what can i do to help my community essay

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The impact of community service – a deep dive into the power of giving back to society.

Community service essays serve as a powerful tool for individuals to reflect on their experiences, values, and impact on the world around them. Through the process of writing about their volunteer work, students are able to articulate the positive changes they have made in their communities and explore the lessons they have learned along the way.

Community service essays also play a crucial role in highlighting the importance of giving back to society and fostering a sense of empathy and compassion in individuals. By sharing personal stories of service, students can inspire others to get involved and make a difference in their own communities.

Moreover, community service essays can help students gain valuable skills such as critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving, as they reflect on the challenges and successes of their volunteer experiences. By documenting their service work, students can also showcase their commitment to social responsibility and community engagement to colleges, scholarship committees, and potential employers.

Why Community Service Essays Matter

In today’s society, the importance of community service essays cannot be overstated. These essays serve as a platform for individuals to showcase their dedication to helping others and making a positive impact on their communities. Through these essays, individuals can share their experiences, insights, and perspectives on the value of giving back to society.

Community service essays also play a crucial role in raising awareness about different social issues and encouraging others to get involved in volunteer work. By sharing personal stories and reflections, individuals can inspire and motivate others to take action and contribute to the betterment of society.

Furthermore, community service essays provide an opportunity for individuals to reflect on their own values, beliefs, and goals. Through the process of writing these essays, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their place in the world, leading to personal growth and development.

In conclusion, community service essays matter because they have the power to inspire change, raise awareness, and promote personal growth. By sharing their stories and insights, individuals can make a difference in their communities and create a more compassionate and giving society.

The Impact of Community Service Essays

Community service essays have a profound impact on both the individuals writing them and the communities they serve. These essays serve as a platform for students to reflect on their experiences and articulate the lessons they have learned through their service work.

One of the primary impacts of community service essays is the opportunity for self-reflection. Students are encouraged to critically analyze their experiences, challenges, and accomplishments during their community service activities. This reflection helps students develop a deeper understanding of themselves, their values, and their role in the community.

Another significant impact of community service essays is the awareness they raise about social issues and community needs. By sharing their stories and insights, students can shed light on important issues and inspire others to get involved in community service. These essays can also help community organizations and stakeholders better understand the needs of their communities and how they can address them effectively.

Overall, community service essays play a vital role in promoting social responsibility, empathy, and civic engagement. They empower students to make a positive impact in their communities and contribute to creating a more compassionate and inclusive society.

Guidelines for Writing Community Service Essays

When writing a community service essay, it is important to follow certain guidelines to ensure that your message is clear and impactful. Here are some tips to help you craft a powerful and compelling essay:

• Start by brainstorming ideas and reflecting on your community service experiences.
• Clearly define the purpose of your essay and what you hope to convey to your readers.
• Organize your essay with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.
• Use specific examples and anecdotes to support your points and showcase your personal growth.
• Highlight the impact of your community service activities on both yourself and others.
• Showcase your passion and dedication to serving your community.
• Be authentic and honest in your writing, and avoid exaggerating or embellishing your experiences.
• Edit and proofread your essay carefully to ensure clarity, coherence, and proper grammar.

Examples of Effective Community Service Essays

Community service essays can have a powerful impact on the reader when they are well-written and thoughtful. Here are a few examples to inspire you:

1. A Well-Structured Essay:

This essay begins with a compelling introduction that clearly articulates the author’s motivation for engaging in community service. The body paragraphs provide specific examples of the author’s experiences and the impact they had on both the community and themselves. The conclusion ties everything together, reflecting on the lessons learned and the importance of giving back.

2. Personal Reflection:

This essay delves deep into the author’s personal experiences during their community service work. It explores the challenges they faced, the emotions they encountered, and the growth they underwent. By sharing vulnerable moments and candid reflections, the author creates a connection with the reader and demonstrates the transformational power of service.

3. Future Goals and Impact:

This essay not only discusses past community service experiences but also looks toward the future. The author shares their aspirations for continued service and outlines how they plan to make a difference in the world. By showcasing a sense of purpose and vision, this essay inspires the reader to consider their own potential for impact.

These examples illustrate how community service essays can be effective tools for conveying meaningful stories, inspiring others, and showcasing personal growth. By crafting a compelling narrative and reflecting on the significance of service, you can create an essay that leaves a lasting impression.

How Community Service Essays Empower Individuals

Community service essays provide individuals with a platform to express their thoughts, share their experiences, and make a meaningful impact on society. By writing about their volunteer work and the lessons they have learned, individuals can empower themselves to create positive change and inspire others to do the same.

• Through community service essays, individuals can reflect on the importance of giving back to their communities and the value of helping those in need.
• These essays can serve as a source of motivation and inspiration for individuals to continue their philanthropic efforts and make a difference in the world.
• By sharing their stories through community service essays, individuals can raise awareness about social issues and promote greater empathy and understanding among their peers.

Overall, community service essays empower individuals to take action, advocate for change, and contribute to building a more compassionate and equitable society.

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Last updated March 21, 2024

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Blog > Essay Advice , Supplementals > How to Write a Community Supplemental Essay (with Examples)

How to Write a Community Supplemental Essay (with Examples)

Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University

Written by Kylie Kistner, MA Former Willamette University Admissions

Key Takeaway

If you're applying to college, there's a good chance you'll be writing a Community Essay for one (or lots) of your supplementals. In this post, we show you how to write one that stands out.

This post is one in a series of posts about the supplemental essays . You can read our core “how-to” supplemental post here .

When schools admit you, they aren’t just admitting you to be a student. They’re also admitting you to be a community member.

Community supplemental essays help universities understand how you would fit into their school community. At their core, Community prompts allow you to explicitly show an admissions officer why you would be the perfect addition to the school’s community.

Let’s get into what a Community supplemental essay is, what strategies you can use to stand out, and which steps you can take to write the best one possible.

What is a Community supplemental essay?

Community supplemental essay prompts come in a number of forms. Some ask you to talk about a community you already belong to, while others ask you to expand on how you would contribute to the school you’re applying to.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.

1: Rice University

Rice is lauded for creating a collaborative atmosphere that enhances the quality of life for all members of our campus community. The Residential College System and undergraduate life is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural tradition each student brings. What life perspectives would you contribute to the Rice community? 500 word limit.

2: Swarthmore College

Swarthmore students’ worldviews are often forged by their prior experiences and exposure to ideas and values. Our students are often mentored, supported, and developed by their immediate context—in their neighborhoods, communities of faith, families, and classrooms. Reflect on what elements of your home, school, or community have shaped you or positively impacted you. How have you grown or changed because of the influence of your community?

Community Essay Strategy

Your Community essay strategy will likely depend on the kind of Community essay you’re asked to write. As with all supplemental essays, the goal of any community essay should be to write about the strengths that make you a good fit for the school in question.

How to write about a community to which you belong

Most Community essay prompts give you a lot of flexibility in how you define “community.” That means that the community you write about probably isn’t limited to the more formal communities you’re part of like family or school. Your communities can also include friend groups, athletic teams, clubs and organizations, online communities, and more.

There are two things you should consider before you even begin writing your essay.

What school values is the prompt looking for?

Whether they’re listed implicitly or explicitly, Community essay prompts often include values that you can align your essay response with.

To explain, let’s look at this short supplemental prompt from the University of Notre Dame:

If you were given unlimited resources to help solve one problem in your community, what would it be and how would you accomplish it?

Now, this prompt doesn’t outright say anything about values. But the question itself, even being so short, implies a few values:

a) That you should be active in your community

b) That you should be aware of your community’s problems

c) That you know how to problem-solve

d) That you’re able to collaborate with your community

After dissecting the prompt for these values, you can write a Community essay that showcases how you align with them.

What else are admissions officers learning about you through the community you choose?

In addition to showing what a good community member you are, your Community supplemental essays can also let you talk about other parts of your experience. Doing so can help you find the perfect narrative balance among all your essays.

Let’s use a quick example.

