The Benefits of Volunteering in Schools

Laurel BurgerSwindell AP Literature - Graduation Project10 March 2018The Benefits of Volunteering in Schools Volunteerism in schools is a free and simple task that can influence an entire community. Volunteering in schools can be defined as free work or services that is completely voluntary and beneficial to a school. The numerous benefits of volunteering in schools has a large influence on the volunteer, the entire school and staff, and the students, these benefits are long-term and extend far beyond the classroom. The profound influence that volunteering has on the volunteer are limitless.

These benefits include a positive change in one's overall well-being, potential job experience as well as the possibility of furthering one's education, and the possibility to meet new and influential people. These effects can make all the different in a person's work ethic, application of real life skills, and the opportunity to meet others. The impacts of volunteer work in school's on the volunteer can bring about an influence in one's mental well-being and health. The happiness effect explains the relationship between volunteers and happiness. When researchers at the London School of Economics examined the relationship between volunteering and measures of happiness in a large group of American adults, they found the more people volunteered, the happier they were (Segal and Robinson 1).

As shown in the study, volunteering correlates with emotions in the volunteer and increases one's mood. There is also a positive correlation with volunteering and its effect on stress, anger, and anxiety (Segal, Robinson, 3). Volunteering proves to be beneficial for everyone involved and the effects it has on the individual volunteer are imperative for living a healthy and successful lifestyle. Courtney Malahias, a school teacher at Snipes Academy, denotes that volunteering in schools provides the volunteer with a sense of purpose and being. For a lot of schools that lack resources and are on the lower end of public schools, volunteers feel very satisfied with what they can provide and the attention that they give and receive back does not go unnoticed, says Malahias.

Mental health is extremely important for any person, so the fact that volunteering can provide all of these things while boosting their mentality is extremely impressive. The benefits of these should be fully taken advantage of and all of these things can be brought onto the volunteer while helping others and making a simple contribution. Volunteer work also has the capability of providing job experience to the volunteer and further their education. Depending on what career of interest the volunteer prefers, they can find a large amount of opportunities to find volunteer work in that specific area.

You can experience the real world through hands-on work. And you can explore your major or career interests at the same time (Volunteering: How Helping Others Helps You). The experiences you build by doing them yourselves rather than observing them is another form of learning, so for a volunteer to obtain these skills at the help of others is undoubtedly beneficial. Volunteer work in schools offers a wide range of work that can be applicable to many jobs in the workforce. Teenagers may learn they have a gift for instruction when they serve as volunteer tutors, or discover they have management skills that will be useful as they grow older and join the working world (Marcovitz 17). Volunteerings opens a variety of options up to the volunteer, they could discover they have a knack for certain skills they didn't know they had before or experience something new that they might want to pursue in the future.

These advantages are not limited to future jobs, but college opportunities as well. Volunteerism is a great way to show admissions officials that you not only care about the community, but are able to manage your time well enough to balance a volunteer job with your other commitments. (Benefits of Volunteerism in High School). These benefits reap influence in future occupations as well as future education. Volunteering has the ability to dramatically influence your future, all while making prominent gains on a personal and professional manner that one will use for the rest of their life.

Volunteering has the potential to provide connections to new people who can bring about positive influences in several aspects. Malahias says, Volunteer work in schools has numerous ways to meet new people who can benefit you in new ways that you wouldn't be provided with elsewhere. It is astonishing to see some of the ways that one can adhere with people that they would not normally associate with. The new relationships that one forms during volunteer work proves itself to be rewarding eventually in several ways. Both the people that you are helping and your fellow volunteers can give you new insights. No matter what groups of people you're working with, you'll find that they have information and ways of looking at the world that can broaden your horizons (Volunteering: How Helping Others Helps You). The advantages of forming new relationships can extend in terms of the actual volunteer work as well as outside of that specific work, all of which are clearly beneficial.

Making these connections can provide role models that volunteers can stem their aspirations from while getting to know them either professionally or personally. The benefits that the schools take away from volunteers can be much greater than one would believe. The work load is taken off of teachers and staff, who depending on the grade or class, can be a huge relief in the overall workload. Volunteers influence the whole staff, but especially the teachers. All the volunteers that come into my class are a huge help. There has been times where I have been extremely stressed but the volunteers that come through make the workload much easier. The volunteers also offer a different perspective of learning to students so that they can learn things in a new way that they may not have understood before under my direction. Malahias notes.

Volunteers have the ability to help teachers where they are lacking and compensate for the the workload that they cannot handle or enough time to focus on. They also offer a distraction to students so the volunteer can meet with students or give teachers time to get ahead of their work. Extrapolating from a wide range of research, it seems safe to conclude that volunteers can be a valuable asset in enhancing a school's efforts to support learning and teaching. (Campioni 1). Volunteers can contribute a different learning prospect that can allow students to learn in new and helpful ways.

This can make all the difference in a student's grades and make learning less of chore. The effect volunteers have on the general manner of the school is undeniably helpful and influential. Volunteers are potentially very notable resources in creating a warm environment in schools and influencing students behavior and performance (Henderson and Mapp). Volunteers provide these benefits without even realizing it. Any volunteer work that has contributed can influence at school in more ways than one. Malahias notes, Volunteers help in so many unpredictable ways that it improves the entire school's demeanor. This would include the staff and students, not to mention what it probably does for the actual volunteer.

