Girls helping our environment by volunteering to plant trees!

Girls helping our environment by volunteering to plant trees!

I started volunteering when I was a young girl, and to this day, I love it. Volunteering your time and skills can bring so much joy to others and, in doing so, joy to you.

My first volunteer job was with my Girl Scout troop: visiting senior citizens, caroling for Christmas, and working on park cleanups. We used our weekends to make our community a better place, even in the smallest of ways.

My next job came in the summers of my middle and high school years. I volunteered at my local library: helping shelve books, taking care of the computers, and working the front desk to help library patrons. It was a fairly easy job, but I loved it since I could spend my free time reading books or meeting new people. It also helped me earn volunteer hours for college scholarships!

One of the most rewarding volunteer jobs I’ve held was as a teaching assistant at my local elementary school. It started out as part of my coursework in the Education Academy classes that I was taking, but it turned out to be one of the highlights of my days. I’d spend a few hours each day working with students in the second or third grades, getting to know them while helping them improve their reading skills. Often, I’d gather my group into circles where we took turns reading, laughing together over a character’s mishaps, or spending time getting to know each other. Watching my students improve their skills, score their first A+ on a test, and become happier as their self-confidence grew was one of the most rewarding feelings that I have ever experienced.

Today, I continue with my passion for volunteering. My work is primarily here, at Girl Museum: developing exhibitions, writing blog posts, and helping increase awareness and activism for girls’ rights across the world. It is a cause that I am firmly dedicated to: making a happier, safer, and better world full of opportunities for girls everywhere.

Whatever your passions are, I hope you find a great way to put them to use through volunteering this year. There is someone, somewhere, who needs your skills and friendship: whether that’s befriending a senior citizen, becoming a champion for a cause, or helping care for the dogs and cats at your local animal shelter. So take the New Year we’ve been given and find a way to make the world a better place. I promise you, it will lead to amazing memories!

-Tiffany Rhoades
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.

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