If I’m a student applying to computer science programs, then I might choose to write about the community I’ve found in my robotics team. More specifically, I might write about my role as cheerleader and principle problem-solver of my robotics team. Writing about my robotics team allows me to do two things:

Show that I’m a really supportive person in my community, and

Show that I’m on a robotics team that means a lot to me.

Now, it’s important not to co-opt your Community essay and turn it into a secret Extracurricular essay , but it’s important to be thinking about all the information an admissions officer will learn about you based on the community you choose to focus on.

How to write about what you’ll contribute to your new community

The other segment of Community essays are those that ask you to reflect on how your specific experiences will contribute to your new community.

It’s important that you read each prompt carefully so you know what to focus your essay on.

These kinds of Community prompts let you explicitly drive home why you belong at the school you’re applying to.

Here are two suggestions to get you started.

Draw out the values.

This kind of Community prompt also typically contains some kind of reference to values. The Rice prompt is a perfect example of this:

Rice is lauded for creating a collaborative atmosphere that enhances the quality of life for all members of our campus community . The Residential College System and undergraduate life is heavily influenced by the unique life experiences and cultural tradition each student brings. What life perspectives would you contribute to the Rice community? 500 word limit.

There are several values here:

a) Collaboration

b) Enhancing quality of life

c) For all members of the community

d) Residential system (AKA not just in the classroom)

e) Sharing unique life experiences and cultural traditions with other students

Note that the actual question of the prompt is “What life perspectives would you contribute to the Rice community?” If you skimmed the beginning of the prompt to get to the question, you’d miss all these juicy details about what a Rice student looks like.

But with them in mind, you can choose to write about a life perspective that you hold that aligns with these five values.

Find detailed connections to the school.

Since these kinds of Community prompts ask you what you would contribute to the school community, this is your chance to find the most logical and specific connections you can. Browse the school website and social media to find groups, clubs, activities, communities, or support systems that are related to your personal background and experiences. When appropriate based on the prompt, these kinds of connections can help you show how good a fit you are for the school and community.

How to do Community Essay school research

Looking at school values means doing research on the school’s motto, mission statement, and strategic plans. This information is all carefully curated by a university to reflect the core values, initiatives, and goals of an institution. They can guide your Community essay by giving you more values options to include.

We’ll use the Rice mission statement as an example. It says,

As a leading research university with a distinctive commitment to undergraduate education, Rice University aspires to pathbreaking research , unsurpassed teaching , and contribution to the betterment of our world . It seeks to fulfill this mission by cultivating a diverse community of learning and discovery that produces leaders across the spectrum of human endeavor.

I’ve bolded just a few of the most important values we can draw out.

As we’ll see in the next section, I can use these values to brainstorm my Community essay.

How to write a Community Supplemental Essay

Step 1: Read the prompt closely & identify any relevant values.

When writing any supplemental essay, your first step should always be to closely read the prompt. You can even annotate it. It’s important to do this so you know exactly what is being asked of you.

With Community essays specifically, you can also highlight any values you think the prompt is asking you to elaborate on.

Keeping track of the prompt will make sure that you’re not missing anything an admissions officer will be on the lookout for.

Step 2: Brainstorm communities you’re involved in.

If you’re writing a Community essay that asks you to discuss a community you belong to, then your next step will be brainstorming all of your options.

As you brainstorm, keep a running list. Your list can include all kinds of communities you’re involved in.

Communities:

• Model United Nations
• Youth group
• Instagram book club
• My Discord group

Step 3: Think about the role(s) you play in your selected community.

Narrow down your community list to a couple of options. For each remaining option, identify the roles you played, actions you took, and significance you’ve drawn from being part of that group.

Community: Orchestra

These three columns help you get at the most important details you need to include in your community essay.

Step 4: Identify any relevant connections to the school.

Depending on the question the prompt asks of you, your last step may be to do some school research.

Let’s return to the Rice example.

After researching the Rice mission statement, we know that Rice values community members who want to contribute to the “betterment of our world.”

Ah ha! Now we have something solid to work from.

With this value in mind, I can choose to write about a perspective that shows my investment in creating a better world. Maybe that perspective is a specific kind of fundraising tenacity. Maybe it’s always looking for those small improvements that have a big impact. Maybe it’s some combination of both. Whatever it is, I can write a supplemental essay that reflects the values of the university.

Community Essay Mistakes

While writing Community essays may seem fairly straightforward, there are actually a number of ways they can go awry. Specifically, there are three common mistakes students make that you should be on the lookout for.

They don’t address the specific requests of the prompt.

As with all supplemental essays, your Community essay needs to address what the prompt is asking you to do. In Community essays especially, you’ll need to assess whether you’re being asked to talk about a community you’re already part of or the community you hope to join.

Neglecting to read the prompt also means neglecting any help the prompt gives you in terms of values. Remember that you can get clues as to what the school is looking for by analyzing the prompt’s underlying values.

They’re too vague.

Community essays can also go awry when they’re too vague. Your Community essay should reflect on specific, concrete details about your experience. This is especially the case when a Community prompt asks you to talk about a specific moment, challenge, or sequence of events.

Don’t shy away from details. Instead, use them to tell a compelling story.

They don’t make any connections to the school.

Finally, Community essays that don’t make any connections to the school in question miss out on a valuable opportunity to show school fit. Recall from our supplemental essay guide that you should always write supplemental essays with an eye toward showing how well you fit into a particular community.

Community essays are the perfect chance to do that, so try to find relevant and logical school connections to include.

Community Supplemental Essay Example

Example essay: robotics community.

University of Michigan: Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it. (Required for all applicants; minimum 100 words/maximum 300 words)

From Blendtec’s “Will it Blend?” videos to ZirconTV’s “How to Use a Stud Finder,” I’m a YouTube how-to fiend. This propensity for fix-it knowledge has not only served me well, but it’s also been a lifesaver for my favorite community: my robotics team(( The writer explicitly states the community they’ll be focusing on.)) . While some students spend their after-school hours playing sports or video games, I spend mine tinkering in my garage with three friends, one of whom is made of metal.

Last year, I Googled more fixes than I can count. Faulty wires, misaligned soldering, and failed code were no match for me. My friends watched in awe as I used Boolean Operators to find exactly the information I sought.(( The writer clearly articulates their place in the community.)) But as I agonized over chassis reviews, other unsearchable problems arose.

First((This entire paragraph fulfills the “describe that community” direction in the prompt.)) , there was the matter of registering for our first robotics competition. None of us familiar with bureaucracy, David stepped up and made some calls. His maturity and social skills helped us immediately land a spot. The next issue was branding. Our robot needed a name and a logo, and Connor took it upon himself to learn graphic design. We all voted on Archie’s name and logo design to find the perfect match. And finally, someone needed to enter the ring. Archie took it from there, winning us first place.

The best part about being in this robotics community is the collaboration and exchange of knowledge.((The writer emphasizes a clear strength: collaboration within their community. It’s clear that the writer values all contributions to the team.))  Although I can figure out how to fix anything, it’s impossible to google social skills, creativity, or courage. For that information, only friends will do. I can only imagine the fixes I’ll bring to the University of Michigan and the skills I’ll learn in return at part of the Manufacturing Robotics community((The writer ends with a forward-looking connection to the school in question.)) .

Want to see even more supplemental essay examples? Check out our college essay examples post . 

Liked that? Try this next.

How to Write Supplemental Essays that Will Impress Admissions Officers

How to Write a College Essay (Exercises + Examples)

Extracurricular Magnitude and Impact

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The Community Essay

“Duke University seeks a talented, engaged student body that embodies the wide range of human experience; we believe that the diversity of our students makes our community stronger. If you’d like to share a perspective you bring or experiences you’ve had to help us understand you better—perhaps related to a community you belong to, your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your family or cultural background—we encourage you to do so. Real people are reading your application, and we want to do our best to understand and appreciate the real people applying to Duke.” 

As with every essay you ship off to admissions – think about something you want admissions to know that hasn’t been represented. What can you expand upon to show your versatility, passion and ability to connect with the world around you?

