What does it mean to serve your community?

Part of my identity is associated with the communities that I am a part of. I have a community where I live, a religious community, a community of the schools that I’ve been a part of. I am now proud to call myself part of the Baruch College community. This also means I am part of the community of New York City.

Being in a community comes with privileges, and of course, responsibilities. I am fortunate to benefit from each of these communities, and thus, it is my responsibility to give back what I can, so that others can benefit as well.

I have been very involved in community service and volunteering since the beginning of middle school. I’ve visited nursing homes, packed food boxes for donations, volunteered with blind teenagers in New York City, visited hospitals, volunteered for Chris Christie’s campaign, and my favorite- volunteered with Special Needs people of all ages.

What I’ve come to learn from all of this is that in giving back to others, I end up gaining way more than I am giving. Volunteering has given me a greater appreciation for what I have been blessed with, for what I am fortunate to have that others aren’t. I have also learned so much from the people that I have volunteered with, both the volunteers, and the Special Needs children.

My high school had community service hours requirements- and so I had to choose an organization to volunteer with. Earlier in middle school, I had been involved with the Friendship Circle, an organization for Special Needs children. They come to recruit volunteers all of the time, and it’s sort of the thing that everyone does, just because everyone does it. But I fell in love with it. It wasn’t just a volunteering ‘job,’ it was an amazing experience. And so, for the entirety of my high school, every Saturday afternoon, I went to visit my friend Tehila.

What started as a requirement turned into something that I looked forward to. Every week, I yearned for the week to end, and for my precious opportunity to go “volunteer.” I put in in quotes, because although that is what it was considered when the checkbox on my report card that i fulfilled my hours, it didn’t feel like that to me. Going to see Tehila was exciting, it was my once a week date with my friend.

I’ve come to believe that we are given everything we have in order to be able to help out others. We go through life with our experiences and stories, and when we take that- along with our skills, we are able to help others immensely.

I think it’s befitting that my group has chosen to volunteer with the Pajama Program. Everyone in the Baruch Scholars program has been given a gift- education. We are fortunate to be able to not only be literate, but academically achieving, and we are extremely blessed to be able to attend this college without cost. Therefore, volunteering with the Pajama Program is an ideal way to give back. It helps shine light on how lucky we are, and helps us utilize what we have to help others.

I am looking forward to this experience, and to becoming part of yet another community.