Credit: The Roar
“[O]ur individual salvation depends on collective salvation”– Former President Barack Obama, Wesleyan University.
On Google, volunteering is defined as a “voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service.” If schools mandate volunteering hours, is it really even “volunteering?”
Personally, I use volunteering as an outlet for establishing a more fulfilling purpose in my life. I want to be “free” as Robert Brault, American Author and Blogger, so eloquently put it. The feeling of helping others and making someone else happy is invigorating. Schools have mandated volunteerism (a baffling paradox), transforming this former empathetic and caring act into a superficial objective. Instead of students questioning [How can I better my community?], they think [How can I finish my volunteering requirements?] or [How can I improve my extracurricular service activities?].
I became entranced with this topic after conversing with Travis Thai and Luke Fernandez, founders of the Princeton High School Food Aid and featured leaders in my book – Profiles in COVID Courage. I was inspired by their emphasis on promoting volunteer commitment and knowledge in their organization’s mission: fighting food insecurity.
They detailed a few of their organization’s core goals, mainly educating their members and promoting true volunteerism: “Luke, and I really tried to educate our members on this issue, so that they can, in turn, educate other people… We want to increase true volunteerism. We want to make sure that our members become passionate about this project, and that they're not just doing
this to put something down on their resume.”
Travis, Luke, and I all fear the same thing: a transactional mindset while volunteering. Helping one another out without a direct form of compensation is why volunteering is so special. As a society, we are now skeptical of acts of kindness. It is now weird for people to not demand repayment for assistance and help. I believe mandatory volunteerism has promoted this type of perverse thinking.
However, many disagree. They argue that students who were not previously inclined to participate in service activities will now seek ways to actively engage in community efforts. John Prueter, a thirteen-year-old, fell in love with caring for seniors in a local assisted living home. After his school mandated that students search for service opportunities, he devoted time to visiting homes and bonding with seniors. His eyes were opened to a career in nursing. “He became interested in the field because of his volunteer work. His dream job, he says, is working where he volunteers now” (Detroit News | “Volunteering Opens Teen’s Eyes to Nursing”).
Eliza McGraw, in her article “With a Homeless Center on Campus, Students Have an Unusual Chance to Serve,” also contends that students now “have conversations” with suffering members of their community. McGraw believes, because of mandatory volunteerism, students find their community members more approachable, and are fostering helpful relationships within their communities.
Of course some benefit from mandatory volunteering, but, largely, mandates have led to a loss of selflessness among volunteers. This is, unfortunately, quite prominent among students who aim to enter highly competitive universities. Frank Bruni, in “To get to Harvard, Go to Haiti?”, explored the intent of students in traveling to impoverished countries. He says they do not aim to help and make an impact on the community, but, rather, they travel to write a “college application about how transformed they are.” By making an inherently selfless act mandatory, it naturally pushes students to create avenues of personal gain.
Furthermore, this early forced volunteerism may repel students from seeking future volunteering opportunities. It is difficult for students to see the social benefit because the action stemmed from requirement not willingness or inclination. What’s the solution? Career-oriented volunteer organizations.
Schools should establish career-oriented service clubs that combine career and social impact. For example, students interested in investment and finance can participate in an impact investing club that teaches how investing can do more than just make money. If a student is interested in computer science, schools can create a club that organizes coding-oriented service projects that help the underprivileged. Students will readily join such clubs because of their inclination to learn about potential career paths. Mandatory volunteerism need not be the only way a student engages in service.
The need to develop socially-conscious students is more pressing than ever before. We now face a multitude of issues: global warming, the opioid epidemic, extreme political division, etc. This next generation must be as, if not more, socially active than the last. Mandatory volunteerism has instilled an incorrect mindset among students; we must discontinue this practice. I’ll leave you with a few questions…
[Why has it gradually become odd to be a well-intentioned person?]
[Has mandatory volunteerism put an end to our spontaneous tendency to help?]
[Are our schools fostering selfishness in an innately unselfish act?]
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