How can volunteering improve your health and professional skills?

Sam: And it's not something that you can get online, getting in a physical space with another person and taking your problems off the table to focus on a bigger picture on your community, on somebody else. It can be really healing if you've got a lot going on or you're just really struggling with, again, that sense of belonging of who am I? Why am I here? 

Adam: Yes. First pun of the day. We're going to talk about volunteering a little bit today, and I wanted to start off by just kind of talking about the state of volunteerism and how that's changed a little bit over the last couple of years, knowing that nationally numbers are down a little bit, which I assume is mostly pandemic related, but maybe not, since we're kind of out of it and things are still a little bit tight. What does that picture look like to you right now in terms of how people are spending their time? 

What are the benefits of volunteering vs. donating?

What are some health benefits of volunteering?

Adam: You hate to see people miss out on volunteering because so many of these places need it, but you might need it too. There's some self-care and some therapeutic benefits to volunteering. Can you shed a little bit of light on that for us? 

What are the professional benefits of volunteering?

Sam: A lot of the times, so I mentioned reciprocal partnerships. That's something that we talk about a lot with students in our space because in order to encourage them to participate in service ethically in a way that is of benefit to the community and not just to them, they need to think about more than just what they're getting out of it professionally or otherwise. And so we talk about what does it look like for you to give your time and your physical presence to these community partners to do the work that they might not otherwise be able to get done, but what are you getting in return, right? Because a return on that investment. And so the things that we talk about are often the really basic skill building. So conflict management, time management, working with others, working with diverse groups of people, working to solve problems sometimes on a moment's notice, and really able to build up their capacity for those soft skills. 

And we know that as we change demographically and our society is needing different things from our students who are graduating and going into the workforce, that focusing on those soft skills is becoming really, really important. We know that when we look at the top 10 skills that employers are looking for from a college graduate, all 10 of those can be received through volunteering all 10. And so yes, we focus on what is your major? But we also are just like, do you want to be a good employee anywhere you go, regardless of what you're going into, because the skills that you're learning here are transferable. 

Adam: It feels so mushy because you can't really wrap your hand around an empirical value to it, but... 

Sam: You're going to be happier. 

Adam: And you're going to be better at doing things and learning things, which I mean, it's volunteerism, but it's also, I mean, it's a lot of that college experience that you have when you're out doing a new thing, which is, we had a guest on, oh my gosh, last year, and I can't remember who it was, but they said sometimes the value of an education is the education itself, and there's something about that. So sometimes what you're deriving from the volunteerism isn't specific, but you're gaining that soft skill that is really intangible, but it's also really valuable at the same time. 

Sam: And our community partners come into these spaces with our students with so much knowledge and information about obviously whatever community-based problem that they're trying to solve is, but just about the communities they live in at large. What makes that community special? What are some of the areas that the students should check out to learn more about the people that they're serving? And so our students are learning really, really good interpersonal skills as well. And again, what makes a community special is infinitely more important, I think, than what is it that this community is struggling with? A lot of times in community spaces you might hear or see that students or people in general are being encouraged to volunteer because you're giving voice to the voiceless. What we try to teach our students is that nobody is voiceless. Everybody has a voice and they're probably screaming from the rooftops about what they need, but are you listening? And so when we're encouraging students to come in with this reciprocal mindset, it's listen first and then think about what your benefit is after. 

Adam: It's not like these organizations or these groups of people that are in need, or even just the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy idea, there's a need here and someone's going like this. 

Sam: Yeah, they literally just need somebody to help put signs. That's it. They have one full-time employee. 

Sam: So for us, it really depends on what resources the student has. If they don't have access to transportation, that limits things a little bit, of course. And so the food pantry on campus is a great option for them then, because if they're right here, they can walk and that's open five days a week, so they can get 10, 12 hours of volunteering a week if that's what they need. But we do see students who are looking for experiences that are a little bit more closely aligned with what their areas of interest are. And so for our students who are in the health professions that might be working with veterans, we send a group of students to Florida every year to work at a VA hospital, and they get really hands-on experiential learning opportunities with the doctors who provide full-time care to the veterans who live at the facility or who are outpatients at the facility. 

