THE KEY TO VOLUNTEERING

HEY BEE-UTIFALS!!!!!!

Sending positive vibes your way to help you get through the rest of the semester!!! With school really starting to pick up and everything, you all may find it harder to find time throughout the day to actually get in service hours, but there are many different ways you can try to fit a service project in every now and then! For me personally, I find myself getting busier and busier with school, volunteering, and college apps, but I still try to do a couple small things everyday for around an hour, which really helps in the long run. One volunteering opportunity I’ve been introduced to recently is working with the Child Education Centers in California to help tutor elementary and middle school students! This opportunity was made available to me through Key Club and is one of many different service opportunities that they provide their members with despite having to work remotely. My job usually consists of tutoring students through Zoom for around 1 to 2 hours a day for 2 to 3 days a week. This is such a small fraction of our day compared to the amount of time that we spend on other activities, but it adds up to a lot over time. Besides that, tutoring these students helps me take my mind off of my schoolwork and everything I need to get done, so even though I am helping with school-related activities, it helps me destress and relax from my typical workload. Working with these students and the tutors at CEC have taught me a lot and have helped me improve different skills, the main one being speaking with other people. I’ve always had a more difficult time talking with people that I wasn’t very familiar with, but this experience helped me break out of my shell and learn how to talk and work with people both my age and those younger than me. I am now much more confident and comfortable with the students that I’m working with, so interacting with them and explaining questions to them have become much easier compared to before. This has been one of the most meaningful and beneficial experiences that I have had throughout my time participating in Key Club as I get to see the results of my efforts through their understanding of what they’re learning as well as for that person-to-person interaction that I have not had much of since quarantine started. This is why all of you need to take advantage of the opportunities that we provide for you because who knows, you may find and connect with a certain project more than others that inspires you to give back even more and help in any ways that you can. Yes, time does play a factor in your ability to serve, but taking an hour or 2 out of your day to help support our community during this tough time rather than look at your phone or play video games, you can do many more things that will have a larger impact than you realize. However, you can only participate in these activities and get credit for them if you are a dues paid member, so make sure to turn your dues in as soon as possible!!! More details will be provided later on, so be on the lookout for that!!! I hope you all have a great day and won’t get too stressed about everything going on right now with not being able to see anyone!!!