Many students feel pressured to find organizations to volunteer. Volunteering becomes a “forced to do before applying to colleges” OR “just to show that they’re fulfilling the requirement of the college application” extracurricular activity for many students.

How many hours are you volunteering? 100+ 500+ hours?
How many volunteering organizations have you joined? 5~6?

Students tend to feel anxious about these numbers — volunteering hours and the number of organizations joined — and start to have this belief that volunteering is an important factor in gaming admissions to top-tier colleges.

Right at this moment, students have lost their ability to realize what is significant to them and what “service” means to them. Slowly, students start to lose their ability to focus their energy and contribute their time to the things they really care about.

Therefore, we would like to give you, students as well as parents, some advice.

Don’t feel pressured by your peers when it comes to joining organizations or volunteering!

The best thing that students can do for their extracurricular activities is to express their beliefs, explore their passions, exhibit their entrepreneurial and leadership spirit, share their perspectives, and learn new skills.

Serving others and the community we grow up in is amazing! But remember that willingness to volunteer should come from the inner self of the volunteer.