Blog

by Thomas Lee

One of the best ways to get involved on campus is to show you care by giving something back through student volunteering. Thankfully, there are plenty of ways to do this. What’s best for you?

One way is to get involved with organized campus projects such as campus clean-up or even landscaping. Many colleges have some kind of “Show You Care” day that allows students to help with minor projects. Another way is to plan your own project and present it to campus ministry, student government or another student body that would be willing to help. One group of students at Methodist and volunteered to go around to the dorms and take out other students’ trash. Another group fed pizza to the cafeteria workers. I was involved with “Show You Care” day by helping move rocks and dirt to fill in a ditch for a walkway bridge and also helped remove fallen trees and branches from a family’s yard that had been struck by a tornado.

Another way to show you care is fundraising. Several student organizations have fundraisers for charitable causes. My fraternity, Kappa Sigma, raised money for the Fallen Heroes Campaign, a donation network for the families of soldiers killed in combat. Members of student ministry on my campus became mentors for Young Life, evangelistic outreach for at-risk high school students. The international students conducted several fundraisers for global causes such as conflict relief and stopping hunger. They even had their own campus club devoted solely toward charitable causes called Economics Anonymous.

If you want to be involved in the community but not necessarily in ministry or charity, another way is campaign volunteering. Campaigning for local candidates combined with student volunteering is a great way to build your resume and social network, as well as maybe help you get a date!

Thomas Lee recently graduated from Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina with a BA in political science and journalism. His father is an ordained Church of God minister and his mother is a private school teacher; he also has two younger sisters. Thomas’ interests include politics, law, debate, global issues and writing fiction and he believes in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ and a strong commitment to biblical morality and ethics. He currently resides in Washington, North Carolina and will be attending law school in the near future.