Volunteering is an opportunity to grow personally and professionally, and to contribute to your community. When volunteering, you are provided with a repertoire of experiences that can help you to better understand how the world works. The more knowledge you gain, the more able you are to face the challenges that life presents you. Some people do not learn from being in a classroom; they prefer to learn in hands-on ways. Volunteering can also put you in touch with different people who you may not otherwise meet. Meeting new people and gaining new experiences is a great way to grow personally.

When you are volunteering, you can choose to volunteer in an area that is related to your area of interest for a future career. Doing the volunteer work helps you to gain experience working in your field; this not only looks good on your resume, but also will give you some skills that may be useful to you in the future. Doing some exploration of your field of interest is equally useful as you may discover things about working in that field that you like or that you do not like. Gaining some insight into what tasks you enjoy doing and what tasks you find tedious will help you to identify some of your strengths and weaknesses as a worker – information that is invaluable when conducting interviews for a similar paid position.

Contributing to your community is another benefit of volunteering, and it is something that is particularly important once you have put in significant studies in a particular area. There is a time for learning and there is a time for giving back, and volunteering provides a great outlet for helping others and reflecting on all that you are grateful for. When volunteering in your own community you may be able to help people who have previously helped you, or to help within an organization that has helped you in the past.

Choose an organization that you believe in and within which you think your skills and abilities will be valued. Good luck!