Volunteering for Teens

I'm having a teen in NHS volunteering locally. Here, kids do get points from community centers for various events - diwali stall volunteering etc. Mine is trying to volunteer at a local non profit, a sports league for special needs teens. I found a lot of volunteering opportunities online, you can register with your city for the same. I didn't know about it and by the time I figured it out, they were closed due to a lot of volunteers registering.
Try local non profits, libraries, temples(ours has free health fairs where kids can volunteer) etc. Good luck!

 

Her school counsellor was really helpful in getting the required permission for my dd. Have your child talk to her counsellor, the counsellor may also help finding positions.

 

@justanothermom - There are kids like moi DD who forget about volunteering and by the time they check with the school and go to the approved orgs, everything is full. Plus she has to deal with me, I don't let her volunteer in any place that isn't meaningful. So then, we go position hunting

 

There might be 3-5 counselors serving a school with 2000 students. More attention is given to students in dire need, and to seniors.. this is also college application season, so counselors are busy with that too.

Meeting a counselor can be a luxury in some schools. Try email, if not already tried that. Child herself should send the email. Question(s) should be clearly stated, not be very open-ended. Add in that a line about attempts child has made to go meet counselor in person. Keep it short, and don't mention college admissions etc.

Volunteering at well-known hospitals or medical places will always have a long wait-list, and requirements such as minimum so many hours. Plus, it might end up being just moving papers around or minimal medical work. It is not just the place where she volunteers, what she does and what she learnt, and how it helped her grow will be what college will look for. 400-500 hours but nothing significant to write about them will not mean much. Try to find contacts in local doctors or other medical professionals who are willing to let her shadow them. Maybe an unpaid internship at small start-up tech company that is somewhat related to bio-tech.

All these are nice to have. Finally, it may or may not have much impact in the college admissions. So, the oft-repeated advice of volunteer if you like it, if you are passionate about it, not just for the hours.. is actually true. Time in high school is so precious... cannot be spent volunteering if end result is mainly the number of hours.

My suggestion would be to get the minimum hours needed by school. Beyond that keep it simple.. find some opportunity in the summer, do something there that can stand out, and that means something personal to the child.

You and your child may want to check out collegeconfidential dot com for volunteer opportunities in your city, that are not so well-known. Just remember not to get overly worried by the kids who post there. Those are the top 2-5 % who excel in almost everything effortlessly.

Whenever contacting anybody for opportunity to volunteer in their organization or institute, let child do all the communicating. The person sitting there is most likely a parent, grandparent or aunt/uncle.. and if a sincere request comes from a child, they will try to help in some way.

As part of my work, I receive many requests from parents whose children want to volunteer. I gently ask them to have child contact me. Still parents persist. I reluctantly say no... and prefer teens who reach out independently as much as possible.