Oakland Catholic High School
Senior? Yes
Elite top 100? Yes
Letters of recommendation: Letter of Recommendation 1, Letter of Recommendation 2
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, volunteering is defined as freely offering to do something. To me, volunteering means more than just doing something for free. Through volunteering, I have been given the opportunity to be involved with my community, and build connections with the people surrounding me. Volunteering acts as a way to return my natural gifts to my community and support the less fortunate. I recently helped paint and reorganize our local food bank, and the reward was so much greater than what I sacrificed. To volunteer, I woke up early on a Saturday and ruined my clothes from the paint, but in the end, I was able to help improve a staple in the community I know my neighbors rely on.
For the past four years, I have been a member of the Crossroads Foundation, a four-year renewable scholarship and college prep organization for students demonstrating financial need. Junior year, I was given the opportunity to be the president of the service committee, and through that, I was able to organize a drive to collect basic essentials for the homeless in our area. I was able to learn what creating and running a successful service project required.
My favorite form of volunteering has been the last nine years at my church, Word of God, in Swissvale. My school closed, but I am still able to stay an active member of the community through altar serving and lecturing. This has helped me enrich my public speaking skills, as well as serving a community I have been surrounded by since I was little.
Volunteering has affected my life because I realized how much helping people means to me. I want to form my career around helping people, so my current goal is to become an immigration lawyer at a pro bono firm so I can help people who might not have the financial means to come to the United States. I want to build my career around helping people less fortunate than I’ve been. A large inspiration for wanting to volunteer has been the socioeconomic diversity every day and helping to create a bridge for people on the lower end to receive equal opportunities. I want to believe all the volunteering I have done has helped make people’s lives easier and provided some relief, either with physical needs like clothing and food or spiritual needs.