The most obvious answer at the forefront of most people’s mind when they hear the words “community service” is a popular sentencing alternative to jail time.

I jest.

For most of us, community service is synonymous with volunteer work. In high school, I volunteered with my best friend at a nursing home for two summers. It was an unforgettable experience, to say the least. However back then, we volunteered mainly with the intention of gaining an edge in our college applications. It was really just a means to an end. Now, as a Baruch Scholar, volunteer work may still technically be required, but it has a different, perhaps more enlightened, rationale behind it.

Of course, on the most basic level I might simply volunteer my time to some worthy cause simply because I wish to remain in the honors program, since it is a requirement. That would be similar to the way i volunteered in high school; still helpful to society, but not as meaningful for myself. I hope that my experience this time around does not end up like that. Being a Scholar is an opportunity I have been given that I will always be humbled by and grateful for. I know that there are countless other kids out there who could use the same kind of help in pursuing their education as well. I want my time doing volunteer work to be my act of gratitude for the opportunity I’ve been given, and I want it to help better New York City society in whatever small way it can.

I think that the honors program does a great job in fostering an attitude of gratitude (yeah, you can quote me on that one) for what we have by implementing a community service requirement. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”