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Category: Admissions , College Admissions , Essay Tips , Essay Writing , Supplemental Essays

Tags: admissions essay , admissions help , application , application supplement , applications , brainstorming , college admissions , college admissions essay , college application , college application help , college applications , college essay , common application , supplemental essays

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, writing an essay about community service.

I'm working on a college essay where I need to talk about my experiences related to community service. I've done some volunteering and projects, but I'm having a hard time putting it all into words. Any tips on how to approach this topic and make it impactful? Thanks in advance!

When writing an essay about community service, it's essential to focus on the impact of your experiences, personal growth, and how your service has contributed to the betterment of the community. Here are some tips on making your essay impactful:

1. Choose a specific experience: Instead of trying to cover all of your volunteer experiences, select one that has been particularly meaningful to you. This will allow you to delve deeper and provide more thoughtful insight into that particular experience.

2. Share your motivation: Include a compelling reason behind your involvement in community service. This can show your genuine interest in the cause and help your readers understand your dedication.

3. Show, don't tell: Use vivid imagery and descriptive language to paint a picture for your reader. Instead of simply listing your accomplishments, describe the emotions you felt, the people you interacted with, and the changes you observed.

4. Reflect on your growth: Discuss any challenges you faced during your community service and the lessons you learned. Share how the experience changed your perspectives, values, or beliefs, and how it has affected your personal and academic life.

5. Demonstrate the impact on the community: Highlight the tangible benefits your service provided to the community or individuals you served. This can be in the form of increased resources, improved quality of life, or educational opportunities.

6. Connect your experience to your future: Explain how your community service experiences have shaped your goals and aspirations. Show how your commitment to service will carry on into your college years and beyond, whether as part of your intended major, career, or lifelong dedication to giving back.

7. Edit and revise: Carefully proofread your essay to ensure it communicates your thoughts clearly. It's also a good idea to have someone else read your essay to offer feedback and suggestions.

By focusing on these aspects, your essay will stand out as a genuine and impactful account of your community service experience, showcasing your dedication to making a difference. Good luck with your essay!

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How to Help Your Community

Last Updated: April 18, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Kris Jensen . Kris Jensen is the Principal of Regenerative Communities Collective, a design consultancy focusing on regenerative design, and the Founder and Executive Director of Gardensmiths, a community centered initiative focused on the connection between regenerative gardens and resilient people, Previously, he was the Executive Director of the San Bruno Mountain Watch in California. He has working in the environmental activism field for over 12 years. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 220,331 times.

A community feels more alive when people who live there love it enough to help improve it. Helping your community makes life better for your friends, family, and other people who live where you live. If you look around and see that your community has a lot of problems, there's no better time to start fixing them than right now. The more love you pour in, the better it will get. Keep reading for ideas on how to help your community be strong and vibrant.

Being a Good Citizen

• If you see a mother struggling to get her stroller down a set of stairs, offer to help her carry it.
• If you notice someone looking lost, help them get where they're trying to go.
• Figure out how you can help the people who ask for money in the street, instead of passing them without looking them in the eyes.
• Be the person who helps out in an emergency, instead of the one who assumes someone else will do it.
• Offer to shovel your neighbours' backyard or rake leaves for someone across the street. Babysit community kids, or watch their pets.

• Buy your food from local vendors. Try to get most of your produce from the farmer's market, where members of your community go to sell food they've worked hard to grow.
• Shop at local businesses whenever you can. For example, if you have the choice to buy a new pair of jeans at a chain discount store or a small business owned by a member of your community, choose the latter. Change your mindset from buying the cheapest available product to leveraging your purchases to provide the most community good. Knowing that your money will go toward boosting your local economy and building a strong, vibrant community is worth the extra effort and expense. Help others to see the light and help them come aboard to help you boost the local community's financial health.
• Consider starting your own business. You can serve your community by offering a great product and possibly even hiring employees.

• If you want to go above and beyond, you could also spread awareness about how to recycle, or start a recycling program at your school or place of work.
• Composting is useful in more ways than one. It allows you to dispose of your food waste without putting it in the trash, and as a result you end up with rich soil you can use in your garden. Once you learn how to do it, show others how easy it can be.

• Turning off your lights when you're not using them, using energy-saving appliances, decreasing your reliance on air conditioning, turning down the temperature on your water heater, and unplugging your computer when you power it down are all ways you can help save energy.
• Taking shorter showers, making sure your pipes aren't leaking, limiting your lawn watering, and using a low-water method of washing dishes are all ways you can help save water.

• Walk or bike where you need to go. It takes a little longer, but you see more along the way.
• Use public transportation. Even if your area doesn't have a great subway or elevated rail system, you probably have bus lines nearby.
• Carpool to work or school, instead of driving places by yourself.

Learning About Your Community

• To break the ice with your neighbors, bake some muffins or cookies and wrap them up. Then take them door to door and introduce yourself. This will make it easier to strike up a conversation with a neighbor or invite them to your home for dinner.

Create community through human connection and by finding common ground. "No matter who we are or what we look like or what we may believe, it is both possible and, more importantly, it becomes powerful to come together in common purpose and common effort."

• Use the internet to run some basic searches to find out what your community needs. Try pairing the name of your city with key terms like “community needs,” “volunteer opportunities,” and “problems.” Try other keyword searches to find out more.
• Read the local newspaper every day. The local newspaper will help you to get to know the community and learn what people are doing to address problems.
• Talk to people who have lived in the community for a long time. Ask questions, such as, “What is the biggest problem facing this community? How are people addressing that problem?”
• Try not to get overwhelmed by the size and scope of the problems your community is facing. Pick one thing that you care about changing, one thing that ignites your passion, and go from there.
• See if anyone else feels the same way you do. Is there an organization addressing this need? Do you know anyone who's as passionate as you are about creating change?

• Websites like Idealist, Volunteer Match, and Serve.gov can also help you to find out about organizations that are looking for volunteers.

• What community issue are you the most passionate about?
• What can you do to help that will best use your talents?
• What sort of time commitment are you able and willing to make?
• What do you need to do in order to start helping?

Getting Involved

• Find the place where your passions and skills intersect. For example, let's say your city has too few trees and you want to help. You can use social media to spread awareness about the problem by sharing what you know with as many people as possible and encouraging people to plant more trees.

• Set short-term goals. You can define short-term in a way that makes sense and is motivating to you. What do you want to have accomplished in one week, one month, or a year?
• Set long-term goals. In five years, what do you want your community to look like? What about ten? What seems doable in that amount of time?

• People - Include the skill-sets that will be involved, the hours of work that they'll need to put in, the minimum number of volunteers or spokespeople that will be necessary to accomplish your goals.
• Resources - These might include such things as: buses to take people downtown for a river cleanup; garbage bags, shovels, protective gloves, and masks for the volunteers; pizza, sodas, and a salad to feed them at lunchtime. Think it through down to every last detail.
• Money - Create a budget and detail how much it's going to cost to execute your plan.

• To find passionate volunteers and spread the word about what you're doing; share information via social media. Go public with your plan to make a difference, and tell people how they can get involved. Hold meetings to discuss how to put your plan into action.
• Some people prefer to help by donating money instead of their time. Don't be afraid to ask for donations or hold a fundraiser to make money you can put toward your cause. [10] X Research source

Sharing Your Skills and Time

• Helping out at park, river or beach clean-up days
• Answering phones at phone-a-thons to raise money
• Playing with cats and dogs at the animal shelter
• Serving meals at the soup kitchen or homeless shelter
• Working at a crisis hotline
• Being a counselor at a camp for kids

• For example, if someone you know is trying to hold a "Bike to Work or School Day" on Monday mornings, and you've got a bike, why not give it a try? Bring a friend along, too. Show people in your community that biking is fun.
• Participate in fundraising walks and runs. Many nonprofits hold community walks and runs to raise money. Paying the entry fee directly benefits the nonprofit, and participating in the event helps spread awareness about the cause.
• Go to concerts, festivals and other events put on by local businesses or organizations. If no one shows up to these types of events, they might stop happening altogether.

