HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

A woman I recently met was telling me about her children. She has a daughter in medical school and a son in college. The son is participating in a australia study abroad program this year, while the daughter is volunteering for Doctors Without Borders. Her children are very well rounded and wildly successful, which should make any mother proud. However, they are that way despite the upheaval, trials, and tribulations, that the mother has had with her husband. I know so many individuals who had a parent that constantly threw family life in a tailspin and their lives seemed to never be able to right themselves, and here were two young people who were confident.

My new friend explained that when times were rocky, she encouraged her children. She sent them on mission trips in high school, while other kids went to the beach or puttered around the house.  She send them on to semesters abroad, or just in town to their local Habitat for Humanity build.   She would scrape and save and work two jobs to do so, but at an early age, they helped others and broadened their horizons. A outfit like Carpediemeducation.org has a lot of opportunities for individuals to go on a semester abroad, even if a particular school that you are attending doesn’t offer it.  All trips include a strong basis in community service.

Another new concept that is popular in Europe, but relatively new here is “gap year.”  It is common for students to transition from high school to college by taking a year off and traveling, volunteering, or exploring themselves in other ways.   I have known people who have taken a year off, and it actually made it harder to go to college because they were mired in a full time job and other commitments had also cropped up.  However, I would imagine if you had a structured environment, such as these programs allow, you would have greater success.  You may just find yourself, when the time comes, being a bit more narrowed down on a major versus spending your first year at college figuring out just what you would like to pursue.

The only thing that left me a bit quizzical was an answer to a question on the site, where they are asked if the program has any religious affiliation, like other “helping” programs do.   It is not, which is perfectly fine, but they go on to state, “If anything we try and expose our students to as many different perspectives as the program can provide and make every effort to be welcoming of every perspective. We believe that no amount of dogma can truly capture an individual’s relationship with the world that surrounds them.”

I was a little disappointed by their elaboration, as how can it be stated that they are “welcoming of every perspective,” make it a point of exposing students to other cultures, yet the language implies a judgment that traditional faith is automatically dogma by proxy.  It would seem to me that this statement goes directly contrary of being welcoming to every perspective, unless I somehow misread.  As for myself, I find that my faith actually enhances a relationship with my surroundings.  There is no way to compartmentalize my wonder, and for some that wonder is their inner drive to reach out and help others, or to just sit in wonder at nature.

No matter, I encourage you to allow your teenagers and college students the opportunity to reach out beyond their four walls and touch the world, and how to travel independently.  If you had a gap year between high school and college, please let me know how that worked out, and if you have ever been on a semester abroad, I would be interested to hear about it too.   Did it propel you into a lifelong love of volunteering, was it a one shot experience, or did you already have the drive before you went?

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