With the hustle and bustle of college life, volunteering can often be an overlooked area in the life of a university student. However, if you can make it through the long nights of drinking…err, I mean studying, what free time you do have can best be spent volunteering within the community. Volunteering can be a great way for you to make new friendships, especially if you are living away from home during the college period or you are here on Erasmus. It doesn’t require a long-term commitment and is a way to give back to others that enriches your college experience.
Benefits to volunteering include; social networking, learning new skills, making a difference to the running of organisations and even the possibility to advance your career. Furthermore, volunteering is a great way to help protect your own physical and psychological well-being. Volunteering has been shown to help counteract depression, anxiety and stress while providing you with an increased amount of happiness, self-confidence, and a strengthened sense of purpose. Studies have also found that volunteering can help lower a person’s mortality rate, and let’s face it, there are moments during college life where you just feel like you aren’t going to make it!
I Started When I Was Fully Ready
I became aware of the volunteering program at UL in my first semester of first year and knew it was something that I wanted to do during my time at the university. Although I wanted to jump straight in, I felt that I wanted to use my first year to become familiar with how the university operates and with the academic workload that I would be doing. I decided that when semester two arrived I would know enough to embrace the volunteering experience fully. At the beginning of semester two I downloaded my volunteering application and sourced an organisation to work with from the ULPVA website. I chose to volunteer with the organisation Accord. Accord is a Catholic marriage care service that provides preparatory courses for marriage, marriage and relationship counselling, as well has marital sex therapy, relationship and sexuality in education programmes and family planning throughout 55 centres nationwide.
I Enhanced My Learning Experience
I chose this service as my current degree is in Psychology and I thought that time spent in a counselling setting would be ideal for me. The position offered by Accord was that of a ‘sitting service’, whereby I had to be onsite alongside the counsellor as a safety precaution for both counsellor and client during a session. The majority of the time I was left to my own devices and this provided me with the time and space to work on my assignments and study for upcoming exams, and yet also provided me with social interaction in a counselling setting. I engaged with the onsite counsellors where my psychological knowledge was put to the test and I further increased my awareness of the sensitivity and privacy required when dealing with people’s emotional needs. I feel that my time spent volunteering has given me further insight into the applied nature of my degree and has broadened my social circle as well as giving me an increased level of confidence in dealing with sensitive situations.
So Get Involved!
From my own point of view volunteering requires three things; time, passion and a positive attitude, and it can give you experience in a field you may otherwise not consider. Before volunteering I would suggest that it may be best to take some time to figure out what your interests are. If you can find a volunteering opportunity that matches with your desires and goals then your time spent within an organisation will be far more fun and fulfilling. There is such a wide scope here at UL – volunteering is also available for those who have disabilities so there really is something for everyone. In all, my advice to get the most out of your volunteering experience is to make sure to ask questions prior to, and while you are there. Know what’s expected of you and don’t over commit yourself at first, take the time to find your own rhythm, go out there, take part, give back, and most of all make sure to enjoy yourself. This is college after all.
University of Limerick 