Volunteer work reaps an unlimited amount of benefits that take a different influence on every school and individually.Many schools that we do not realize, especially public schools, lack resources and materials to provide an equal educational opportunity for all. The paradox of financially distressed schools is that they need low-cost ways to provide supports for the school and for students. (Campioni 3). Volunteers are a potential answer regarding this issue. Volunteers offer a wide variety of characteristics depending on the individuals that offer their time and effort. Different volunteers offer several resources that can be provided just by their time. These resources are also free, which can be a huge benefit for schools with a small income or lack of opportunities, Malahias said. The attributes of each individual that provides their services can amount to a lot.

This can make a big difference in schools and it will indefinitely reflect upon the students and staff. The volunteer can be considered to offer the most benefits to the actual students that they are interacting with. Volunteers can influence students on a personal level while boosting their attendance and grades. The educational influence can also impact children permanently and especially at the age in which they are being mentored. Although these influences may seem small, they can affect children for the rest of their lives. The individual volunteer has the ability to get to know the students they interact with beyond an educational level. The students have found a found between themselves and the volunteer or tutor they are working with. Working with volunteers that my students connect with has actually made them excited for class and anticipating the lessons to come! notes Malahias.

As shown above, bonds like this cannot be taught but experienced. Volunteers make the educational environment fun and exciting for the students which could impact every student in a different way. Mentors are a special and often popular type of volunteer. Studies suggest that when a mentor is able to develop a close relationship with a student, the student has better academic outcomes. (Campioni 3). Mentors or volunteers get to know who they are helping while influence their academic performance without even realizing it. Beneath every student can be some underlying things that a teacher or adult didn't realize, so this type of relationship could be extremely beneficial for the student. Student can potentially perform better in their classes when they have the opportunity to study from a different perspective.

There has been an improvement in the educational performance in children which can mean a positive influence in a wide range of things (Hu 4). Volunteers have the potential to drastically influence a child's education in the most positive way. This influence would not be as prominent if the influence was to come from a different staff member including teachers. Once again, if a volunteer has the ability to change a student's life and use in favorable way then it should most definitely be used. Education is so important and if at any age they can be influenced positively on the side of education it should be taken advantage of indubitably. Malahias says.

Malahias has experienced this first hand, so if teachers all over the world can see all that volunteers have to offer then it would affect education everywhere. The influence that a volunteer can have on students has the potential to be long-term and affect them for not only the rest of their academic career, but the rest of their lives. As positive role models and student motivators, volunteers are viewed as contributing to better school attendance, improved grades and test scores, matriculation, less misbehavior, better social skills, staying in school, graduating, and going to college. (Henderson and Mapp). Volunteers influence in a wide range of things that cannot be taught. A lot of this influence comes from what the student is choosing to give, but the volunteer could influence a huge part of their education and make school a better experience for them.

This influence is also not limited to being educational or personal, but a larger aspect. By giving back to the community, you show them firsthand how volunteering makes a difference and how good it feels to help other people and animals and enact change (Segal and Robinson 3). Children see their elders as possible role models, so how the volunteer acts around them and performs actions it can enact a change in children. This can result in children being more active in their community and making notable changes for a better environment. The impacts of volunteers cannot be measured but experienced.

The numerous benefits of volunteering in schools has a large influence on the volunteer, the entire school and staff, and the students, these benefits are long-term and extend far beyond the classroom. As previously shown, volunteering has been proven to ease positively influence the volunteer in personal and professional ways, ease some of the burden of of teachers and staff, and create potential relationships with students that will affect them not only in the rest of their academic careers, but the rest of their lives. Volunteering offers an unlimited amount of benefits and influences that should take advantage all over the globe.

Works Cited

Social Impact of Volunteerism - Points of Light. www.bing.com/cr?IG=62755FCB1B784D4CB25E993E69A155DD&CID=3780CA9CE68266391B0FC128E72D6776&rd=1&h=ZWe_OyvnssP4w4s21auulnGGbuqz3ydvXT_XsZXzyOo&v=1&r=https://www.pointsoflight.org/sites/default/files/site-content/files/social_impact_of_volunteerism_pdf.pdf&p=DevEx,5067.1.Benefits of Volunteerism in High School. Scholarships for College Free College Scholarship Search 2017, www.scholarships.com/resources/public-service-and-volunteering/benefits-of-volunteerism-in-high-school/.Volunteers Are an Important Part of a System of Student ...www.bing.com/cr?IG=FD8FBB795AA0433084531AE2256D06B7&CID=202C5BBB3DB0656414A0500F3C1F642C&rd=1&h=kV_UWcao9Rd5TqQMjKW8jgNICHEuGpeis7nueQJ-j30&v=1&r=https://www.smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/vols.pdf&p=DevEx,5066.1.Volunteering: How Helping Others Helps You, bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-started/outside-the-classroom/volunteering-how-helping-others-helps-you#!Marcovitz, Hal. Teens and Volunteerism. Mason Crest Publishers, 2014.

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