Benefits Beyond Service: How Community Service Can Transform Lives by Lena

Benefits Beyond Service: How Community Service Can Transform Lives by Lena - June 2025 Scholarship Essay

Nudging at the dirt with a beat-up red trash picker, I continuously poke and poke until I see a glint of gold. Like a conquistador yearning to find the legendary El Dorado, I gleefully dig eagerly at the prospect of finding gold. Surely, statistics may indicate that finding gold at the park may be very rare, but not impossible, right? I grab onto the mysterious glittering gold nugget, hoist it up from the ground that it was buried in, and turn it over. Not a circular golden coin, not a fake gold tooth, not a long-lost marriage ring band, but exactly what I unfortunately expected: a golden Corona bottle cap.

I’ve volunteered at Parent Child Relationship, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving underprivileged and underrepresented Asian families, for the past two years. From picking up trash at the weekly cleanup sessions at my local park to overseeing and chaperoning young kids on field trips to various sites throughout New York (such as the MET museum), I’ve volunteered my time and my efforts to give back to my community. I think that volunteering, or community service, should be a required class because it not only offers people the opportunity to invest in and empower their local area or community but also teaches lots of valuable life lessons and skills.

When I first started volunteering as a freshman in high school, I was shy and timid—you had to come up and talk to me first, as I would definitely not be the one to approach you. Making friends was difficult for me—I wasn’t very open and seemed “unapproachable,” according to many of the friends I have now. However, when I looked around in my new, bright yellow volunteer jacket, I couldn’t see anybody that I knew or could somewhat talk to. Volunteering sessions split us into smaller groups of around 7 people, and I happened to know nobody out of the 7 that I was first placed with. While I felt frightened and out-of-place, the other volunteers seemed to be familiar with one another: the boys were playing Brawl Stars on their phones together and the girls were talking to one another about the latest fashion and K-pop trends. As we started to move, I fell behind the group and didn’t know what to do. However, I knew that I had to do something if I wanted to be able to do my volunteer work properly, so I mustered up all my courage and spoke up. I asked (albeit in a very shaky voice) what volunteer sessions usually looked like, when it would end, and what area of the park we were supposed to clean in.

While I initially imagined the other volunteers to be like Regina Georges, they were more like Cady Herons. They were surprisingly sweet and approachable, answering all of my questions and even asking some of their own: “Do you listen to Enhypen?” “How old are you?” “What do you think about cupcake skirts?” I answered all their questions, feeling somewhat perplexed that they wanted to interact with me further: “Yes, I love their Dark Blood album,” “I’m 15,” and “I think they’re super cute! I like the longer ones.” While I was hesitant about approaching them at first, they warmly welcomed me into their conversations, enfolding me into their friend group—a possibility that I would’ve never thought would occur.

Community service has led me to break out of my own comfort zone; I’ve taken up leadership roles and led my own volunteer groups, I’ve become more fearless when it comes to asking for help when I need it, and it has allowed me to connect with many new friends that I still hang out with and talk to today. I’ve also learned how to be more eco-friendly, learned how to recycle various materials properly, and become more environmentally aware of my surroundings. I’ve also built up self-confidence and learned to be more patient with myself and others. Whenever I address the other volunteers, my voice no longer trembles—it is strong, unwavering, and sure.

Without my involvement in community service, I also wouldn’t have had the courage to lead in school—whether it be guiding classmates on tackling difficult school projects, raising my hand to answer or ask questions in my math class, or interacting with new faces and helping them out whenever I can. Community service should be a required class as it fosters connections, creates the future’s confident leaders, and leaves a positive impact on all participants beyond just the community they served.

While I haven’t found any real gold in my conquests at the park, I suppose the real treasure was found in the experiences, memories, and the people I’ve gotten to know through community service.