Volunteering Embraces Learning Opportunities

Volunteering Embraces Learning Opportunities

By F.Chavarría.

For those college students who have felt disheartened by their academic performance and have ever had to deal with doubts to keep on going with their majors, well you are not alone.

In 2013, I was extremely disappointed with the B.A. in English because I almost flunked Oral Communication II. When I was taking Techniques I, I felt incredibly insecure about my public speaking skills, so the word "speech" was equal to "panic attack.”But as many of you know, there is no way to be exempt from oral presentations in this major, and  the time came to choose the topic for my speech. It had to be related to a social issue, so I thought that human trafficking was a "trendy" topic those days. The more I learned about it, the more interested and confident I felt to present my speech. During the research process, I had the opportunity to interview some officials and people who had worked on the issue. In the same week, I was invited to watch Nefarious,a documentary on human trafficking. There, I learned about LightForce International, a nonprofit organization that fights against human trafficking and the commercial sex industry. I knew I wanted to be a part of this movement to abolish modern day slavery. I presented my speech and actually I got a good grade, but the most interesting part was that I started volunteering for this NGO. Although the academic low was already demanding and time consuming, I got more involved within the LightForce organization. Most meetings at LightForce were in English, and that definitely contributed for me to gain more confidence in my command of the language. Thus, here are some pieces of advice that will help you enjoy and improve your academic performance:

Study what interests you the most

Even though you are forced to read and to do research about different topics that you do not really like, take advantage of those projects. In that way, you will be more committed to your projects and you will enjoy it,  while you improve your language skills.

Volunteer and gain experience

With the tight schedules and the academic workload in college, it might seem like something impossible to achieve, but if you have the chance to do it, you will not regret. Organizations and institutions are not the only that benefit from volunteering. By volunteering you not only gain knowledge and professional experience, but also improve your social and language skills. Also, you might get to know your interests better and discover what you would like to do with your degree and you will be able to combine your expertise in diverse disciplines.

Strengthen your community

This is another advantage of volunteering because you might network with new people, but you can do this in different ways. You can create projects and involve people to grow together in an intentional way of learning. 

Do not let hard circumstances diminish your potential as a person and as a professional! Allow yourself to be creative!