I posted this last week on my blog for students, but I think the info is also useful for parents--at least, given how many times parents ask me about community service. So, Mom, here is what I say to kids about community service:
One of the guys at my favorite cafe in St. Louis (Park Avenue Coffee in Lafayette Square--definitely worth checking out) is a guy with a big personality who remembers your name and what you ordered last time you were in. It’s part of the cafe’s excellent marketing strategy, I’m sure, to make the customers feel like they’re part of the neighborhood community, and it works. Park Avenue Coffee is a cool place where friends meet to study together, have some gooey butter cake, or just hang out. And the coffee is great, too.
There are actually several baristas who work the counter and make the drinks, and I’ve noticed that almost all of them have tattoos. The tattoos range from flowers to snakes to hearts to calligraphy. The guys always wear Park Avenue Coffee t-shirts, too, with the words Good, Good, Good on the back, referring to good coffee and good people.
So, one day, Josh, the guy who remembers my name, was preparing my drink, and he was facing away from me when I noticed that a couple of words were stenciled into the backs of his arms, just above his elbows. I couldn’t figure out exactly what they said, so I asked. (I probably wouldn’t have asked a stranger, but this guy’s been making lattes for me for a long time.)
“It’s from Isaiah,” he said. “Here am I” on one arm, and “Send me,” on the other.
Isaiah, I thought. The Bible. Kind of surprised me. But I actually remembered this passage from my childhood once Josh had mentioned it, and it made me think of our calling as humans to be good people--okay, the t-shirt connection here is a total coincidence. And what I mean by being good people is this: I think we have an obligation to volunteer to help others.
As a college counselor, I get this question all the time: how important is community service for my college application? And I want to say it’s very important and also it’s not important at all, and both answers are right. The passage from Isaiah refers to the prophet hearing the voice of the Lord calling out to him and asking whom he will find to do his work? That’s when Isaiah raises his hand and says, “I’m right here. Send me to do it.” The message I take is that wherever you are (or wherever I am) we can be raising our hands and volunteering to do something for someone else. That is a good thing.
Colleges look for many different kinds of kids, all of whom, together, will create a vibrant undergraduate community of people who are intellectually curious and have compassion about making the world a better place. One way to demonstrate your compassion is through service. However, just fulfilling a high school requirement of putting in six weekends at a soup kitchen means almost nothing if what you did wasn’t something that was meaningful to you. Admissions officers can tell right away whether the service you have listed on your application has been a priority, of if it’s just been you fulfilling your duty and padding your resume. In the case of the latter, your community service doesn’t help you a bit.
Volunteering is an important thing to do in and of itself. Yes, you should do community service but only because you WANT to do it. You should want to do it because it’s the right thing to do.
I also think people who want to “help the underprivileged” should stay as far away from community service as possible. Looking down on people is a crappy way to look at anyone, and it surely doesn’t make anybody feel better to know that someone else is doing a good deed out of pity or condescension. We should engage in making our communities better because they’re our communities.
Volunteering gives us the opportunity to do some good, but it also gives us a window through which we can look at our own lives and values. It makes us better people. If we are lucky, it may even make us Good, Good, Good (like the slogan on the Park Avenue Coffee t-shirt.)
For once, forget about your college application, and just concentrate on being a good person. I know, I know-- shocking advice.
Anyway, to wrap this up, if you’re thinking about adding community service to your application for admission to an undergraduate institution, my advice is to do so only if you think that volunteering is important work. Do it because you understand the connection between helping out and helping yourself. Do it because not doing it would leave a void in your life. Do it because it is part of who you are, part of your value system, and part of what you care about.
And finally, do it only if you can honestly and eagerly raise your hand and say, “Here am I. Send me.”
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