Volunteering - Impacting My Community by Danielle

Volunteering - Impacting My Community by Danielle - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

Volunteering in your local neighborhood helps give students a way to learn new things and inspire them to help improve it. There are tons of places you can volunteer in your community. I, myself, have volunteered at the local court house doing teen court and going on mission trips with my youth group at church. Volunteering has opened my eyes to things I would have never seen if I had never volunteered. It encouraged me to help people more frequently.
I have been doing teen court for the past three years. When I first went, I didn’t understand why adolescents my age doesn’t attend school or do illegal things. Later on, I learned that most of these kids don’t have a support to encourage them to go or do the right things and some of them don’t have someone to talk to. Going to school every day, I used to talk to the same people because that was my comfort zone. Volunteering at teen court has helped me open up more. It has allowed me to make new friends and let them know that I’m here for them if they need anyone to talk to, to inform them how important school is and how it will help in the future.
I have been on two mission trips with my fellow youth group members. On one of my mission trips, I met this really sweet family that has the grandmother, mother and her 8-year-old daughter living in a house. The grandmother was very sick and the mother was always working so we associated with an organization that helped progress the outside of their house. During the time I was at the house, I got to talk to the grandmother for a few hours. She talked about her life and how she got to where she was at right to this moment. Her story touched me. It showed me how little things can make a huge impact on your life. This inspired me to get to know my neighbors and hear their story because you never know if they are struggling or how they’re feeling. You can help them. You can change a day just by having a conversation with them.
I don’t think I would be this moved to help my community if I didn’t have these opportunities that I had with teen court or my mission trips. They make me want to help people and be there for them when they are in a dark time in their life.