And experiences like that are really important for our students in health professions. We also send a group to an organization called Give Kids the World, which functions similar to a Make-A-Wish organization. So again, they're health-focused because these are children who have been diagnosed with something terminal, but they're focused more on patient care and family care. And so they're getting both sides of an area of interest. We have students who want to be teachers, and so we have a partnership with Highlands Elementary School in Immokalee, Florida, and we send students to spend a week there in the classroom or right here in Mount Pleasant, they can tutor with our America Counts and Reads program, which works with elementary age children to math and reading skills. So it's really dependent on the type of service that you're looking for. Are you interested in working with kids? Are you interested in working in the environment? It just kind of depends on what they're looking for, but there really isn't one singular experience that students are most often coming in and looking for. If anything, the singular experience is them coming in and saying, I am trying to make friends. Can you just sign me up for something? And yeah, we sure can. It's the quickest and easiest way to make friends. It's how I made all my friends in college. 

Adam: Right? Yeah, right. Find a good cause. Sometimes things that you're volunteering for seem very serious, and it's not that they need to be taken lightly, but there's a lot of fun to be had too, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, students are having a good time… 

Sam: The best time. 

Adam: They're supporting each other, they're supporting their communities. However, we want to scale that community, like you said, depending on what their interest is, but it's having fun. 

Sam: Yeah, I think it can get really lost in the social justice conversation. I think you're right. It does feel really heavy sometimes. But the first thing we say is these problems don't get solved overnight. So don't show up in a community thinking that you're their savior because these problems existed before you got there, and the people who you're working with are going to continue working on that issue long after you leave. So it can feel really heavy and really hard. And so we have a lot of conversation in our space, and we spend a lot of time talking about the joy of community, the joy of spending time together, being in a space physically with one another, and really focusing on friendship through shared vision and values. 

Sam: So, when students are getting ready to graduate or apply for graduate school or whatever comes next for them after college, we really encourage them to make sure that they're compiling a full picture of the co-curricular experiences that they had outside of the classroom. And experiential service learning is a huge part of that, again, because of those soft skills, the transferable skills that they're learning through volunteering. But we know based on market research that more and more companies and employers are talking and thinking about corporate social responsibility. They want to hire people who care about the communities that business lives in, that their employees are living in. They want to know that you are invested in the place that you live because it means you're probably going to be retained as an employee because you care about it more. And also that you're a person who's going to show up because you've already proven that you can commit yourself to something. 

Again, those are those time management skills that adaptability those soft skills. You've already proven that you can do some of those things by being a volunteer. And so when we think about how students are marketing themselves in the job prospects after they graduate, we encourage them to think about asking for some of those non-monetary benefits when they are negotiating, can I have time to volunteer as part of my regular work week? What are the organizations that this company partners with? What are the things that they're thinking about that they care about? And then if you can closely align your work life with your values life, then you're just going to be a happier employee. And again, that company's going to be able to retain you longer. So it's a benefit for everybody. 

Adam: Everyone's going to benefit, including the community in which y'all reside, right? We're kind of a rising tide raise all ships, and there's a lot of economic benefit that will go into these communities through your volunteerism, through the volunteerism of this community. So that's the other really big impact too, where people and other entities are volunteering. We are having a much bigger, broader economic impact on the area. Correct. 

