Virtual Community Service Ideas: Many college admissions offices look for students with strong resumes of extracurricular activities in addition to kids with great grades and test scores. Community service is a simple method to expand your list of extracurricular activities. Here are 36 possibilities to think about!
How Does Community Service Affect Your Chances of Attending College?
Many students believe that in order to get accepted to college, you must participate in particular volunteer activities or accrue a significant amount of community service hours, but this is just untrue. Colleges are more interested in your involvement in activities that you are passionate about. They value activities that have a positive effect on the world around them the most.
Your extracurricular activities will normally be evaluated by college admissions committees on four tiers:
- Tier 1: Achievements and recognition that are acknowledged on a national level, such as being named the third-best tennis player in the nation.
- Tier 2: State-recognized leadership roles or accomplishments, such as being named to the all-state team in music or athletics.
- Tier 3: Positions of leadership at the regional or school level, such as serving as the student body’s treasurer.
- Tier 4: General involvement in organizations, activities, or voluntary work.
While all of the tiers are significant, students who have participated in at least a few Tier 1 and Tier 2 extracurricular activities will be more likely to be accepted than those who have not. Since most volunteer opportunities are entirely participative, they fall into Tier 4. However, by taking on leadership positions or launching your own initiatives, you can raise their impressiveness and tier. Activities from Tier 4 are still helpful for demonstrating your passions to admissions officers.
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Virtual Community Service Ideas for Highschoolers
HEALTH:
1. Be My Eyes
Students interested in the health sector can earn community service hours online through Be My Eyes. Through a video app, it connects volunteers with blind and low-vision people to offer visual support with everything from checking expiration dates to identifying colors to reading instructions.
2. American Red Cross
High school students can participate in a variety of virtual volunteer options with the American Red Cross, from helping with digital media to joining the Disaster Action Team.
3. Love For Our Elders
As current Yale student Jacob Cramer observed when helping at his local senior living home, many older people experience loneliness. Several seniors told Cramer that he was their only visitor. As a response, he established Love For Our Elders, which compiles letters for seniors in need of inspiration. By writing letters, establishing a chapter at their school, or holding a letter drive, students can accumulate verifiable volunteer hours.
LANGUAGE:
4. Translators Without Borders
For students who are proficient in a second language, Translators Without Borders is the ideal organization. Text translation for a number of international organizations working in the fields of crisis relief, health, and education is a way for volunteers to give back to their community online. The company has translated more than 80 million words thus far!
5. Tarjimly
With the help of the app Tarjimly, students may put their knowledge of a second language to use by offering on-demand translation services to immigrants, refugees, and people with asylum claims.
6. United Nations
Students who are fluent in multiple languages can volunteer with the UN to interpret crucial messages and documentation for international communities.
7. Distributed Proofreaders
The bold objective of Distributed Proofreaders is to build the biggest digital library in the world, and they currently have over 70,000 free books in their collection. As they continue to expand its library, this initiative is in need of volunteer proofreaders.
8. Bookshare
With the help of technology like Bookshare, persons with reading problems like dyslexia, learning disabilities, visual impairments, and physical impairments can read more easily. Bookshare wants volunteers to scan new books and proofread scanned files as they continue to expand their collection of more than 900,000 titles.
9. TED Translators
A group of volunteers known as TED Translators adds subtitles to TED Talks so that the motivational concepts discussed in each video can be shared all over the world! In more than a hundred different languages, students can provide translation or transcribing services.
EDUCATION:
10. TeensGive
For students in grades 9 through 12, TeensGive makes tutoring simple. By connecting students with online tutors, TeensGive eliminates the time-consuming (and frequently difficult) travel component of tutoring. By focusing on the groups that require assistance the most—often impoverished schools, homeless youngsters, and former gang members attempting to catch up—they also break through barriers.
11. School on Wheels
Another fantastic tutoring opportunity for volunteers in Southern California between the ages of 16 and 18 is School on Wheels. One in twenty children in California are homeless, and volunteers deal with students who are housed in shelters, hotels, vehicles, group foster homes, and on the streets. Volunteers help to address this significant issue. Volunteers use technology to work with pupils from kindergarten through the 12th grade.
12. Learn to Be
Another nonprofit tutoring service is Learn to Be, where students can donate their time to tutor a kid in elementary, middle, or high school one-on-one in the topics they need the greatest assistance with.
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13. Learning Ally
From kindergarten through high school, Learning Ally, a nonprofit company, provides struggling readers with high-quality audiobooks and study aids. Volunteers can lend their voices to audiobooks as narrators to assist students in overcoming educational challenges.
14. Science Buddies
In the Science Buddies program, volunteers answer questions from kids and parents about science topics for students in kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school. For science-loving high school kids, this is a fantastic chance!
TECHNOLOGY:
15. Teenangels
Teenangels is a fantastic chance for teenagers ages 13 to 18 who want to work in cybersecurity or who are just fascinated by technology. Volunteers from Teenangels run programs in schools that educate parents, teachers, and children about how to use the internet responsibly and safely; they have even testified before Congress!
16. Mozilla
You may not be aware of it, but Mozilla, the company responsible for the well-known web browser Firefox, is a nonprofit organization that is constantly in need of volunteer assistance. High school students that are proficient with computers can aid the community online by assisting with everything from programming to design testing.
17. The Kids Circle Foundation
The goal of the Kids Circle Foundation is to assist kids who are ill or have learning challenges. These kids can benefit from volunteers’ research, tutoring, blog writing, graphic design work, and support for the social media team.
