefit the community. So in reality by studying to become doctors, lawyers, or even accountants and business majors, we are gaining the skills needed to serve the community. We are even serving every day by making ourselves into the best we possibly can be so we can do these jobs at the maximum efficiency and to the maximum benefit to not only ourselves (direct impact), but the entire community (possibly direct and indirect).
Some of us though have extra time, or want to contribute in ways other than our day job. Here is where the opportunity to volunteer time or even start an organization arises. Baruch wants us to learn about and be able to share this experience. Although the former paragraphs of my post may lead one to believe this possibly may be a waste. In reality it is not. You have to start somewhere and if you never get involved , you won’t get involved. Simply put, if you start early you might like it and want to continue contributing in this way even when you are not forced to do so. On top of that, the experience is generally priceless. You never know what you may run into and what revelations these experiences may bring. Some places you go, you may feel that you stepped into a different world. “People don’t live like this in America.” Well guess what? They do. To save everyone from one of my (very long) political rants on poverty in America, I’ll just say this. Despite what the official census report tells you, at least 30% of Americans are in “poverty” (US Census has a pretty misleading definition of it) and at least 60% severely struggle day to day. Not even mentioning the unemployment rate that has been “shrinking.” A.K.A people stopped looking for jobs. So there are a lot of opportunities to help these people and seeing this side of society that many of us have trouble fully wrapping our minds around that people actually live like this in America, can have a drastic impact on an individual.
The honors program wants you to have such experiences. We will all go out with the skills needed to contribute to society during our day job, experiences from other service, and possibly the will (if time permits) to continue volunteering spare time in such ways. Having been heavily involved in campus ministry throughout my four years in high school, I can definitely vouch for the Honors Program’s culture of service as a truly proper policy that should be in place. Volunteering can be a blessing or a curse. Don’t do the obvious. Help someone who really needs the help, somewhere where you skills can be put to effective use. Not the easiest place, but the best place to be. Don’t do it just to do it, do it with a purpose. This all starts in your choice of an organization/cause. If you just pick something at random or out of convenience you honestly might hate it and it will turn into a chore. Take this seriously. You never know, it just might change your life.