• Voting is an important way to influence your community. Read up on the candidates and issues and vote in all local elections.
• Contact your representative about issues that matter to you. If you don't want that patch of forest to be cut down, or you think it a new supermarket could really help the community, call your representative or write a letter stating what you want to happen and why.
• Show up for community meetings at which decisions are being made. Take the opportunity to speak up about what matters to you. Would your community benefit from having more crosswalks on busier streets? Are there too many potholes on your block? Do you have an opinion on how the city should handle increasing levels of crime? Say so.

• You can help to make your neighborhood more beautiful right away by picking up trash on your own. When you walk down the street, pick up trash you see and throw it away or recycle it. If there's too much for you to tackle on your own, get some friends involved to help you.
• Scrape off or paint over graffiti to freshen up buildings and fences. If you're good at painting, you could eve create a mural on a public wall for everyone to see. You might have to get permission from the building owner or city first.
• Do landscaping in areas that are overgrown with weeds. Mow them down or pull weeds by hand. Plant flowers or trees wherever you can. Adding more natural elements to urban spaces can help make them look and feel safe and inviting. [12] X Trustworthy Source PubMed Central Journal archive from the U.S. National Institutes of Health Go to source
• Create a community garden, where everyone can have a plot on which to grow vegetables, herbs or flowers. Ask people to pitch in to help break ground and lend their tools for the project.
• Always make sure to check with the owner of a piece of property before you do anything to it.

Community Q&A

• Try not to get discouraged if your efforts to help go unnoticed. Helping your community is important and it matters even if no one acknowledges it. Know that you are doing good things for your community and keep going! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://positivepsychology.com/10-traits-positive-community/
• ↑ https://www.epa.gov/recycle/how-do-i-recycle-common-recyclables
• ↑ https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/articles/10-energy-saving-tips-spring
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-introverts-corner/201202/survey-says-how-meet-new-people
• ↑ https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/overview/model-for-community-change-and-improvement/lessons-learned/main
• ↑ https://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/02/community
• ↑ https://positivepsychology.com/goal-setting/
• ↑ https://positivepsychology.com/life-worth-living-setting-life-goals/
• ↑ https://advocatesforyouth.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Youth-Activist-Toolkit.pdf
• ↑ https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/not-for-profit-organisations/gifts-and-fundraising/fundraising-events
• ↑ https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-living/volunteering-and-its-surprising-benefits.htm
• ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6334070/

About This Article

To help your community, support your local economy by shopping at local businesses and buying food from local vendors as often as you're able to. You can also help out your community by volunteering with your local government or organizations that are tackling problems and addressing needs in your area. Also, make an effort to attend community events, like festivals and neighborhood meetings, to show your support. For more advice from our Expert co-author, like how to learn more about your community, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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College Essays

If you grow up to be a professional writer, everything you write will first go through an editor before being published. This is because the process of writing is really a process of re-writing —of rethinking and reexamining your work, usually with the help of someone else. So what does this mean for your student writing? And in particular, what does it mean for very important, but nonprofessional writing like your college essay? Should you ask your parents to look at your essay? Pay for an essay service?

If you are wondering what kind of help you can, and should, get with your personal statement, you've come to the right place! In this article, I'll talk about what kind of writing help is useful, ethical, and even expected for your college admission essay . I'll also point out who would make a good editor, what the differences between editing and proofreading are, what to expect from a good editor, and how to spot and stay away from a bad one.

Table of Contents

What Kind of Help for Your Essay Can You Get?

What's Good Editing?

What should an editor do for you, what kind of editing should you avoid, proofreading, what's good proofreading, what kind of proofreading should you avoid.

What Do Colleges Think Of You Getting Help With Your Essay?

Who Can/Should Help You?

Advice for editors.

Should You Pay Money For Essay Editing?

The Bottom Line

What's next, what kind of help with your essay can you get.

Rather than talking in general terms about "help," let's first clarify the two different ways that someone else can improve your writing . There is editing, which is the more intensive kind of assistance that you can use throughout the whole process. And then there's proofreading, which is the last step of really polishing your final product.

Let me go into some more detail about editing and proofreading, and then explain how good editors and proofreaders can help you."

Editing is helping the author (in this case, you) go from a rough draft to a finished work . Editing is the process of asking questions about what you're saying, how you're saying it, and how you're organizing your ideas. But not all editing is good editing . In fact, it's very easy for an editor to cross the line from supportive to overbearing and over-involved.

Ability to clarify assignments. A good editor is usually a good writer, and certainly has to be a good reader. For example, in this case, a good editor should make sure you understand the actual essay prompt you're supposed to be answering.

Open-endedness. Good editing is all about asking questions about your ideas and work, but without providing answers. It's about letting you stick to your story and message, and doesn't alter your point of view.

Think of an editor as a great travel guide. It can show you the many different places your trip could take you. It should explain any parts of the trip that could derail your trip or confuse the traveler. But it never dictates your path, never forces you to go somewhere you don't want to go, and never ignores your interests so that the trip no longer seems like it's your own. So what should good editors do?

Help Brainstorm Topics

Sometimes it's easier to bounce thoughts off of someone else. This doesn't mean that your editor gets to come up with ideas, but they can certainly respond to the various topic options you've come up with. This way, you're less likely to write about the most boring of your ideas, or to write about something that isn't actually important to you.

If you're wondering how to come up with options for your editor to consider, check out our guide to brainstorming topics for your college essay .

Help Revise Your Drafts

Here, your editor can't upset the delicate balance of not intervening too much or too little. It's tricky, but a great way to think about it is to remember: editing is about asking questions, not giving answers .

Revision questions should point out:

• Places where more detail or more description would help the reader connect with your essay
• Places where structure and logic don't flow, losing the reader's attention
• Places where there aren't transitions between paragraphs, confusing the reader
• Moments where your narrative or the arguments you're making are unclear

But pointing to potential problems is not the same as actually rewriting—editors let authors fix the problems themselves.

Bad editing is usually very heavy-handed editing. Instead of helping you find your best voice and ideas, a bad editor changes your writing into their own vision.

You may be dealing with a bad editor if they:

• Add material (examples, descriptions) that doesn't come from you
• Use a thesaurus to make your college essay sound "more mature"
• Add meaning or insight to the essay that doesn't come from you
• Tell you what to say and how to say it
• Write sentences, phrases, and paragraphs for you
• Change your voice in the essay so it no longer sounds like it was written by a teenager

Colleges can tell the difference between a 17-year-old's writing and a 50-year-old's writing. Not only that, they have access to your SAT or ACT Writing section, so they can compare your essay to something else you wrote. Writing that's a little more polished is great and expected. But a totally different voice and style will raise questions.

Where's the Line Between Helpful Editing and Unethical Over-Editing?

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether your college essay editor is doing the right thing. Here are some guidelines for staying on the ethical side of the line.

• An editor should say that the opening paragraph is kind of boring, and explain what exactly is making it drag. But it's overstepping for an editor to tell you exactly how to change it.
• An editor should point out where your prose is unclear or vague. But it's completely inappropriate for the editor to rewrite that section of your essay.
• An editor should let you know that a section is light on detail or description. But giving you similes and metaphors to beef up that description is a no-go.

Proofreading (also called copy-editing) is checking for errors in the last draft of a written work. It happens at the end of the process and is meant as the final polishing touch. Proofreading is meticulous and detail-oriented, focusing on small corrections. It sands off all the surface rough spots that could alienate the reader.

Because proofreading is usually concerned with making fixes on the word or sentence level, this is the only process where someone else can actually add to or take away things from your essay . This is because what they are adding or taking away tends to be one or two misplaced letters.

Laser focus. Proofreading is all about the tiny details, so the ability to really concentrate on finding small slip-ups is a must.

Excellent grammar and spelling skills. Proofreaders need to dot every "i" and cross every "t." Good proofreaders should correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. They should put foreign words in italics and surround quotations with quotation marks. They should check that you used the correct college's name, and that you adhered to any formatting requirements (name and date at the top of the page, uniform font and size, uniform spacing).

Limited interference. A proofreader needs to make sure that you followed any word limits. But if cuts need to be made to shorten the essay, that's your job and not the proofreader's.

A bad proofreader either tries to turn into an editor, or just lacks the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job.

