Let's Talk About: Volunteering - The Sustainability Guide

Welcome back to another “Let’s Talk About” series post, where I dive a little deeper into topics and provide supporting research. Today’s topic is all about volunteering, its benefits, and my experience.

Storytime: My History With Volunteering

I first began volunteering in college. Midway through my second year, I discovered that I could graduate an entire year early, and as exciting as that was, it was also a terrifying reality check.

I was coming to the realization that my classwork alone wouldn’t differentiate me enough as a job applicant, and with only one and a half years of school left, I needed to get more experience, and fast. I already had an internship lined up for the summer doing a sustainable landscaping project on campus, but I needed more.

I decided to look into volunteering options, because environmental jobs and internships were so competitive, and I had already been denied a few positions. I viewed volunteering as an easier avenue for experience, because like many internships, it was unpaid, but I had never heard of anyone turning away a volunteer.

I ended up with two gigs, one with Maine Audubon, educating beach goers about the federally threatened piping plover. The other, as an education docent at the Center for Wildlife, a rehabilitation center that also serves as a long term facility for non releasable animals.

Additionally, my last semester of college I needed to fill some time and decided to reach out to the nearby National Wildlife Refuge and see if they would take me on as a winter volunteer surveying for New England Cottontails. They were happy to have me, and I was able to work with the internship coordinator at the university to formalize my volunteer work into class credit.

Volunteering Impacts on Employment

Despite graduating a year early, two internships, and some volunteering under my belt, I was still outcompeted for all the jobs I had applied for upon graduating college. The only offer I had was a 6 month term position as an environmental steward at a state park, paying $6.50 an hour at 40 hours per week.

I knew I needed to keep gaining more technical and varied experience if I wanted to be competitive as a job applicant. Again, I turned to volunteering, seeing what opportunities my town had available. A quick google search revealed that there was a conservation commission and they were accepting new members, so I decided to fill out an application. It turns out that the commission was brand new, and my application was accepted, making me one of the founding members.

This was back in 2015. As a new commission, we had a lot of work ahead of us. Additionally, there was a lot of turnover the first two years. I had latched onto a dam relicensing project given my natural interests, and paired with my educational background in environmental science, I was nominated as vice chair. When the chair at the time left, I was next in line, and led the commission for 3 years from 2017 to 2020. During this time, I had applied for a new job and my work with the conservation commission, specifically my work with dams, was a major contributing factor for why I was selected.

According to research from the Corporation for National and Community Service (a federal agency despite the name), job applicants with volunteering experience were 27% more likely to obtain employment than those without¹.

Volunteering: More Than Just A Resume Booster

While volunteering may put you a step ahead of other job applicants, it’s not just good for your resume. Research has found that consistent volunteering has a positive impact on mental health²and specifically, environmental volunteering can increase physical activity contributing to overall improved wellbeing³.

Volunteering is also good for the health of our communities, providing valuable services that otherwise may not have been available. According to data collected and analyzed by The Independent Sector and the Do Good Institute, volunteers in the US in 2019 contributed $187.7 billion worth of time, talent, and effort⁴.

And this is no exception when it comes to the environment. According to a 2009 study performed by Mid Atlantic Solid Waste Consultants, 51 billion pieces of litter end up on US roadways each year, which costs approximately $11.5 billion dollars in cleanup paid mostly by businesses, then governments, and the rest handled by volunteer cleanup efforts⁵. Another example, in 2017 in India alone, volunteers broke a world record by planting a total of 66 million trees in just twelve hours to help fight deforestation and climate change⁶.

Furthermore, participating in environmental volunteering helps foster a stronger connection to nature⁷, creating a positive feedback loop of protecting the environment.

In Conclusion

The coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on traditional volunteering participation, however, there are still plenty of ways to get involved in a time when perhaps the need is greatest.

I decided to resign from the conservation commission at the end of 2020 in pursuit of new experiences, the root of my volunteering engagement, and am currently exploring my options. I hope to become involved in more hands-on projects like cleanups, habitat restoration, and maybe some citizen science initiatives to help collect valuable and needed data.

As we become better citizens of the world, volunteering is a key way to elevate not just ourselves, but those around us, and our environment. After 2020, I think we could also use, and give, a helping hand! So if you’re still on the fence about resolutions or goals this year, consider adding, increasing, or diversifying your volunteering efforts.

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