Volunteers are preparing donation boxes at the food and clothes bank. Humanitarian aid project ... More concept. Some of them are looking at camera. Volunteering is one of the most meaningful ways students can spend their free time during the summer. But just as important as volunteering itself is choosing the right volunteer opportunity for your applicant profile. At its best, volunteering provides students a platform to give back to their community and show admissions officers that they will be active and socially conscious members of their future campus communities. But not all volunteer work sends the same message, and some opportunities offer students a chance to clarify their interests and stand out to colleges more than others. Many students blindly choose a volunteer organization that has no connection to their core interests in order to rack up community service hours. This not only inhibits them from discovering more about their skills and passions, but may also signal to admissions officers at Ivy League and other top schools that they are not genuinely interested in helping their community; they just want to pad their resume. Instead, students should think critically and strategically about their summer volunteer involvements to ensure that they add meaningful insights to their admissions profiles. The best place to start is by asking questions such as: What issues genuinely matter to me? What skills or experiences do I want to develop? What are my core passions and interests? What profession do I see myself excelling in? Here’s how your summer volunteer work shapes the way admissions officers see you—and how you can choose summer volunteer activities that showcase your values and interests in the best possible light: 1. Volunteering Reveals What You Care About How you choose to spend your free time speaks volumes about what you truly value, what kind of community member you are and will be on campus, and how you intend to use your education in the future. Since the majority of your time in college will be spent outside of the classroom, the summer months provide admissions officers a glimpse into how you choose to spend your time when not pressed with other obligations. MORE FOR YOU For this reason, it is critical to choose volunteer activities that reflect your genuine interests and cohere with your hook. A student interested in public health won’t hurt their application by volunteering at an education focused non-profit, but they will miss a prime opportunity to showcase hands-on engagement in their area of interest. On the other hand, volunteering at a local free clinic, translating documents for immigrant families at a community health center, or organizing COVID-19 vaccine outreach would compellingly demonstrate alignment between their core passions and their actions. Students can illustrate what matters to them not only through the particular kind of volunteer work that they choose to do, but also where they choose to do it. While many students assume that doing charity work with an international organization on the other side of the globe will impress admissions officers more than doing service projects in their community, this is not the case. Local volunteer work shows admissions officers that you are invested in your local community, committed to bettering your immediate surroundings, and motivated to use your unique passions and skills for the benefit of those in your area. Global work is not necessarily a bad addition to your application, but it can be more challenging to achieve depth of involvement, tangible impact, and meaningful connection when working with a sprawling nonprofit. 2. Volunteering Shows Long-Term Commitment and Depth of Engagement Racking up community service hours at an animal shelter, soup kitchen, beach cleanup, after school education program, and a local summer camp will not make admissions officers think that you are exceptionally service-oriented; in fact, it could have the opposite effect. Stretching yourself thin over a number of unrelated volunteer opportunities simply to add to your Activities List will communicate that you have not engaged deeply with any of the activities you have participated in. Sustained, long-term involvement in a few activities that matter to you will allow you to demonstrate consistency, dedication, and depth of engagement with your area of interest. It also allows students the chance to take on new responsibilities over time, assume leadership roles, and get a more comprehensive understanding of an organization. Additionally, by volunteering with one or two organizations over time, students can build relationships that will lead to meaningful and compelling letters of recommendation. 3. Volunteering Demonstrates Self-Motivation and Follow-Through The best volunteer activities are those that a student self-authors on the basis of their unique, interdisciplinary interests. Spearheading a first aid workshop for middle schoolers, launching a neighborhood food distribution initiative, designing a financial literacy educational program for seniors—these types of self-initiated projects demonstrate creativity, follow-through, and a vision to make a meaningful difference. The summer is an ideal time to launch an independent volunteer project, as the free time away from school allows students to ideate, create a step-by-step plan, and execute on their ideas. Even if you’re not ready to start your own organization or initiative, stepping up within an existing one, by, for example, identifying a gap in services and working with leadership to address it, can help you stand out. For instance, if you’re volunteering at a local animal shelter and notice that its social media outreach is minimal, you might propose and manage a new campaign to promote adoptions. While a student might launch their project in the summer, they should create a measurable plan to continue their initiative throughout the school year and scale and expand it during the subsequent summers. Summer volunteering is an opportunity to get creative, explore your interests, and do something that not only interests you, but benefits those around you. Rather than seeking to check a box or pad your resume, you should approach the process with intentionality and introspection to make the most of the experience. Editorial StandardsReprints & Permissions