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Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

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Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#91

Post by cafard »

JediWing wrote: post #69
cafard wrote: post #32

Grow, I can't say. I did find it instructive helping out as a baseball coach when my son was young. There I learned (I thought) why the American school system puts the cutoff for a passing grade somewhere around 60: if you give a child something he can do 2/3 of the time, he may remain engaged in the task; 1/3 of the time, he will be bored and frustrated. I guess it did teach me something about teaching. These days I…

> if you give a child something he can do 2/3 of the time, he may remain engaged in the task; 1/3 of the time, he will be bored and frustrated. Ironic considering you volunteered to coach baseball, where _failing_ 2/3 of the time at the plate is considered a high achievement.

Ah, but how many outs are actually on balls put into play? A strikeout per inning is a pretty good ratio for a pitcher. Also, batting averages tend to be a lot higher at lower levels. But mostly I was thinking of fielding here.

Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#92

Post by gopalakrishnans »

I helped file taxes during the tax season here in the US, for the past four months. It was specifically targeted towards low income families. I was definitely able to learn some of the economic effects of the current healthcare system, especially from the penalties. It was definitely out of my bubble, and wouldn't have known a lot about how many ways the low income families are trying to earn to make ends meet, even at a very old age.

Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#93

Post by ardit33 »

bitL wrote: post #81

Not to be too cynical, but in my case volunteering resulted only in troubles and no growth at all. What I ended up beside some singular cases was fighting with people that internally resigned on something, accumulated bad habits but still narcissistically viewed themselves as perfect. The most brutal outcome was that the people I helped for free and dedicated a lot of time to improve their life, changed for much wors…

Interesting. What kind of volunteering did you do (homeshelters, recovery...)?

My experience has been that you can only help people that really want it, (but don't know yet how to achieve what they want, but at least know that they need change).

As the old saying: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink", you can't help somebody that really doesn't want to change themselves.

Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#94

Post by brookside »

ensignavenger wrote: post #76

Not something just anyone can do, but I was a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for two years. I became much more outgoing during this time, and developed a greater love for other people and a greater understanding of those in different situations and with different viewpoints. My appreciation and admiration for diversity was increased. I was in Utah and southern Idaho, a place…

That is an amazing personal experience. I had similar when younger on Christian-organized "Medial Missions". Reflecting on these trips now however, I must say I am ashamed to have participated in the spreading of...to put it the most bluntly...superstitious nonsense. It's becoming even more evident to me recently how non-harmless the mystical beliefs I was condoning are and the role large role they play in the social climate and political outcomes in both our and other countries (for example: Trump and the first FARC peace initiative failing in Colombia). It was hard to reconcile the life-changing nature of those trips for me with what I now see as their counterproductive aims.

Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#95

Post by clairity »

wskemper wrote: post #21

Until recently, I volunteered as a coach for my local school district's Science Olympiad, in the middle school division. My first year they asked me to work with one of the aviation events. I'd never really had an interest in flight, and certainly not to the extent that I could teach others about it. First lesson: middle schoolers (think 11 - 14 years old) will test your patience in new and completely unimagined ways…

yes, coaching (and teaching in general) has great bang for the buck and tends to return as much as you give. it helps to have a good understanding of the subject (not necessarily expertise), but if not, in many cases, you can (re-)teach yourself the subject a little ahead of the students.

but the more important lessons come from learning how to manage a team. managing (much less leading) is hard. it develops your empathy muscles. it forces you to be nimble and creative. you'll feel a sense of failure and accomplishment at the same time. but children are so forgiving and watching them learn and grow fills you with a sense of pride (i volunteer coach basketball and i love it).

this sense of pride and self-esteem is a hidden benefit that not many people talk about since it seems so selfish, but it's real benefit to consider.

Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#96

Post by brightball »

When I was in college, I spent 3 years building a site for an organization that I was in which was active on campus. By the time I graduated after having served as a director of 3 different committees and president once, I'd built the site into a tool that ran the entire organization.

My entire career and employment came from that experience.

Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#98

Post by ianaphysicist »

Scouting binds together a broad range of educational and community service opportunities worldwide.

Both youth and adult members of Scouting develop leadership skills. Among these worldwide opportunities is the Wood Badge, whose curriculum varies country to country.

Here in the states, Wood Badge includes training on servant leadership, mentoring and business ethics -- concepts that help the adult leader better serve Scouting youth, but also offering broad practical applications in the workplace.

You'll need to check locally, but many Scouting programs also include opportunities in skills training and career exploration for youth.

Re: Ask HN: How has volunteering helped you grow?

#99

Post by dopeboy »

I've been volunteering since 2013 for a non-profit that teaches high school students in underserved areas how to code [0]. Here's what I've gotten out of it:

* I'm having an impact: there are people pursuing CS in university because of me. I (along with my coteachers) managed to make programming fun and rewarding for them so much that they saw it as a future. That feels good. Makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

* I'm a better communicator: distilling somewhat complex concepts into engaging lessons has made me a better talker. I'm more precise and efficient with my language - oral and written.

* I get to network: the non-profit I volunteer for is a magnet for all the kind of people I want to hang out. The volunteers that I get to serve with are talented developers & designers who care about the world around them. They work at awesome places and solve interesting problems. Most of all, they're just generally nice people.

* I'm a better programmer: teaching forces you to know your stuff. Even though I teach the basics of HTML, CSS, & JS, that foundation is a lot stronger for me.

[0] - https://scripted.org/

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