Springdale Junior/Senior High School
Senior? Yes
Elite top 100? Yes
Letters of recommendation: Letter of Recommendation 1, Letter of Recommendation 2
I have been very fortunate to live in a small, tight-knit community that sees volunteerism as a given, so from a young age it has meant a great deal to me. It has made me be less selfish and has made me look beyond my small “problems” and see how good I have it. Volunteering is like a reciprocating smile loop. If you do something to make others smile around you, it is kind of hard not to smile yourself. I have gotten much more out of serving others than I would have ever imagined. All the volunteering I have done so far has made me not even think twice when someone needs a helping hand but to immediately stretch out my hand to help.
I have tried to make people smile and have a little more peace and/or joy as close as my own community with our local summer day camp and winter recreation league, to a little further away in an underprivileged community with a Saturday safe-play program, to as far away as Africa with mosquito free sleeping nets. I have also encouraged others to volunteer around me. My friends’ parents have told me they often talk their kids into volunteering for events by saying, “Come on and help. You know Marina will be there.”
I realize now that all the volunteering I have done so far will affect me in two ways going forward. The more I volunteer, the more normal it becomes so it will be natural for me to look for ways to volunteer in college and later in my community because I have done it my whole life. It will also have me stepping forward whether I will see the end result or “get the glory” or not. I have been thanked by parents of special needs children at Parents’ Night Out, parents at the Lions Club Easter Egg hunt and by organizers at the events I have volunteered for but I do not always get thanked. I may never meet the people I have helped through raising funds at TryLife or the people who can sleep a little easier because of the money I helped raise for the Freedom From Malaria Foundation. I will never know the people who received blood from our high school blood drive. I may not ever know what kids’ lives I have made a difference in by giving up some Saturdays to take time for them. Whether I am thanked or not, however, I just know that volunteering is the right thing to do so I need to keep on doing it.