How I Became to Serve: I don’t remember the first time I participated in “service,” but I always remember wanting to help people and lend a hand whenever I could. Supposedly I would try to help my parents change my baby brother’s diapers when I was three years old, haha! Helping other people and giving back to the community is something my family has always pushed, especially my mom. She helped with the Giving Tree around Christmas time, and volunteered at Community Day and other activities like that. She always tried to find ways that I could help as well since I was too young for a lot of the tasks. Her company also participates in several volunteer projects and service activities in Philadelphia. I helped her with several of these projects one of which being through the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey that consisted of cleaning up a section of the city by picking up trash, weeding the sidewalks, etc. While I’m not from the city itself, I’m still proud to consider it my local area and it meant a lot to me to be able to clean some of it up for the residents. I’ve done other projects in Philadelphia too and the residents were very appreciative of our work. These and other United Way events are what led me to the position I’m in now of Co-President of the Penn State Student United Way.
Why I Serve: I serve because like I said above, I genuinely enjoy helping others no matter how big or small the task may be. It could be as simple as saying good morning and spreading a smile to somebody or offering to carry an older person’s dry-cleaning out to the car so they don’t have to (I worked at a drycleaners through high school). There is nothing like seeing somebody smile and have their eyes light up because of something that I did, even if it was just being nice to them. I am also a strong believer of leading by example and making a positive impact on my community. I have two younger siblings who look up to me, so I serve in order to show them how I think they should treat people and give back to their communities that have given them so much.
