You need more than a degree to impress potential employers. Our leadership training and volunteer work is designed to help students build experience employers value and look for.
Competing for your first job will be hard enough. Don't make it harder!
Free How to Bost Your Resume Guide for Students
Three reasons students should prioritize volunteer work experience.
Only 4 out of 10 students gain an internship and only 2 out of 3 interns get paid.
The shift to skills-based hiring hurts young job candidates with no work experience. Volunteer work adds experience to fill resume gaps.
Volunteer work experience can increase your odds of employment by 27%.
Employers are 85% more inclined to look past resume issues or gaps if the applicant's biography includes volunteer work. Yet only 30% list it.
Service-learning partners are a good job reference and can vouch for work experience.
You can build a relationship with a service-learning partner similar to that of a boss or professor which can lead to a valuable job reference.
We help students enhance their employment prospects
We provide leadership training and coach students through volunteer work designed to build soft skills experience employers value.
Student volunteers are uniquely qualified to help younger students avoid pitfalls and find success. It's the space where they are most equipped to maximize their impact on society and their own resumes or as we say, to serve fully.
Our coaches help student volunteers apply their knowledge, skills, and connections to one of our country's greatest challenges, increasing student engagement and success.
Spread over three core service missions, the projects and activities we coach students through are compelling, accessible, and grow with our learners. We make it easy for students to volunteer and connect with community partners to do great work.
Our Practice Field
Signaling That Student Engagement Matters
Sharing life stories and modeling success, so younger students can see how their student engagement today matters as to what type of education, career, and lifestyle opportunities they will have in the future.
Encouraging Students to Use Free Tools and Support
Relaying information about free student support and career development opportunities, so students on all pathways understand and are more likely to embrace the help concerned leaders are striving to provide.
Helping Students Articulate Their Job Qualifications
Demonstrating how to use labor market data, resume tools, and new common languages building with the shifts to skill-based hiring and lifelong learning, so students know how to stand out on resumes and in interviews.
How it Works
- Leadership Training
Complete the online curriculum to learn about our core missions, the social innovation and impact strategies to apply, leadership roles you can fill, and skills to build while serving students.
- Community Service
Choose one of our missions and work with a coach to fulfill roles whenever you want to earn quick hours, tailor roles to apply skills from a class, or do indepth work with service partners.
- Resume Building
Participate in a reflection activity led by a coach who will help you see your growth, certify your participation, and show you how to effectively convey your experience to potential employers.
Help Scale Experiential Learning Opportunities for Youth
We invite organizations with a vested interest in growing service-learning, improving youth outcomes, or strengthening our talent development pipeline to collaborate on ways to support more student volunteers.
Our country has 13.92 million 4-year and 4.66 million 2-year college students who need internship and service-learning opportunities that prepare them for a skills-based economy. Hard to overcome barriers make it impossible for colleges and employers to meet the demand. But they can help blaze another path.
For generations our culture has been teaching youth that volunteering can help them boost their resumes, gain real-world experience, foster connections, earn scholarships, and improve their mental health. Over 25% of college and high school students already formally volunteer.
Our solution of coaching students through volunteer work builds off a strong foundation. Through collaboration, embedding, and sponsorships we can empower more students to practice valuable skills by serving other students.
If you are a stakeholder, please join the conversation on how we might use existing resources to better serve youth and achieve your organization's goals.
Colleges and
Universities
Student Organizations Promoting Volunteerism
Foundations and Nonprofit Organizations
Education and Workforce Development Leaders
The data behind the problem and our solution.
The Magnitude of the Problem.
- 13.92 million 4-year and 4.66 million 2-year college students need evidence-based, high-impact practices including internships and service-learning. EDI
- Only 40% of students gain an internship Gallup,Strada
- Only 67% of internships completed by 4-year college students and 62% for community college students meet the benchmarks for quality experiences. Strada
- Only 2 out of 3 internships offer compensation. Strada
- 63% of seniors without an internship wanted one but could not due to a lack of positions, intense competition or personal barriers like finances. Strada
- Hard to overcome institutional barriers such as enlisting professors and community partners, restrict the number of service-learning courses offered. CECD
The Opportunity to Seize.
- Only 30% of resumes list volunteer experience, yet 82% of respondents said they would be more likely to choose a candidate with volunteer experience. Deloitte Impact Survey
- Volunteering shows commitment and accountability to future employers when your employment history is short. Deloitte Impact Survey
- Volunteering can increase your odds of employment by 27%. Corporation for National Community Service
- Employers are 85% more inclined to look past resume issues or gaps if the applicant's biography includes volunteer work. CNCS
- 25% of college students formally volunteer and they mostly prefer education/youth projects. Youth.gov