To Change the World

This article is part of a series of insights and stories adapted from my book, Beyond a Bake Sale — How Tomorrow’s Students can Create Social Impact through Entrepreneurship

As I kid, I wanted to change the world. I mean, who didn’t? You believe you can do anything. As you get a bit older, reality kicks in. You realize solving world hunger isn’t as easy as your seven-year-old self made it out to be. Still determined to make a difference, you settle on doing small things here and there–helping at a food bank, volunteering at a homeless shelter, or the classic fundraising strategy: organizing a bake sale.
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Currently, especially among students, everyone is volunteering. Schools are requiring it, parents are pushing their kids to do it, companies encourage employees to do it. All sorts of programs are requiring volunteering hours. About 1/3 of all high school students volunteer at least once per month. That said, what’s with all the hype about volunteering? If we step back and take a look, it basically boils down to three things:

• You want to help other people
• It’s a great learning experience and you become part of a larger community
• You want something that looks good on resumes, whether for jobs or scholarships or college

All three of these reasons are very legitimate, and volunteering is no doubt one way to accomplish them. However, much of the time, volunteering doesn’t always drive the best results.

When I look back at the countless hours I spent baking, decorating, packaging, and selling all sorts of pastries at a fundraiser I began to wonder: what actually came out of all that time spent? Most fundraisers help raise money for some large organization, so you are definitely creating some sort of impact. However, if you think about the number of combined hours it took for your team to prepare and plan for the bake sale, would there have been a more efficient way to use your time which would help the population you are targeting more directly? How were you able to use your personal skillset and strengths to help create an impact? Was volunteering something YOU needed to be there for, or was it something anyone can do?
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Yes, volunteering creates a positive impact on those who are less fortunate, but you need to ask a couple other questions:

• How much of a positive impact are you making?
• Is there another way to help that can create an even larger impact?

Just think about it. When you do that fundraiser, what exactly happens with the money you raise? Chances are, you won’t see the people you are benefitting. If you really want to make a significant difference in your community or even in the world, mindlessly doing busywork and bake sales are likely not the way to go. Many times, volunteering merely addresses the effects of a problem, and doesn’t really target the root cause.

For the second reason: it leads to personal growth. Volunteering does help you see the world from a different perspective and make you a more generous person, but in terms of some other valuable traits and skills: leadership, initiative, public speaking, and problem solving, volunteering does very little. For the most part, when you volunteer, someone simply tells you to do a task, and you assist by providing your time and labor. You stand outside distributing flyers, packing cans, or collecting donations.

But doesn’t volunteering look great on resumés, even if you aren’t making a huge impact? Not really. Of course having some sort of volunteering experience paints you as a more caring and thoughtful person; however, it typically doesn’t showcase much initiative on your behalf, since most of the time, volunteering is just doing a repetitive task assigned to you.
So with this being said, if volunteering isn’t the best way to accomplish these three things, what other options are there? Volunteering is a great way to easily help the community, but when you create something, you actually have the opportunity to improve leadership, communication, problem solving, and so much more that will no doubt come into play later in life. It will push you out of your comfort zone and allow you to truly explore how much of an impact you can make.

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My personal experience both volunteering and starting a nonprofit led me to delve into how students can think bigger and go beyond volunteering through research, interviews, and personal experience; in fact, if we are smarter about how we invest time on certain causes, I’m convinced we can drive ten to hundreds times the impact we could by “just” volunteering. I set out on my own personal journey to discover the power of impact and along the way was able to uncover a secret weapon many of today’s best and brightest are utilizing not only to make a difference in a major way, but also to stand out in a unique and different way.

I would love to hear the experiences you have had with both volunteering and creating social impact as a student. What impact were you able to create, either through volunteering or entrepreneurship? Shoot me an email or leave a comment below.

Beyond a Bake Sale is available Amazon, here is the link to buy it amazon.com/dp/B08527ZLWB! If you want to connect, you can reach me here via email emilyyuan@stanford.edu or connect with me on social: linkedin.com/in/emily-yuan-a78a52142/