The Significance Of Volunteering For Professional Schools
For my SMART Goal, I would like to switch my major from Exploring Life Sciences to Animal Sciences and become a more competitive applicant for Veterinarian school through volunteering. With this, I have decided to research the effect of volunteering and how it makes you a more competitive applicant, which in turn will help with Vet School.
In my first journal article titled, "The Impact of Work and Volunteer Hours on the Health of Undergrad Students, " Lederer (2015) talks about the variety of sources that "indicate that volunteering leads to increased positive feelings and enhanced mental health, decreased depression and stress, and improved physical health". Volunteering has an immense effect on individuals, especially college students. At almost-every college or university, college students are stressed and working overtime between classes, part-time jobs, and volunteering; and as Lederer (2015) said they are "trying to meet multiple roles and demands which often creates high levels of stress and anxiety". That is why volunteering is such an excellent outlet to relieve some of the stress. It takes you away from the classroom and puts you into a new environment with many different types of new people. In addition to relieving stress, volunteering also builds up your resumé for graduate or professional school; and not only do you get experience out in the field but you "have an increased structure and discipline, you are gaining experiences for future jobs, improving your time management skills, and enhancing your self-awareness”.
In the second journal article titled, "The Relationship between Deliberate Belief, Critical Thinking and College Students' Engagement Attitudes in Volunteering, " Lin (2017) talks about how students who develop volunteering habits "may display characteristics such as altruism, civic virtue, and support for a social, psychological effectiveness and who work for civilization”. He also discusses how volunteering has been linked to many variables including "organizational commitments, job satisfaction, and organizational justice as independent variables. . . ". This ties into my research because Lin (2017) talks heavily about commitment and the responsibility that volunteering brings to the table. In a way, volunteering prepares you for the “real world, ” not only teaching you time management skills but people skills as well. This article goes hand in hand with the first article because it promotes volunteering as a civic duty to the community; the first article promotes volunteering through the various health benefits that it could bring not only to an individual but to a community as well.
In my third journal article titled, "How volunteering helps students to develop soft skills, " Khasanzyanova (2017) discusses how important volunteering is to the global economy and labor markets around the world. According to Khasanzyanova (2017), "globalized economies have amplified the demand for workers who possess flexible, adaptive, and transversal skills". They tend to favor those that "are able to deal with the unexpected, work both independently in a group, and who are sociable, responsible and capable of taking the initiative". This shows why volunteering is so essential for professional schools because it provides the admissions officers with applicants that are truly dedicated to their profession and have a real passion for that career. It allows them to see who is truly dedicated to the profession and who has the skills needed to succeed in the "real world, " with a real job, and with co-workers.
