Hi everyone! This week I thought I would talk about a really cool volunteering opportunity I’ve had through Civic Engagement here at Wellesley. For those that are unfamiliar with it, Civic Engagement is a program that is housed in Wellesley Career Education, and focuses on engaging students with service related opportunities and social justice work. I find it amazing that Welleley has a program set up specially for this kind of work, and it being housed in Career Education definitely says something to the fact that we should keep service and helping others in mind as we go through our careers.
I had thoroughly explored the Wellesley website prior to arriving on campus and had stumbled upon Civic Engagement. I’ve always found volunteering and service related opportunities to be super rewarding because at the end of the day, no matter what, the work you’ve done has had at least a bit of a positive impact on those you are helping, and that is more than enough. Service related opportunities often give to me as much as I give to them, as I always learn so many important lessons through them.
Anyways, so having been involved with a lot of volunteering in highschool, I definitely wanted to continue that here at Wellesley, and Civic Engagement seemed like an AMAZING way to do that because Wellesley essentially coordinates everything so it’s less of a hassle on your end to figure out how to organize volunteering. Civic Engagement has a couple of weekly programs which you can check out here (https://www.wellesley.edu/careereducation/resources/weekly-volunteer-programs). What’s really awesome is that they have established relationships with these community partners often for many years so there is already a good connection between Wellesley students at volunteering site. Additionally, Civic Engagement provides transportation to and from most programs, and even offers students who have work-study the opportunity to get paid for their volunteer work. For me, this meant getting to do something I love for hours, one day a week, and not have to worry about any logistical or financial concerns.
I chose to volunteer with the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless program, which was a clinic for patients who were homeless and needed a space while they got better. We have different groups of volunteers going in on multiple days of the week for different activities, and my group does arts and crafts with the patients. This week will be my third week volunteering, and I can’t express how much I love it. The patients are truly wonderful and so kind, and I love talking to them. Often times with some volunteering opportunities, you get stuck doing administrative tasks, but I really appreciate the fact that we directly get to engage with the patients and hopefully make their day just a bit brighter 🙂
Signing Off,
Ilma