Sam: That's something, yeah. Right now, the average monetary worth of a volunteer hour is up over $20 an hour. It might even be closer to $25 an hour right now. You'll have to fact-check me on that, but it's a lot. And these nonprofits can't afford to pay large swaths of people $25 an hour. So the time that people are giving to the organizations does have a monetary value, which is huge. Last Fall, we partnered with the College of Business Administration and then Dow Chemical, and we hosted what we called Community and Career Day, and Dow sent a bunch of their employees and then CBA sent a bunch of their students and we kind of paired them based on area of interest. And then Mike, who is one of my favorite community partners, again from Chippewa Watershed Conservancy, hosted a hundred something people between CMU and Dow, and they spent the day cleaning parks together and then giving career advice. It was an excellent five hours because our students are not only going out and improving the community, but they're also getting some professional development. They're spending time outside of the classroom with their peers. They're making and building connections with potential mentors and employers and internship opportunities, and they're learning that there is a company right here that cares a whole lot about this area and how the community benefits from their presence. And so it's partnerships like that I think students can really be thinking long-term about when they're in the job search. 

Adam: That's awesome. 

Sam: Yeah, it was really an excellent event. We were really excited. 

Sam: Yeah, so I would say, if you have a local chamber, they usually have a list on their website of local nonprofits, so that's a good place to start. But in Isabella County and Gratiot County specifically, our United Way has put together this phenomenal website for nonprofits where every single nonprofit in town can post their volunteer opportunity to sign up right through the website. And I think this is something that a lot of United Ways across the country are going to be developing. So that's another really great place to start. If you're on a college campus, find your volunteer or civic engagement center. Sometimes they're located in multicultural offices, sometimes they're lumped in with their leadership institutes, but there are doers in every community, and you kind of just have to go and look for the doers. Or if there's something that you care a lot about, Google is your best friend. Open it up and just, "volunteering with the environment" and a bunch of stuff is going to pop up. And again, they're always, always, always looking for people. You're never going to get turned down for volunteering. 

Adam: No one's going to say no. Yeah. I mean, even if you see it, if you see the place in town too, right? That exists and you're driving past it, no one's going to turn you away at the door. Very unlikely. 

Sam: Assisted living facilities are great. Hospitals are great. Schools like media and library enters always need volunteers. Food pantries, soup kitchens, our version of Clothing Inc. And you get the clothing donation locations. You can volunteer with your local fire department. There's all kinds of different opportunities, depending on your area of interest, how much time you have, whether or not you have a family that you need to consider to possibly bring with you. A lot of these opportunities can be really multi-generational. If there's a local humane society, they always, always, always need volunteers. And sometimes it looks like just walking the dogs, which is like, who doesn't go and want to go walk a dog? That's fun. 

Adam: Yeah. I actually for honors credit in college walked dogs at the Huron Valley Humane Society. 

Sam: Exactly. Exactly. And you love it. The dogs love it. And the Humane Society loves it too. 

Adam: Yeah, it wasn't a bad gig. You can do it. 

Sam: Yes, yes. It's so much fun. We love doing that every semester. 

Adam: What was yours? Did you have a volunteer thing when you were younger? You were an undergrad that sticks in your head? 

Sam: Yeah, when I was a sophomore – so, in 2013, I spent a week with our alternative breaks program volunteering in New York City with an organization called The Trevor Project, which focused on suicide prevention. And it was such an impactful week for me. At the end of it, I talked to the volunteer coordinator who said, I'm not done. How do I do this? And for the next three years, I served as an on-call person for their suicide hotline. And I loved it. It gave me skills in crisis management, communication, talking to other people that one was virtual, so I was able to do it from Michigan to help young people all over the country. And it really connected me with this really broad network of people who care again about the same things I care about. And so it was a way I was able to not feel isolated, but then boost my resume at the same time. 

Adam: And you're still doing it to this day? 

Sam: They couldn't get rid of me. 

Adam: That's really incredible. Still here. Well, thank you for sharing your story and your expertise. 

Sam: Thanks for having me.

Adam: Yeah, I appreciate you. Thanks. Thanks for stopping by The Search Bar. Make sure that you like and subscribe so that you never have to search for another episode.