My Volunteer Experience by Kenneth

My Volunteer Experience by Kenneth - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

Hello, my name is Kenneth Ellis II and I am currently a freshman at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. I will share the good, the bad, and the ugly of my volunteering experiences and the lessons I’ve learned. Being raised by a single mother, the grandson of a pastor, and the youngest grandchild of twenty, I have hands on experience with volunteering! I was taught early in life how to give your time and self. I was also taught that we must become the change that we want to see. If we simply sit and complain, then we become part of the problem. Volunteering can be a challenge or a reward depending on how one handles it.

In my mind, when I hear the word volunteer, I think of something fun that I WANT to do. News flash, that is not always the case. When you are a minor and have a mother that cannot say no, and LOVES to give to the community, you have no choice but to join in. I grew up in a Christian household and was taught it is good to give to the needy and or less fortunate. I can remember my very first volunteering experience. My grandfather, who was also my Pastor, asked for volunteers to feed the homeless in a not so good neighborhood. Being the six-year-old bright-eyed boy who loved to talk in church, I did not hear the full question, so I raised my hand and volunteered to help feed the homeless on a beautiful SATURDAY morning. My mother hugged me and smiled. She was so proud of me for volunteering. I had no clue what I had done.

Early one bright sunny Saturday morning, my mother took me to a Soup kitchen to feed over three hundred mean, hateful, ungrateful, dirty people who didn’t bother to say thank you! As a child, I complained from the moment my feet hit the floor until the moment we completed the feeding. All I could think of is all of my friends were playing and I was shut up in a hot kitchen feeding mean stinky people. When we returned home, I can remember my mother sitting me down and asking what I learned from this experience. I proudly blurted out I don’t like to be around stinky people and give up my Saturday. With sadness in her eyes, she said no son that’s not the lesson you should have learned. She began to tell me how blessed I was. I had a roof over my head, a hot meal and could bath anytime I wished. She told me that many of those people did not choose to be there, but life forced them there. She reminded me that could have been us in that soup line and never think that you are better than others. From that point forward, I always volunteered and did it with a willing heart.

The lessons I learned at such an early age is to be grateful, do not judge, help when you can, and try to make a change regardless if others recognize or say thank you. I learned that no matter how rich you are, you can always fall on hard times and become dependent upon others. Most of all, I learned to treat others as you would like to be treated and be grateful for what you have. Volunteering is now my passion and I do it with a smile. Volunteering can be a rewarding experience if you do it in the right spirit.