Volunteering People Scholarship Essay

For the People Helping People scholarship, I feel I have aptly demonstrated my character and integrity through my volunteer work. I first started volunteering for my senior project during my junior year of highschool at a local pre-k. During that time I racked up a total of forty-five volunteer hours. I honestly can say I enjoyed every one of those hours, but at that time I had no idea how much a difference they would make in my life.
My senior year, I, unfortunately, did not have time in my schedule to volunteer, but was happy to get back to it this year. As of right now I have a total of fifty-three hours of volunteer time for my first semester. My ultimate goal right now is to get one hundred hours of volunteer time at the pre-k before
I graduate in May. In addition to volunteering at the pre-k, I have tutored at James Sprunt, volunteered at a STEM camp event, and volunteered at a food pantry that was hosted at my local community college. At this moment I have a total amount of one hundred and thirty-four volunteer hours. One hundred of those were spent at the preschool, twelve were spent at the food bank, and twenty-two were spent at the summer STEM camp.
The main thing volunteering and tutoring have helped me with is helping me better decide what field I want to go into in the future. Tutoring, especially, has allowed me to really realize that psychology is a field that I am interested in pursuing further after I graduate. At first I had been uncertain that I would be good at psychology but this experience has really convinced me that I will do just fine in the field. I tutor other students in psychology, and while that does let me re-learn the topics covered in that class, it also allows me to get to know those students and have in depth conversations about psychology with them. I have overall found tutoring to be a very interesting experience that I have enjoyed, and hope to continue in the future.
Volunteering has also helped me realize that I enjoy helping people, and while it is at times a bit stressful, it is ultimately rewarding and worth it.
It is always fun to know that you are helping a kid a fellow student learn, or in the food pantry’s case that you are helping others when they need it. Volunteering has also helped me become more adaptable because you can always experience something new and have to be able to keep up and roll with it. Volunteering teaches you to be more patient because you can get to know many different types of people and understand what their struggles are and how to work with different types of people too.
I think my volunteering showcases my character the best, in that in order to work with people, like I have, you have to be patient and understanding of others and what they may need. As for integrity I have always prided myself for working hard on my school work, maintaining my grades, and for branching out with my extracurriculars. In tutoring I have always been honest with the students I tutor and do work outside of the scheduled tutor time to ensure that I have done all that I can do to help them succeed. Knowing I have done my best to help someone makes me feel fulfilled and encouraged to keep
going.
My volunteering affects my community by positively affecting its members. The main two places I volunteer are at the preschool and the food bank. At the preschool I help preschool age kids reach their fullest potential by assisting their teachers in teaching and monitoring them. At the food bank I help members of the James Sprunt community by setting up, cleaning up, and passing out supplemental food to it’s members. At the summer STEM camp I helped high school aged teens complete a video based STEM project over the course of three days, and at the end received a certificate verifying my time. I am very grateful for everything I have gained and learned during my experiences and I would like to continue and be able to help others after getting my degree in psychology.