Why should you volunteer? Nowadays the word volunteer is used almost everywhere. It is looked highly upon for students when filling out applications and in the real world on resumes, to name just a few. However, in addition to helping a person look good on paper where she lists all of her volunteer services, there are many other benefits from volunteering.
    According to worldvolunteerweb.org “Volunteering is the perfect vehicle to discover something you are really good at and develop a new skill.” Say for example you decide to volunteer, or maybe are required to, at a local food bank. You could learn that packaging goods or serving food or maybe even talking/listening to others is something that you love or succeed at. That is just one example too. Volunteering to help people, at a human-services organization like Marklund for example, is another great example of finding out you are great at a new skill such as helping those with special needs, visiting with homebound patients, even providing respite care to caregivers.
    Volunteering can also help people gain the feelings of achievement and motivation. Volunteering is giving of one’s time, skills and energy freely by choice so it is unlike a job or something you feel forced to do. This boosts your desire and enthusiasm to help in general, according to worldvolunteerweb.org. To break it down, you feel good giving your time and self away for those people and things (community/environment) that need it more than you do.
    Not only will you feel good, volunteering can actually help your health. According to nationalservice.gov “Over the past two decades, we have also seen a growing body of research that indicates volunteering provides individual health benefits in addition to social ones.” Research done by the CNCS concluded that “those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer.”
    One big reason people should and do volunteer is because of what is touched on previously in this article; applications and resumes. These statistics are provided by worldvolunteerweb.org:
•    73% of employers would recruit a candidate with volunteering experience over one without
•     94% of employers believe that volunteering can add to skills
•     94% of employees who volunteered to learn new skills had benefited either by getting their first job, improving their salary, or being promoted
    Considering percentages such as these, along with the other benefits mentioned, most people should be compelled to volunteer.  You just need a place to start. Non-profit organizations in your area are a great place to begin looking for the right volunteering opportunity for you.  Volunteering overall is great for school, career and health, and, perhaps even better, you may find out new things about yourself.