Some signs that you're working with a bad proofreader are:

• If they suggest making major changes to the final draft of your essay. Proofreading happens when editing is already finished.
• If they aren't particularly good at spelling, or don't know grammar, or aren't detail-oriented enough to find someone else's small mistakes.
• If they start swapping out your words for fancier-sounding synonyms, or changing the voice and sound of your essay in other ways. A proofreader is there to check for errors, not to take the 17-year-old out of your writing.

What Do Colleges Think of Your Getting Help With Your Essay?

Admissions officers agree: light editing and proofreading are good—even required ! But they also want to make sure you're the one doing the work on your essay. They want essays with stories, voice, and themes that come from you. They want to see work that reflects your actual writing ability, and that focuses on what you find important.

On the Importance of Editing

Get feedback. Have a fresh pair of eyes give you some feedback. Don't allow someone else to rewrite your essay, but do take advantage of others' edits and opinions when they seem helpful. ( Bates College )

Read your essay aloud to someone. Reading the essay out loud offers a chance to hear how your essay sounds outside your head. This exercise reveals flaws in the essay's flow, highlights grammatical errors and helps you ensure that you are communicating the exact message you intended. ( Dickinson College )

On the Value of Proofreading

Share your essays with at least one or two people who know you well—such as a parent, teacher, counselor, or friend—and ask for feedback. Remember that you ultimately have control over your essays, and your essays should retain your own voice, but others may be able to catch mistakes that you missed and help suggest areas to cut if you are over the word limit. ( Yale University )

Proofread and then ask someone else to proofread for you. Although we want substance, we also want to be able to see that you can write a paper for our professors and avoid careless mistakes that would drive them crazy. ( Oberlin College )

On Watching Out for Too Much Outside Influence

Limit the number of people who review your essay. Too much input usually means your voice is lost in the writing style. ( Carleton College )

Ask for input (but not too much). Your parents, friends, guidance counselors, coaches, and teachers are great people to bounce ideas off of for your essay. They know how unique and spectacular you are, and they can help you decide how to articulate it. Keep in mind, however, that a 45-year-old lawyer writes quite differently from an 18-year-old student, so if your dad ends up writing the bulk of your essay, we're probably going to notice. ( Vanderbilt University )

Now let's talk about some potential people to approach for your college essay editing and proofreading needs. It's best to start close to home and slowly expand outward. Not only are your family and friends more invested in your success than strangers, but they also have a better handle on your interests and personality. This knowledge is key for judging whether your essay is expressing your true self.

Parents or Close Relatives

Your family may be full of potentially excellent editors! Parents are deeply committed to your well-being, and family members know you and your life well enough to offer details or incidents that can be included in your essay. On the other hand, the rewriting process necessarily involves criticism, which is sometimes hard to hear from someone very close to you.

A parent or close family member is a great choice for an editor if you can answer "yes" to the following questions. Is your parent or close relative a good writer or reader? Do you have a relationship where editing your essay won't create conflict? Are you able to constructively listen to criticism and suggestion from the parent?

One suggestion for defusing face-to-face discussions is to try working on the essay over email. Send your parent a draft, have them write you back some comments, and then you can pick which of their suggestions you want to use and which to discard.

Teachers or Tutors

A humanities teacher that you have a good relationship with is a great choice. I am purposefully saying humanities, and not just English, because teachers of Philosophy, History, Anthropology, and any other classes where you do a lot of writing, are all used to reviewing student work.

Moreover, any teacher or tutor that has been working with you for some time, knows you very well and can vet the essay to make sure it "sounds like you."

If your teacher or tutor has some experience with what college essays are supposed to be like, ask them to be your editor. If not, then ask whether they have time to proofread your final draft.

Guidance or College Counselor at Your School

The best thing about asking your counselor to edit your work is that this is their job. This means that they have a very good sense of what colleges are looking for in an application essay.

At the same time, school counselors tend to have relationships with admissions officers in many colleges, which again gives them insight into what works and which college is focused on what aspect of the application.

Unfortunately, in many schools the guidance counselor tends to be way overextended. If your ratio is 300 students to 1 college counselor, you're unlikely to get that person's undivided attention and focus. It is still useful to ask them for general advice about your potential topics, but don't expect them to be able to stay with your essay from first draft to final version.

Friends, Siblings, or Classmates

Although they most likely don't have much experience with what colleges are hoping to see, your peers are excellent sources for checking that your essay is you .

Friends and siblings are perfect for the read-aloud edit. Read your essay to them so they can listen for words and phrases that are stilted, pompous, or phrases that just don't sound like you.

You can even trade essays and give helpful advice on each other's work.

If your editor hasn't worked with college admissions essays very much, no worries! Any astute and attentive reader can still greatly help with your process. But, as in all things, beginners do better with some preparation.

First, your editor should read our advice about how to write a college essay introduction , how to spot and fix a bad college essay , and get a sense of what other students have written by going through some admissions essays that worked .

Then, as they read your essay, they can work through the following series of questions that will help them to guide you.

Introduction Questions

• Is the first sentence a killer opening line? Why or why not?
• Does the introduction hook the reader? Does it have a colorful, detailed, and interesting narrative? Or does it propose a compelling or surprising idea?
• Can you feel the author's voice in the introduction, or is the tone dry, dull, or overly formal? Show the places where the voice comes through.

Essay Body Questions

• Does the essay have a through-line? Is it built around a central argument, thought, idea, or focus? Can you put this idea into your own words?
• How is the essay organized? By logical progression? Chronologically? Do you feel order when you read it, or are there moments where you are confused or lose the thread of the essay?
• Does the essay have both narratives about the author's life and explanations and insight into what these stories reveal about the author's character, personality, goals, or dreams? If not, which is missing?
• Does the essay flow? Are there smooth transitions/clever links between paragraphs? Between the narrative and moments of insight?

Reader Response Questions

• Does the writer's personality come through? Do we know what the speaker cares about? Do we get a sense of "who he or she is"?
• Where did you feel most connected to the essay? Which parts of the essay gave you a "you are there" sensation by invoking your senses? What moments could you picture in your head well?
• Where are the details and examples vague and not specific enough?
• Did you get an "a-ha!" feeling anywhere in the essay? Is there a moment of insight that connected all the dots for you? Is there a good reveal or "twist" anywhere in the essay?
• What are the strengths of this essay? What needs the most improvement?

Should You Pay Money for Essay Editing?

One alternative to asking someone you know to help you with your college essay is the paid editor route. There are two different ways to pay for essay help: a private essay coach or a less personal editing service , like the many proliferating on the internet.

My advice is to think of these options as a last resort rather than your go-to first choice. I'll first go through the reasons why. Then, if you do decide to go with a paid editor, I'll help you decide between a coach and a service.

When to Consider a Paid Editor

In general, I think hiring someone to work on your essay makes a lot of sense if none of the people I discussed above are a possibility for you.

If you can't ask your parents. For example, if your parents aren't good writers, or if English isn't their first language. Or if you think getting your parents to help is going create unnecessary extra conflict in your relationship with them (applying to college is stressful as it is!)

If you can't ask your teacher or tutor. Maybe you don't have a trusted teacher or tutor that has time to look over your essay with focus. Or, for instance, your favorite humanities teacher has very limited experience with college essays and so won't know what admissions officers want to see.

If you can't ask your guidance counselor. This could be because your guidance counselor is way overwhelmed with other students.

If you can't share your essay with those who know you. It might be that your essay is on a very personal topic that you're unwilling to share with parents, teachers, or peers. Just make sure it doesn't fall into one of the bad-idea topics in our article on bad college essays .

If the cost isn't a consideration. Many of these services are quite expensive, and private coaches even more so. If you have finite resources, I'd say that hiring an SAT or ACT tutor (whether it's PrepScholar or someone else) is better way to spend your money . This is because there's no guarantee that a slightly better essay will sufficiently elevate the rest of your application, but a significantly higher SAT score will definitely raise your applicant profile much more.

Should You Hire an Essay Coach?