18. DemocracyLab
DemocracyLab assists in linking technological initiatives that benefit society with qualified volunteers. Numerous tech-for-good initiatives are looking for volunteers with experience in technology to help out in areas like education, the environment, and civil infrastructure.
19. TechSoup
High school students can provide tech-related ideas and guidance in forums on TechSoup. In order to reach more people in their areas, the charity sector uses this knowledge to apply technology more skillfully within their businesses.
HISTORY:
20. Citizen Archivist
Students with a passion for history can work as volunteers with Citizen Archivists to assist the National Archives in preserving and disseminating the public records that tell the tale of our country and its people. To make them easier to access and search for, volunteers are required to transcribe, categorize, and add comments.
21. Citizen Scholar
For history fans who are interested in working with the Smithsonian Institute, the greatest museum and research complex in the world, Citizen Scholar is an intriguing online chance for community service. This group helps to transcribe historical records, papers of notable Americans, and records from the Smithsonian’s scientific collection so that they are more easily accessible to the general public and researchers.
22. By The People
By the People is a virtual volunteer opportunity where individuals can assist with the transcription of significant Library of Congress records. In order to facilitate finding, accessing, and searching for these old records, students can produce and review transcriptions.
23. Ancestry.com
Volunteers help Ancestry.com index historical accounts and stories that would otherwise be lost. High school students who are interested in genealogy can volunteer to assist others in learning about their family history.
HUMANITARIAN:
24. Amnesty Decoders
Amnesty Decoders offers a platform for volunteers to engage in online civic engagement by searching through images, papers, and other data to uncover human rights initiatives. Projects range from locating vulnerable villages in Darfur to finding tweets that are hostile to women.
25. Missing Maps
Creating maps for unmapped communities around the world that are likely to experience disasters and crises is the goal of the collaborative initiative Missing Maps. To assist humanitarian teams and first responders in reaching these areas, volunteers can trace satellite imagery, add neighborhoods and street names, and do much more.
26. Humanitarian Data Exchange
An institution called Humanitarian Data Exchange is responsible for gathering all humanitarian data in one place. These details can be entered into a database by virtual volunteers so that people who require them can quickly access them.
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27. Naburr
Nabuur connects high school students with villages in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to provide them with virtual volunteer opportunities. They work together to tackle neighborhood problems and exchange ideas.
28. Crisis Text Hotline
A discreet intervention hotline that responds to texts from persons with problems with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, suicidal ideation, or self-harm is called the Crisis Text Hotline. Before beginning this position, volunteers must complete 30 hours of online crisis management training.
29. Change.org
Do you have any social or humanitarian issues that you fervently support? To gain support for your cause and transform the world, start a petition on Change.org.
30. National Sexual Assault Online Hotline
The Rape, Assault & Incest National Network (RAINN), which operates the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline, seeks online volunteers who are at least 18 years old, are ready to finish a training program, and who can commit to online shifts.
SOCIAL:
Residents of nursing homes frequently experience emotional and mental health issues. Adopt a Nursing Home, a program from the Texas Health Care Association, links volunteers with nursing home residents and employees. The program offers volunteers the chance to encourage residents of nursing homes by sending them physical letters and internet communications.
32. Instant Wild
Motion-activated cameras are crucial for conservation efforts because they can keep an eye on animal populations in a variety of settings. By watching the films and photos that scientists take and labeling the species you spot in them, you may aid researchers in developing their animal detection system.
33. Operation Gratitude
Put your writing abilities to the test and show your support for first responders, the military, and veterans. Operation Gratitude solicits and distributes thank-you notes from people from all walks of life to soldiers defending our nation.
34. The Trevor Project
The Trevor Project is a program for older students who aim to give LGBTQ youngsters, aged 13 to 24, a safe online area. All types of volunteers are welcome. Since the project’s inception in 1998, participants have helped thousands of young people improve their wellbeing.
35. Best Buddies
The mission of Best Buddies is to improve the quality of life for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. For their e-Buddies program, which requires a commitment to email at least twice every two weeks, they are searching for volunteers. People living in the same state are not matched; instead, participants are paired with buddies based on interests, games, and proximity. This is a fantastic way to make new friends, help someone feel more included, and volunteer.
36. Girls Inc.
Even students with a tight schedule may find five minutes a week to volunteer with Girls Inc. By writing and sharing social media posts that teach girls how to overcome economic and social obstacles and support them as they develop into healthy, intelligent, and independent young women, you can serve as an organization’s social media ambassador and help spread its message.
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is the idea behind virtual volunteering?
Virtual volunteering is when volunteer work is done in full or in part online using a computer at home or at the office. Other names for it include teletutoring, online mentoring, cyberservice, and online volunteering.
What are the drawbacks of volunteering online?
Virtual volunteers could not experience the empathy and interpersonal relationships that are typically associated with traditional volunteering. Additionally, virtual volunteering might not foster a feeling of community, depriving the volunteer of the advantages of working toward a shared objective as part of a team.
Is it worthwhile to volunteer online?
Virtual or not, volunteering has a lot of advantages. It improves your mental health, can open up doors for networking and job advancement, allows you to meet new people and pick up new skills, and can give you a sense of direction and inspiration. Is it worth it, then? Absolutely!
Can you get paid to volunteer?
Volunteering is a fulfilling sort of labor that enables you to put your abilities to use for a cause that matters to you. Although the majority of volunteer positions are unpaid, some do offer stipends and compensated living expenses as recompense.
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