There are many ways to develop character, leadership, teamwork and so many other skills that will only help you throughout your life. And one of those ways is through volunteering.
It is important to learn how to help others and give of your skills and time. It encourages generosity and selflessness and compassion.
You can earn service and leadership awards, scholarships, and it is also very fun!
These are traits that many colleges and employers look for in potential students and employees.
But until recently, it was often challenging to find volunteer opportunities. Keeping track of hours, verifying those hours, and keeping it all organized to submit to advisors, counselors, clubs, programs or colleges was also a little daunting.
But not anymore. Today I am speaking with the CEO and founder of Volunteer Crowd which is a phenomenal resource for middle school and high school students to find and gain volunteer experience.
You can search for volunteer opportunities not only in your city but by zip code, as well. You can search for specific types of volunteering you want to do. There are even Zoom-based opportunities.
Not only that, this site will create a transcript of your hours, your strengths, and references about your personality and character. They will verify everything for you.
Everything that used to be floating around on various pieces of paper, or worse – lost, is all kept together in one tidy transcript that colleges and employers love.
Volunteer Crowd allows you to enjoy the experience without the headache of keeping track of the hours.
If you are on the college track, I recommend listening to Episode 43: How To Find College Scholarships and Grants. College career and guidance counselor, Rick Palo, gives you all the insider tips!
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ABOUT AMY VON KAENEL
Amy von Kaenel is the founder and CEO of VolunteerCrowd and mother of three boys, 23, 18, and 15. She lives in Orange County, CA. Between her two oldest sons’ graduating years, 2015and 2020, she saw the hyper-competitive pursuit of higher education take on a life of its own. As expectations about student performance rose, so did the rate of anxiety, depressions, and deteriorating mental health.
While working for a national teen volunteer club from 2015 to 2018, Amy witnessed a parallel universe of ‘ordinary’ kids making incredible contributions to their communities. In this environment, students were curious, relaxed, and proud of themselves.
For their efforts, students received a single reported metric – total hours. One number didn’t begin to characterize each student’s impact or future potential. That inspired Amy to create the first volunteer portfolio.
Amy launched VolunteerCrowd in 2019 to provide comprehensive volunteer resources to all students. VolunteerCrowd aligns projects to a student’s academic and career interests. The platform builds a service portfolio to reveal causes that inspire each student. Nonprofits endorse character strengths they observe in the student.
Amy has a BA in Economics and MBA from the University of CA, Irvine. VolunteerCrowd won the Paul Merage New Venture Competition for the Social Enterprise track and was a semi-finalist among 160 startups in Orange County’s Technology Innovation Forum.
RESOURCES
https://www.facebook.com/VolunteerCrowdImpact
https://twitter.com/volunteercrowd
https://www.instagram.com/volunteercrowd/