Volunteering...Everybody's Doing It

Kevin Brawley

Students in college face the overwhelming knowledge of the fact that the world will soon be in their hands. In a few short years, the students studying in our universities will take over important roles like city mayors, state governors, national presidents, and international ambassadors. The current state of affairs in the world, combined with the fact that information spreads so quickly making the world smaller and smaller everyday, is cementing this fact more and more to today’s students. In 2006, The Chronicle of Education reported that more college students were volunteering their time than ever before. That same year, Georgia Tech was named to the President’s Honor Roll for the amazing turn out of their students on the largest community service day of the year, Team Buzz. And the trend continues. This year, Team Buzz again produced a record turn out of Tech students to help out in the Atlanta community. When asked, one volunteer related that she “knows how much of a difference she can make in the world, and really just wants to make it.” That mentality reverberates throughout virtually all college campuses in America and in the world. Poverty and other issues in their local communities are made very real and apparent to them, and students recognize that if they want to make a difference in the ever-shrinking world, they can, at home, or abroad; the number of opportunities, in fact, is almost overwhelming. The largest issue they face is the choice of which projects they want to be involved in and when they want to be involved.