Student Voices by CV
What are some volunteer things that I can do to have fun this Halloween while improving my resume?
This question comes from a student who wants to make the most out of their Halloween by giving back to their community through some form of volunteerism. They're thinking about improving their resume and strengthening their college applications by adding more extracurricular activities to their experience. In the spirit of Halloween how can we help this young person come up with a creative way to give back to their community? #resume #volunteering #volunteer #event-planning #volunteerism
6 answers
Lindsey Manning-Djabbari
Lindsey’s Answer
Terrific question. Halloween is a great time to give back, help your community, and yes, in doing so.. improve your resume. A great website for you to check out is: DoSomething.org/search/apachesolr_search/halloween. From there, pick a campaign whose cause is something you can really get behind. If you volunteer doing something you feel passionate about it will A) be more of a fun experience, as opposed to something you feel like you "should" or "have" to do B) you'll be more inclined to continue volunteering for that cause which looks much better on your resume.
An additional idea: Volunteer at a local children's hospital (especially if you like kids!). There are hundreds of kids confined to hospital beds while they wish they could be dressing up and roaming their neighborhood streets with their friends and families. Simply spend time with them. Bring Halloween to them. You can carve pumpkins, and bring some face paints and a whole bunch of candy to give them a trick-or-treating experience they'll never forget:)
As far as your resume goes? You should always have a section detailing your extra curricular activities (it's common to title it "Activities" on your resume). Once you volunteer (again, I recommend volunteering routinely - the longer, more consistently you volunteer the better it looks on your resume) you can add it to your resume. Include the name of the organization you volunteered at or campaign you started or were a part of, explain what you did and what came out of it, and the date(s).
Hope this helps!!
p.s. - I thought this question was so great I wrote a blog post about it! Check it out>>👻🎃 "How To Turn Halloween Into A Huge Boost On Your Resume"
Love this question. Another idea is to search for volunteer opportunities in your local area at Volunteermatch. You can also sort for "skilled volunteer" opportunities - an area you want to learn or improve - and then of course add this to your LInkedIn profile under the Volunteer and Causes section. We know that 42% of hiring managers consider volunteer experience equivalent to full time experience!
Meg Garlinghouse
Thank you! These are all great ideas!
Student Voices by CV
Great Ideas and great information!
Christopher Boutros
Karina B
Karina’s Answer
As far as volunteer work is concerned, here are some opportunities that should be interesting:
1. Amnesty International (as a Decoder Volunteer) - https://decoders.amnesty.org/
2. Led By Foundation - https://www.ledby.org/volunteerwithus
3. Prison Journalism Project - https://prisonjournalismproject.org/volunteer/
4. 7 Cups (as a Volunteer Listener) - https://www.7cups.com/listener/become-a-volunteer-listener.php
5. Crowd2Map Tanzania (as a Mapper Volunteer) - https://crowd2map.org/get-involved/how-we-map/
Hope this helps.
Bim Majekodunmi
Bim’s Answer
Great question and great recommendations thus far. There are quite a few volunteer matching organizations but there are also local churches which host Halloween alternatives. If you belong to a church or have friends that do, you can volunteer to help make candy apples, face paint or be of service within your local church community on Halloween or any given Sunday.
If you want your volunteerism to support your personal brand figure out what you want your future college to know and appreciate about you. If you are passionate about people - hospitals, food banks, habitat for humanity can all benefit from your time. If you are passionate about animals, you can care for the abandoned at a local shelter. If your faith is central to your life you can volunteer at a church and do anything from teaching or tutoring to music involvement.
Best wishes!
Thank you, Bim!
Student Voices by CV
Karina B
Karina’s Answer
As far as volunteer work is concerned, here are some opportunities that should be interesting:
1. Amnesty International (as a Decoder Volunteer) - https://decoders.amnesty.org/
2. Led By Foundation - https://www.ledby.org/volunteerwithus
3. Prison Journalism Project - https://prisonjournalismproject.org/volunteer/
4. 7 Cups (as a Volunteer Listener) - https://www.7cups.com/listener/become-a-volunteer-listener.php
5. Crowd2Map Tanzania (as a Mapper Volunteer) - https://crowd2map.org/get-involved/how-we-map/
6. Learning For a Cause - https://www.learningforacause.com/join-the-team
Hope this helps.
Elizabeth Eckman
Elizabeth’s Answer
What a great idea! I would love to build off some of the recommendations above.
Something that I did growing up was volunteer at a local organization's Harvest Carnival where I ran a game booth for kids so that they had a fun alternative to trick-or-treating.
Another thing you can do is run a candy drive after Halloween. You can encourage those at your high school - or local community/neighborhood you live in - to donate their Halloween candy to go to a local soup kitchen, homeless shelter or like-minded organization. Before you donate the candy you should weigh the total amount! This will give you something quantifiable to include in your resume.
We do this at PIMCO and ship our candy to Operation Gratitude who then sends the candy to troops overseas. http://www.operationgratitude.com/halloween-candy-buy-back-2012/
This year we also ran an event where PIMCO employees and their families brought in their donated candy and decorated goodie bags to give to a local soup kitchen. This really brightened the day for those that received the bags not only because they wouldn't ordinarily get candy, but they also were specially decorated and assembled by a child to give them.
Hope that helps!
Cheyla Bell
Cheyla’s Answer
I worked at a recreation center which is a park ran by your county... You can also Google local events and signup as a volunteer