On the plus side, essay coaches have read dozens or even hundreds of college essays, so they have experience with the format. Also, because you'll be working closely with a specific person, it's more personal than sending your essay to a service, which will know even less about you.

But, on the minus side, you'll still be bouncing ideas off of someone who doesn't know that much about you . In general, if you can adequately get the help from someone you know, there is no advantage to paying someone to help you.

If you do decide to hire a coach, ask your school counselor, or older students that have used the service for recommendations. If you can't afford the coach's fees, ask whether they can work on a sliding scale —many do. And finally, beware those who guarantee admission to your school of choice—essay coaches don't have any special magic that can back up those promises.

Should You Send Your Essay to a Service?

On the plus side, essay editing services provide a similar product to essay coaches, and they cost significantly less . If you have some assurance that you'll be working with a good editor, the lack of face-to-face interaction won't prevent great results.

On the minus side, however, it can be difficult to gauge the quality of the service before working with them . If they are churning through many application essays without getting to know the students they are helping, you could end up with an over-edited essay that sounds just like everyone else's. In the worst case scenario, an unscrupulous service could send you back a plagiarized essay.

Getting recommendations from friends or a school counselor for reputable services is key to avoiding heavy-handed editing that writes essays for you or does too much to change your essay. Including a badly-edited essay like this in your application could cause problems if there are inconsistencies. For example, in interviews it might be clear you didn't write the essay, or the skill of the essay might not be reflected in your schoolwork and test scores.

Should You Buy an Essay Written by Someone Else?

Let me elaborate. There are super sketchy places on the internet where you can simply buy a pre-written essay. Don't do this!

For one thing, you'll be lying on an official, signed document. All college applications make you sign a statement saying something like this:

I certify that all information submitted in the admission process—including the application, the personal essay, any supplements, and any other supporting materials—is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented... I understand that I may be subject to a range of possible disciplinary actions, including admission revocation, expulsion, or revocation of course credit, grades, and degree, should the information I have certified be false. (From the Common Application )

For another thing, if your academic record doesn't match the essay's quality, the admissions officer will start thinking your whole application is riddled with lies.

Admission officers have full access to your writing portion of the SAT or ACT so that they can compare work that was done in proctored conditions with that done at home. They can tell if these were written by different people. Not only that, but there are now a number of search engines that faculty and admission officers can use to see if an essay contains strings of words that have appeared in other essays—you have no guarantee that the essay you bought wasn't also bought by 50 other students.

• You should get college essay help with both editing and proofreading
• A good editor will ask questions about your idea, logic, and structure, and will point out places where clarity is needed
• A good editor will absolutely not answer these questions, give you their own ideas, or write the essay or parts of the essay for you
• A good proofreader will find typos and check your formatting
• All of them agree that getting light editing and proofreading is necessary
• Parents, teachers, guidance or college counselor, and peers or siblings
• If you can't ask any of those, you can pay for college essay help, but watch out for services or coaches who over-edit you work
• Don't buy a pre-written essay! Colleges can tell, and it'll make your whole application sound false.

Ready to start working on your essay? Check out our explanation of the point of the personal essay and the role it plays on your applications and then explore our step-by-step guide to writing a great college essay .

Using the Common Application for your college applications? We have an excellent guide to the Common App essay prompts and useful advice on how to pick the Common App prompt that's right for you . Wondering how other people tackled these prompts? Then work through our roundup of over 130 real college essay examples published by colleges .

Stressed about whether to take the SAT again before submitting your application? Let us help you decide how many times to take this test . If you choose to go for it, we have the ultimate guide to studying for the SAT to give you the ins and outs of the best ways to study.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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How to Make a Lasting Impact on Your Community as a Student | Rustic Pathways

The importance of volunteering can't be overstated. check out this post to learn how to make a lasting impact on your community as a student..

How to Make a Lasting Impact on Your Community as a Student

Online climate impact fellowship offered in spring 2024.

The Climate Leaders Fellowship is a leadership development program for students (age 14-18) interested in climate change and environmental sustainability, and is provided by a collaboration between the Stanford University Deliberative Democracy Lab , the Rustic Pathways Foundation and Rustic Pathways.

Students are playing an increasingly important role in their communities in recent years. Using their tech knowledge and passion, many teens and young adults are making a lasting impact on their schools, neighborhoods and beyond.

You don’t have to look far for inspiration. You can read about well-known figures, such as environmentalist Greta Thunberg and education activist Malala Yousafzai. Plus, there are countless others like Mari Copeny, who brought attention to the Flint, Michigan water crisis, and so many more.   

Whether you best showcase your talents on the field or in the classroom, you can accomplish amazing feats with a little bit of time and a sincere desire to help. Have no doubt – You can truly make a difference in the world by getting involved in your local community.

Table of Contents

How to get involved in local community projects as a high school student, the importance of getting involved and helping local communities, benefits of volunteering for students, make a lasting impact in the world with rustic pathways.

Thankfully, there are plenty of opportunities that’ll allow you to make positive changes in your community. Some opportunities are available through your school while finding others within the community will require a little research.

Before you choose a project, you should first think about what you want to get involved in. Here are five ways to get started.

1. Figure Out Your Interests

What are you passionate about? Chances are high that the cause or interest you hold close to your heart has a volunteer experience associated with it.

For example, if you love animals, you may consider volunteering at a local shelter. If you’re passionate about the environment , you can join a volunteer group that removes garbage from roadsides or plants new trees in local parks. If you love building and working with your hands, you may want to help build or remodel homes damaged by a fire, flood, or another disaster.

Are you unsure about which type of volunteer experience would interest you the most? Here are a few examples of common volunteer categories :

• Senior citizen services
• Women’s services
• Mental health services
• Animal rights
• Environmental conservation

This list is only a small sample of the many volunteer opportunities that may be available in your community. Even if you’re still not certain about which experience is right for you, that’s OK! It takes time to discover what you truly enjoy and care about, and the only way to do so is by trying.

If you’re still really unsure, you can always search a site like VolunteerMatch or check with your school, church or other community organization to see if they have a list of local needs. Then you can see which of these opportunities appeal to you.

2. Pay attention to local news and information

Often problems that affect your local community will be covered in the local media or on community sites. For instance, if you hear about shortages at the local food bank, you might set up a fundraiser to raise money for it. To figure out how to help your community, it’s helpful to research current local needs. If you address one of those, you’ll know your impact will be immediate and greatly appreciated.

3. Join Clubs or Other Extracurricular Activities

A great way to discover and develop a passion for volunteering is to participate in clubs or extracurricular activities that are already involved in local community projects. The clubs at your high school may have established ways to get involved in your local community. Some of them may be directly focused on community improvement projects, while others devote time each year to volunteering for a specific cause.

If possible, try to volunteer or take on leadership positions in these clubs and organizations . These roles will give you more responsibility and allow you to have more influence during the decision-making process.

When you act as a leader, you can encourage your group to increase the ways you give back to the community. If the organization or club doesn’t currently have a cause that it supports, you can start the discussion and help the group choose which volunteer opportunities you’ll complete together throughout the year.

4. Participate in Class Discussions and Be an Active Learner

Think about how much you’ve learned throughout your years in school—both in and out of the classroom. As you discover new ways to volunteer in your community, bring your thoughts and ideas back to the classroom with you. Many of the topics your classes cover throughout the year are directly related to a number of issues that impact your local community. History, civics, economics—these subjects and more continue to impact your local community every day.

As you explore the various social causes you could support, don’t be afraid to be an active learner by participating in class discussions. Ask questions to learn more about the state of our world and be courageous enough to express your own views, thoughts, and idea for positive change. Your teachers will take notice and encourage you to continue getting involved through discussions and volunteer work. In the future, some may even write you letters of recommendation that highlight your passion and kindness.

5. Volunteer Your Time to Help Local Community Organizations

Once you’ve explored your options and gotten involved in your school, you may want to do more. Local community organizations are great places to volunteer.

