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If you are a young person, there are
many good reasons to get involved in volunteer and service learning
opportunities. Here are a few for you to consider:
Volunteering can help you explore your interests.
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If you like animals, help out at
an animal shelter or at your nearest zoo.
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If you like working with kids,
get involved at a summer camp or at a preschool program, or help
younger students with their schoolwork.
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If you enjoy playing sports, play
games with the kids at a neighborhood center.
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If you like to cook, get together
with friends and make dinner for the families at a soup kitchen or
help out at a homeless shelter.
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If you enjoy sewing, you can make
curtains or bedspreads for the families at a women's shelter or make
lap robes and pillows for nursing home residents. If you know how to
knit or crochet, you may enjoy making scarves and hats for people
who are homeless.
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If you enjoy being outdoors, help
your park district clean up a park or volunteer to help a neighbor
plant flowers or mow the grass for your elderly neighbors.
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If you enjoy the performing arts,
explore volunteer opportunities with a community theater group.
Volunteering can help you learn about
possible careers.
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If you think you'd like to work
in the medical field, volunteer at a retirement or nursing home or
with Hospice.
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If you're interested in teaching,
spend time with younger children, helping them with their homework.
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If you're interested in science,
consider volunteering at your local science museum or greenhouse.
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If you'd like a job in an office
someday, offer to help with filing and data entry at a nonprofit
organization.
You can meet people you might not
ordinarily meet.
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By volunteering in a group,
you'll meet other people with the same interests you have.
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If your grandparents have passed
away or live far away and you don't get to see them often, you can
become friends with a senior adult and adopt them as your "grandma"
or "grandpa".
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By volunteering with an agency
that helps refugees, you can meet people who have come here from
other countries. You'll learn about their culture and help them
adapt to life here.
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By volunteering with an agency
that works with people with physical or mental challenges, you'll
find out that they're not so different from you after all.
Volunteer activities add value to
college applications and work resumes.
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College admission staffs want to
know who you are as a person. They're looking for well-rounded
individuals who will give their best both within and outside the
classroom.
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Potential employers want to know
if you show up on time, can take direction, are responsible, and
work well with others. A good reference from an agency you've
volunteered with can help them decide that you'd be a good employee.
It's fun!
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People who volunteer often get more out of the experience than they give.
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Giving of your time and energy
makes you feel good about yourself and raises your self-esteem.
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Working with other volunteers
builds friendships.
You're sharing your talents and
knowledge with others.
- You have skills, talents,
knowledge, experience, personality and passion. Each of us is unique
and has something to share with others.
You're advancing the common good.
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Sometimes we look at the way the
world is and think, "This isn't the way things are supposed to be."
By volunteering, you can help make a positive change in the world.
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Each of us wants to live in a
community families are healthy and strong, where children are given
the help they need to succeed in school, where people with
disabilities and the elderly are able to live as independently as
possible, and where people live in safe, supportive neighborhoods.
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By volunteering, you make your
community a better place to live, and you become part of the
solution.
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