How I Got Into Volunteerism

Half way through my second year of college, I realized that I could graduate not only a semester early, as planned, but an entire year early. While how I accomplished that is a story on its own for another time, I quickly began to realize that I needed more external experiences and connections. I had a planned internship at my university that summer, to build a rain garden, and had already lined up a part time summer job at a retail store.

In an attempt to gain more experience in my remaining spare time, I applied for a few volunteering positions, one with Maine Audubon doing outreach on the beaches for piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) and the other at Center for Wildlife Rehab providing care to the ambassador animals and education for visitors. One of my fondest memories from that summer is the “opossum walks” I used to give to one of the resident opossums, her name was Opal and she loved to eat critters she found in the leaf litter.

Entering into my last semester of college, I visited my local national wildlife refuge, which was within half an hour of my apartment, and asked if there was a possibility to set up an internship during the winter (their off-season). They agreed and I was able to spend the winter surveying for New England cottontails (Sylvilagus transitionalis), a state threatened species that at the time was proposed for federal listing. So to summarize, I was graduating college I had two internships, two summer volunteering experiences, and three years worth of holding down two work study jobs. Well, I’m sure it’s not a surprise to many of you that I still struggled to find employment after graduating (even unpaid internships were highly competitive).

Graduating college I had ONE job offer, and that was as an environmental steward through Americorps. It was a six month term position earning less than minimum wage (which at the time in Maine was $7.50/hr). I wanted to continue to gain experience in ways that I didn’t have to compete with thousands of other applicants. I just so happened to see if my town had any opportunities and saw that there were some openings on the Conservation Commission. I applied and was accepted, which was four years ago, and have been serving on the Commission ever since. The work I’ve done helped me get my dream job, and now I run the commission as Chair, which has its fair share of responsibilities.

I now found myself in a place where I want to attempt a new volunteering avenue. I’m not sure what yet, though I’d love to get back into bird banding. However, the Conservation Commission I’m on has so much great work ahead of them, so I plan to stay on as a regular member I think, leaving managing responsibilities of chair to someone else (as I’ve been doing it the past 2.5 years).

I’m excited to begin something new and hope to have more amazing adventures and learning opportunities in the world of environmental/conservation volunteerism.

What are the take aways:

1. Volunteering is a great way to gain experience that often doesn’t involve competing for one opening.
2. Volunteering helps you to build a network of experience and references for potential job openings.
3. Volunteering is extremely rewarding and provides services that may otherwise go undone.