Every town or city has a wide variety of volunteer organizations and opportunities you can easily donate your time to. From established centers that provide food, clothing, safety, and housing to the community to newer groups that champion multiple community projects, these  organizations may include :

• Animal shelters
• Natural parks and community parks
• Food pantries
• Local libraries
• Museums and historical landmarks
• Political campaigns
• Community athletic centers
• Local schools
• Retirement homes
• Disaster recovery services
• Health-related services

You can choose one of these areas to advocate for, or you can lend your time to many different projects . The beauty of volunteering is that anyone with any interest and ability can make a positive impact on the lives of others. One project, one day, or even one hour is all it takes to change the world around you.

Historically teens and young adults have had a high rate of volunteerism. But now their help is needed more than ever. The University of Maryland’s DoGood Institute found in a recent report that nearly half of the nonprofit leaders surveyed said that recruiting enough volunteers is a big problem. At the same time the need for services has grown.

According to the Pew Research Center, common community problems include a lack of affordable housing and drug addiction. Generally, health-related issues and economic troubles are age-old concerns. On top of that, problems such as crime or natural disasters afflict a number of regions.

Acts of compassion made through volunteering can help make life better for those in your community faced with such life-altering situations. Supporting these causes not only benefits those presently struggling, but it also enables volunteer organizations to address similar challenges in the future. Since our own friends and family members may one day encounter similar obstacles, it’s important that we all do our part to better our lives through volunteering.

With that in mind, the importance of volunteering can’t be overstated. Any time you choose to donate your time to support a local cause, you’re helping make a difference.

1. Develop Skills That Stand Out

Volunteering is a fantastic learning experience for high school students. Though you may get involved with a community project because it showcases your current talents, you’ll also  develop new skills as you work . You can:

• Develop new technical skills, such as how to operate machinery and software
• Learn about logistics as you organize, collect, or distribute supplies
• Gain leadership skills that will benefit you in any group setting

These skills are key for both college and job applications . Plus, volunteering helps with time management. Between school, work, family, and friends, it may seem like an impossible feat to integrate volunteering into your schedule. However, studies have shown that those who volunteer actually feel like they have more time than those who don’t.

2. Boost Your Confidence and Self-Esteem

Perhaps the largest emotional benefit of volunteering is that it helps you develop self-esteem, improve your confidence, and increase your feelings of self-worth. Connecting with others helps stabilize your emotions, and studies show that volunteering  improves your mental health .

Most people feel good when they give back to a worthy cause.  Feelings of satisfaction and altruism , along with the pride of seeing your work improve the lives of others, are just a few of the emotional benefits volunteering provides.

Volunteering also allows you to find a new place within your community. High school students are going through many changes as they transition into adulthood. If you’ve ever felt alone or like you haven’t found the activity that suits you best, volunteering may help you discover something new about yourself.

Getting engaged with the community by volunteering surrounds you with new opportunities, friendships, and ways you can enjoy your time. Not only will you not feel alone, but you’ll also be helping other people who may feel lonely, too.

3. Learn Empathy and Compassion

Volunteering promotes empathy, which in turn promotes behaviors that benefit society. When we choose to donate our time to those in need, we form a deeper emotional connection to the world around us. These experiences allow us to see what life is like in someone else’s shoes and recognize the parallels in our own lives.

Many volunteers often discover that those who need our help are not much different than themselves. We all love our families and cherish our friendships. When you see others—especially fellow students—struggling through one of life’s common obstacles, not only can you relate to their situation, but you’re also inspired to help. This empathy leads us to share our compassion with others, bringing out the best in all of us.

Volunteering is  empathy in action . Although you aren’t volunteering your time and effort to get something in return, studies have shown that you do  receive an especially powerful benefit : love. There is an undeniable relationship between the love you put into the project and the love you receive in return.

4. Improve Your Social and Relationship Skills

Empathy and compassion enable us to view the world from a new perspective. As we internalize the struggles and challenges of others, we learn more about those we live, work, and go to school with.

The people you volunteer with feel this empathy, as well. When you work together, you make an emotional connection with one another. Volunteering alongside others with the same passion brings us closer together .

You won’t need to wait long to see these relationships blossom. Many people find that they connect quickly with their fellow volunteers and with the people they’re aiming to help.

5. Earn Relevant Work Experience

One of the benefits of volunteering in high school is that you earn relevant work experience that helps your career. Research shows that the  concept of civic-mindedness  is becoming increasingly more important in the workplace.

Employers are noticing that employees in the workforce—especially younger individuals—are socially-aware and try to work in fields or companies that share and reflect their values. The skills you can learn through volunteering showcase your strengths regarding teamwork and innovation, two qualities today’s employers consider important.

Aside from the actual skills, the social causes you’ve supported can also increase career development. Many companies and corporations actively support volunteer programs and encourage employees to engage with these organizations. Not only will your previous experience look good on your résumé, but the category in which you volunteered can help you build a positive relationship with an employer that advocates for the same causes.

6. Increase Your Happiness

When you choose to volunteer, you’re making the decision to selflessly work for the good of others without payment. This act of kindness is not only empowering, but it can also fill you with a  profound sense of purpose .

Whether you choose to volunteer in a capacity that has personal significance in your life—or if a new cause you’ve encountered finds a special place in your heart— you’ll be happier as you discover a new purpose.

Volunteering is a great way to impact the lives of your family, friends, and neighbors—and you don’t need to limit these acts of kindness to only your community. High school students can join volunteer programs that create lasting change around the world.

Rustic Pathways provides high school students with dozens of volunteer programs that allow you to make dynamic, lasting change in communities around the globe. Choose from 15 destinations where your help will make a positive impact.

Learn more about our  spring break and summer travel programs for high school students. Speak with one of our team members  to find the right travel experience for you. If you’re ready to get out into the world and make a difference, you can book your trip today. Enroll in your desired program to save your spot for a specific volunteer opportunity.

High school students have the power to change the world. Make a  lasting impact on the lives of those who need it most by joining a fun and enriching volunteer program  with Rustic Pathways.

Scott Ingram

Scott is the Director of Admissions at Rustic Pathways. He has spent the last 15 years in the student travel and experiential education world. Before helping families find the perfect Rustic Pathways program, he led gap year programs that took students around the world and spent three years teaching English in Japan.

7 Ways You Can Help Fight Poverty in Your Community

• CommonBond Communities
• October 5, 2022

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, 7.8 million people have fallen into poverty—the biggest jump in a single year since the government began tracking poverty 60 years ago. It’s easy to think about poverty as a national crisis that is bigger than you, but there are actually lots of things you can do to influence this systemic problem right in your own community. CommonBond works to help fight poverty through housing in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Iowa, and we’ve outlined some examples of how you can help fight poverty in your community .

How to Help Poverty Issues in Your Community

1. challenge ideas and assumptions.

Whether you have preconceived notions about poverty within your community, or as a concept in general, it’s important to challenge those assumptions so you aren’t unintentionally spreading harmful biases. One common misconception, for example, is that people experiencing homelessness choose not to work. This misconception is incredibly harmful because it negates the many uncontrollable and systemic conditions that can cause housing instability or poverty. In reality, there are many factors people have to deal with that make it hard to find employment, including loss of affordable housing , inequitable access to training and tools, and mental illness.

If you recognize this myth, be sure to challenge it. Want to go a step further with how to help the poor and fight poverty in your community? Learn about the specific poverty issues your town or city faces; this will educate you on matters and enable you to apply context and critical thinking while pushing back against assumptions and myths.

2. Create awareness/get informed

Poverty is in every community, so it’s important to know where the issues lie within your own. Get informed about the resources that are already available and those that are still needed. There are local groups doing this work that could use your help—you can then do your part in getting the word out and listening to these community experts about where you can be helpful in fighting poverty in your community. A great resource in Minneapolis, for example, is the Twin Cities Mutual Aid Map . This map shows a myriad of organizations and mutual aid efforts around the Twin Cities area that are accepting donations or other resources.

3.  Donate funds and time & find volunteer opportunities

One of the most straightforward ways to help fight poverty in your community is to donate funds to organizations whose mission it is to end these economic disparities. No amount of money is too small or too large. As these donations add up, organizations can put the funds toward fixing housing inequalities, education gaps, food insecurities and more.

