Being a freshman at Purdue, everyday I hear about a new club offered at the university! There are countless amounts of clubs and activities that one can join. My interests are so wide-spread that I don't seem to have enough time or energy to devote to all of the clubs that I would love to be a part of. Sadly, there are not enough hours in the day or days in the week, so I must pick and choose my clubs of choice. Last semester, I participated in an extreme variety of activities and as I find out about more and more opportunities, I want to join everything available!
Whatever your interests, there are people out there that share them with you! I find it so stimulating that, due to the large size of our university, with a little bit of searching, anyone can find another with similar interests. We have over 600 clubs at Purdue and if you don't find one you're interested in, it just takes one other person and if you don't find one you're interested in, it just takes one other person and a supervisor to create any club of your choice.
The prevalence of volunteering clubs is quite exciting as well as the amount of opportunities that every other organization offers to promote the well-being of the community as well as Lafayette and Indiana as a whole. We all need to see these opportunities as ways we can help out others. I personally feel that through volunteering, we can begin to change the sad view of humanity that many are beginning to take.
Helping others can come is so many different forms—by donating everything from money, to your time, and your talents. Habitat for Humanity International is an extremely prevalent organization and club at Purdue University that helps those in America that have no place to rest their head at night, no home to call their own. So many in the United States and all over the globe have become a part of this organization and have given their time and effort to putting over 300,000 houses up around the world.
Within other clubs that are not volunteer specific, there are other volunteering opportunities that help the community and help to get out the beliefs and causes that are directly related to the club that you are involved in. I was a member and a chairperson of the Art History Student Organization (AHSO) and we had several different opportunities to get involved with separate organizations throughout Indiana and Lafayette. We connected with the Great Lafayette Museum of Art and helped them with an event that they were planning for Christmas time to both collect donated art from around the city being sold to the public. This money was then donate to an children's organization within Tippecanoe county.
I feel that through volunteering and donating something like your time and talents goes so much further than money alone. As human beings, we can help restore the notion that people can be extremely caring creatures and that they can be caring, compassionate, and kind as well. So many people have been dealt a bad hand in life and just need someone to come along and reach out to them. I feel as if the physically, monetarily, or socially fortunate individuals have a certain responsibility to take some matters into their own hands and begin to restore the lives of those in need.
Not only does volunteering personally look great on a resume and gains so much knowledge and experiences from spending your time with other types of people, but as a whole, you can contribute to the well-being of individuals or a community by using some of your free-time on someone else rather than other frivolous activities. As a college age individual, many people that I try and help and come into contact with, are shocked and love that someone of my age would take the time to help someone.
Just remember the smile that someone donated to you when you were having a rough day. That joy of knowing that humankind can raise spirits by these tiny actions that seem so ordinary, given to the right people in their time and need can mean the world and help enrich their quality of life.
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