I am grateful that I got a scholarship, CCI program, for professional development in the US. Despite studying abroad in college, this program required me to complete a minimum of 100 volunteering hours in local, national, or international organizations. So, I used to volunteer every weekend in America for almost a year. I was so pleased and enjoyed every moment that I had to do for all the volunteering jobs assigned to me. Moreover, I felt like I was part of their community even though I was just an exchange student from a developing country, Indonesia. 

I learned so much in my time volunteering, and I was blessed to get a lot of volunteer opportunities there. US organizations have many platforms that provide information about volunteer projects for the community. For example, VolunteerMatch.com, and even each region has its own platform like VolunteerAlexandria.org and VolunteerFairfax.org (The place I was living in). 

The recruitment process from the platforms above similar to hunting for a job, but it is much easier to get hired. The recruiter only asked in the registration form: why do you want to help, and even, ask what kind of skills do you have as well as you want to develop in the project. Some institutions require an interview before the event, and some don’t—you only need to understand your responsibilities beforehand and show up on time for volunteering work. However, never underestimates this work because the value that we bring for a volunteer is reflecting the value of our professional job.

I am always interested in taking part in a volunteering role for big events such as TedTalks, festivals, and conferences. These types of events make me excited to experience the international atmosphere and develop my competencies like interpersonal communication, networking skill, and English speaking skill to a higher level. Another bonus is that I always got a free entry ticket, T-shirt event, and launch (Yeay! :D LOL), but most importantly, new connections and the chance to develop myself.

I also always needed the type of volunteer that help the community directly—for example, packing vegetables to support food distributions to the needed families, helping set-up for food distribution in the 9/11 Memorial 5K Run, assisting visitors, and organizing selling books in the regional library, and many others. These activities always make my heart content with happiness. Oh, I miss volunteer!

I wish Indonesia have many opportunities for volunteering, and I hope this article would rise interest to volunteer and ‘gotong royong' in our community. I want to invite my LinkedIn connections to do volunteer as well in the future. Anyhow, if you have any volunteer opportunities for the next weekends in Jakarta area or you want to share opinions about this topic, feel free to comment on this article. I would love to help and hear your story as well :)

P.S. I wonder why one hundred seems to be a magic number when it comes to giving when I was in the U.S., and I got the answer from the book "Give and Take" by Adam Grant. It states that the 100-hour rule of volunteering appears to be where giving is maximally energizing. In one study, American adults in their mid-six-ties who volunteer at least one hundred hours in 1998 were more likely to be live in 2000. In other studies of two thousand Australian adults who volunteer between 100-800 hours annually were happier and satisfied with their life. A hundred hours a year breaks down to just two hours a week. Research shows that if people start two hours a week, their happiness, satisfaction, and self-esteem go up a year later. Plus, they gained new technical, social, and organizational knowledge and skills from volunteering.

So, what are you waiting for? Let's volunteer together! Aaaaand, that's a wrap! Remember, tomorrow is Monday, have a splendid weekday to y'all! Until next time, stay awesome!

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/volunteer-professional-development-dede-firmansah-defir-