Volunteering is a great opportunity to get involved in the community and gives people a chance to have new experiences. Giving a few hours of your time can make a big difference. A major issue with volunteering is deciding where to help out. It can be overwhelming deciding where to start, but the key is to find volunteer opportunities that match your talents and interests.

A good place to start is right on campus. The faculty at schools do a lot to ensure that their students receive the best education they can and the least we, as students, can do is help out whenever we can. If you are interested in volunteering on campus, you can go onto the Horizon Honors website and look at all of the opportunities and sign up on volunteerspot.com, or you can look at the folder in the Media Center to see any upcoming events. Spring Fling is also coming up and volunteers are needed to help with setting up, running activities, and operating game booths. If interested, you can go onto the Horizon Honors website and fill out the paperwork or contact Mona Volden by email at [email protected].

You can also get involved in your community. If you have an interest in the medical field, Phoenix Children’s Hospital is always looking for volunteers in the hospital and events. They have events occurring all the time throughout the year; this month’s event  is the “Barcelona Beach Ball,” which includes a live auction and dancing. You can find all of the events for the Phoenix Children’s Hospital on their website, http://www.phoenixchildrens.com.

If you are interested in cooking and serving food, there are plenty of homeless shelters all around the Valley that can use your help. One place you can look into is Andre House of Hospitality. They serve food to the homeless six times a week, Saturday through Thursday, and they ask for volunteers from 3:15 pm to 7:30 pm. As a volunteer, you would be helping with preparing and serving food, washing dishes, and cleaning up. They also offer the chance to help with sorting clothing donations. This happens on Saturdays sporadically throughout the month, and they ask volunteers to be there from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. For more information go to http://andrehouse.org/volunteer/. Also, if you are interesting in helping with shipping food boxes to underprivileged families during Thanksgiving or Christmas, Manna Food Bank is a great option for you. They give food to families in need throughout the entire year; but they really specialize in making sure homeless families receive food during the holiday season. If you are interesting in helping them with the organization and packaging of food boxes then visit, http://www.wowcc.org/ministries/manna/.

Not only does helping out give you a chance to give back, it also looks great on college and scholarship applications. Now that you have a couple of websites to help you get started, you can begin accumulating hours to build up your reputation for future applications. It’s a great opportunity to make a difference in your community and help to build your résumé for colleges at the same time.