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College Scholarship Tip: Make it a Volunteering Summer
AAAhhhh…summertime! Use this college scholarship tip to have fun, help others AND win money for school!
Scholarship providers highly value students who have been active in their communities and many applications are designed around the hours a student has volunteered.
Keeping detailed notes about all community service time will make it easier to fill out applications that ask for exact hours worked for each year of high school. Also, note the names and contact information of project supervisors and descriptions of the work involved. Impressive letters of recommendation can be obtained from connections made while volunteering, and helping others is a wonderful way for students to spend some of those long lazy days of summer.
Not sure where your student can volunteer this summer?
Here are some ideas:
- Church groups (Vacation Bible School, Youth group, etc.)
- Hospitals
- Nursing Homes
- Animal Rescues and Shelters
- Summer Camps
- Daycare Centers
- Sports Teams
- Scouting Groups
Be sure to also read: 30 Awesome Ideas for Volunteering and College Scholarships
PIN IT FOR LATER!
If students can’t find anything on this list that piques their interest, sit down together and make a list of what they like to do, their strengths, and what they are thinking about as a possible career. Once you have this list, see if there are any local organizations that have something to do with what the student has suggested and contact them.
If the student is still unsure about volunteering with unfamiliar people, try volunteering as a family until they are comfortable. I go into great detail in my ebooks, HOW TO WIN COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS, about how volunteering makes a huge difference when applying for scholarships, how students can create their own community service projects and the way I convinced the local press to feature my son’s project on the front page of our local paper.
This is how students win college scholarships!
PRICELESS!
Are you or your student currently volunteering? I’d love to hear about your experiences and add them to the ideas list. Please share in the comments section below!
BE SURE TO READ: Scholarship Awards for Leadership
Open to High School Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors! APPLY NOW HERE
Find a TON of scholarships in this book:
Monica Matthews is the author of How to Win College Scholarships. She helped her own son win over $100,000 in college scholarships and now shares her expertise with other parents and their students. She truly has “been there, done that” in regard to helping parents and students navigate the scholarship process.
Her method of helping students in finding college scholarships, writing unique and compelling scholarship essays, creating amazing scholarship application packets, and more have taught desperate parents to help their own students win thousands of scholarship dollars. She teaches them how to apply S.M.A.R.T. with outstanding results.
Monica’s scholarship tips have been featured on many prominent websites, and she has been dubbed the “Go-To” expert on college scholarships.
I volunteered in high school and that definitely helped. I continued to do so in college, and as my volunteer hours were related to my field, it not only helped me land subsequent scholarships but also a job after graduation!
There you have it! Thanks so much for sharing!
My daughter is going into 9th grade. Do you think that it is important for her to start volunteering now?
thanks for this info!
Yes, I do. If she is unsure or uneasy about volunteering with an organization that she is not familiar with, you can volunteer with her. Volunteering is great for the whole family. 🙂
Really good advice for scholarships, but also great life experience to do something a bit different and volunteer some time.
Volunteering is great for everyone involved. Thanks for reading!
This was a truly wonderful post. Thank you for your information.
Thanks, Ramona! 🙂
Thanks for the reminder, I’m putting this on my daughter’s to do list for tomorrow!
Wonderful, Christina!