My Volunteering Experience

Written by Illia Solano

Volunteering is an act in which people give up their time to help their communities. Some people might need community service hours because of clubs they are in, for certain classes, or just because they like the feeling of helping others. Whatever the case, here are some things that I have done during this past year:

Peer Tutoring

At the beginning of the year, when everything started and I became a senior, I found it hard to complete my 5 volunteering hours that my Senior Seminar class required. I couldn’t go out and volunteer where I regularly did. So I decided to become a peer tutor in our school. I have met so many different people while helping them with their homework. Peer tutoring was a place where I could socialize and help others at the same time. 

Transcribing

Aside from tutoring my fellow peers, I decided to try something new. There are many opportunities for volunteering online. I looked at several until I came up to this one page. The Smithsonian has multiple documents and artifacts that need transcribing. Anyone can sign up to do this job. I did it and it was a lot of fun. You choose what you want to transcribe in your own time. Or you could review someone else’s transcription so that it can be approved by the institution. I found this to be a close-knit community where people were there to help each other.

Vaccine Helper

This is not what it sounds like. Or is it? As the vaccines have been rolling out, the state is trying to give it to everyone. But I found out that it is mostly through volunteers that everything is working. This seemed like a historical event I wanted to be a part of. So I signed up online and helped. I worked all day in a sort of pop-up vaccine area where I helped people check-in and get their vaccines. This was a fun volunteering event because it was like the first time since I had actually interacted with people (safely). And at the end of the day, they offered me a vaccine! I will be volunteering for these events more as the vaccine becomes more readily available for everyone.

 

These are just a couple of things that I’ve done that others can do. Just because of our current situation, doesn’t mean we are limited to help others!