Another helpful option is to p artner with local organizations that help the community by donating time. Whether it’s helping out in a food kitchen or working with children after school to get their homework done, there are ways that don’t require money that can still make an impact. We’ve created a volunteer list that you can join to support our work, whether you’re in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, or Iowa.

Fighting Poverty in Your Community is as Simple as Donating a Few Dollars.

Donate Today!      

4. Make kits or fundraise for those experiencing homelessness in your neighborhood

In addition to donating time, you can also reach out to local organizational leaders to see what specifically folks who are experiencing poverty in their communities need. To ensure your donations have the most impact, listen to these community experts. Be sure to donate items that are specifically being asked for, not just what you have in your pantry! Use that info to create meal kits or baskets full of food or house cleaning products that will keep people stocked up on essentials for a while, and give it to local organizations and community experts to distribute.

Another option is to hold fundraisers. How about fighting poverty in your community by throwing a pizza party where the proceeds go to local shelters or other organizations that provide critical services? Get bigger local businesses to donate services for a silent auction. Doing fundraisers like this can be a fun way to bring people together for an important cause.

5. Attend demonstrations or rallies to increase awareness

Another way to create and increase awareness and help fight poverty in your community is to attend events like demonstrations and rallies. These may be block parties or parades or any other kind of peaceful event that will grab the community’s attention and turn it toward fighting against systemic poverty. There are organizations that regularly hold events that both raise awareness, as well as stand in solidarity with those affected by poverty—and by joining their work, you may learn how to be a better advocate.

6. Create jobs

If you own a business or an organization in the community, look for areas you could use some help with. Many people living in poverty may not have had access to higher education or specialty certifications, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have skills to contribute. Identifying areas of opportunities within your business or organization, expanding your recruiting pool, and paying a living wage is one way to make a change to help neighbors living in poverty in your community.

DONATE TODAY!

7. Provide paid leave and paid sick days

If you’re a business owner within your community, offer paid leave and paid sick days. Although it’s an investment for you, taking a day off every now and then without pay can seriously hurt some of your employees, especially if they’re under the poverty line. Your employees are going to get sick from time to time—let them rest easy by offering paid sick leave. For staff who are earning under the area median income, consider offering stipends for childcare, or even consider an on-site childcare option to create an environment where working families don’t have to choose between income and childcare.

CommonBond Can Help

Poverty affects more people than you think, and as you now know, there are many ways to help fight poverty in your community. Serving your community by donating time or money is a valuable way to get involved. Our team at CommonBond wants to help you in your fight, whether you’re in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, or Iowa. Get in touch to learn more about how to help the poor and fight poverty in your community today!

Donate Today!

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How to Write the “Make Community a Better Place” UC Essay

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Vinay Bhaskara in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info. 

What’s Covered:

Defining “community”, demonstrating your values.

The University of California system requires you to answer four out of eight essay prompts . The seventh University of California prompt asks, “What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?” For a lot of people, a key to unlocking this essay is to think about defining “community” effectively.

Communities Come in All Sizes

Many people reading this prompt might think they should talk about something they did to make a positive impact in their town or their school. But your community does not need to be defined as something as large as your whole school or whole neighborhood. It can be as small as a club or a class, or even a friend group, all of which are communities to some extent.

Consider Virtual Communities

Don’t be afraid to even talk about a virtual community in answering this essay prompt. For so many of us these days, the communities we find and belong to are virtual, whether it’s a Reddit forum or Twitch chat, the comments section of a YouTuber you really like, a Discord server, or something along those lines. Not enough students write about virtual communities relative to how much time we all spend in them, so if you’ve done something to make a virtual environment a better place, that is absolutely valuable material for this essay prompt. 

Be sure to highlight your personal connection to the community you write about and your motivations for the actions you took to improve it.

Another important consideration in writing this essay is demonstrating your values and how you upheld them through your actions. You’ll also want to mention the positive impact your actions had, but be careful not to spend too much time in this area. Describing the positive impact you had is important, but you don’t want to take up too much of the word count with this. 

As an example, say you’re writing about social justice, perhaps a change you drove in your school to promote inclusivity. An essay that focuses too strongly on the impact of your actions isn’t going to be as powerful as an essay that mentions the impacts, but focuses more on your personal motivations. Instead of emphasizing how your actions improved your community, emphasize why you felt motivated to make those improvements. 

This is important because, with this essay, you’re not just answering the prompt. You’re also answering the underlying questions of how you define your community, how you relate to it, and how capable you are of having an impact on those around you. 

Colleges want to figure out whether an applicant will be a positive contributor to their community. This essay prompt is much more about your personal character than it is about the outcomes of your efforts. In answering this prompt, you’ll be demonstrating how you’ll fit in with and improve the community at your school of choice.

For more information on how to write responses for the other UC essays, consider reading  this article  on CollegeVine!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

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We’re here to connect Scholars and Alumni to the people and opportunities you need to reach your full potential.

Our partnerships bridge the gap between the nation’s brightest minds and the opportunities they deserve.

Learn more about who we are and how we help students dream big on their path to, through, and beyond college.

How to Write a College Essay

Let QuestBridge help you with college essay writing tips. We cover what to write about, how to get feedback, and more!

The low-income lens in college essays

Students from low-income backgrounds may not realize that they have a unique perspective to present to admissions officers. If your identity has been shaped by financial difficulties and other obstacles, consider writing about these challenges in your college essays so that admissions officers understand the full context of your successes and academic accomplishments.

Bring us into your world. We want to know you. We want to know your truth.

Student challenges and extenuating circumstances

You may describe specific challenges that you have risen above in your college essays, such as:

• You hold significant responsibilities in your household, such as providing care for an ill family member, babysitting siblings, or preparing family meals.
• You have a part-time job to pay for school activities or household expenses.
• You live with people other than your immediate family or have been in foster care.
• You experienced homelessness or other temporary housing situations.
• A parent has passed away or is not present in your life.
• You commute a long distance to attend school.
• Your family or community is not supportive of your educational goals.
• You faced obstacles because English is not your first language.

Proper tone for college essays

If you choose to write about challenges in your life, be careful to avoid using overly critical or negative language when writing a college essay. This is a good opportunity to emphasize your emotional maturity and how challenges in your life have helped you grow as a person. You may compromise that impression if your tone is resentful or excessively dramatic.

College essay topic choice

Giving admissions officers a window into difficult experiences can present your story in your college application, but there are other topics that can also make for a strong essay (e.g. a favorite book, a community service project). Whichever angle you select to tell your story, highlight the most important things that have shaped and continue to shape your identity.

The writing process: brainstorm, outline, and draft

Writing a college essay can seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be. Watch our webinar,  Write a College Essay that Stands Out , and download our worksheet as a template and foundation to help you craft a strong college essay. This college essay format may help you write your essay in a manner that goes beyond just a chronological explanation of your life or an expansion of your resume.

Essay feedback and revisions

Ask teachers, mentors, family, or friends for feedback on your essay. Reach out well in advance of any deadlines, and give them at least two weeks to provide feedback. Ask them in person if you can, but if you cannot, send them an email. If they agree to take a look, you can send them a message with your essay. Download a sample message below.

After receiving feedback, revise! You should plan on going through a few drafts. Here are some things to keep in mind: 

• You do not have to incorporate all feedback. Accept what you think is most helpful. 
• Edits and revisions should not remove your voice or completely alter your writing style. 
• Pay attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, and even formatting. 
• It may help to read your essay out loud to catch mistakes you might otherwise skim over. 
• Read your college essay from an admissions officer’s perspective.
• For more college essay writing tips, continue reading the FAQs below.

Detailed FAQs about college admissions essays

Mechanics, structure, and content are vital parts of a successful essay. Our Detailed College Essays FAQs page covers each category in detail to give your essay a strong start and finish. Learn about how to write a college essay, how long a college essay should be, and more.

Home / Essay Samples / Sociology / Community / A Few Ways How Can I Help My Community As a Student

A Few Ways How Can I Help My Community As a Student

• Category: Sociology , Life
• Topic: Community , Community Service

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Help Your Community - Volunteering Your Time

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