Impact Society and Your First Resume

Worried about adding experience to your resume before you graduate? We make it easier for busy students to gain concrete skills experience and become stronger job candidates. Our leadership training and the volunteer work we facilitate is intentionally designed to build a record of leadership, communication, critical thinking, and other soft or transferable skills employers value.

Why It Matters

Only 4 in 10 students gain an internship and 63% of seniors who missed out wanted one.

Employers report that they are 85% more inclined to look past resume issues or gaps if the applicant's biography includes volunteer work. Research shows it can increase your odds of employment by 27%.

97% of employers surveyed said soft skills were as important or more important than hard skills.

HR leaders report soft skills are key in setting apart ideal job candidates from adequate ones - especially when recruiters are deciding among applicants with similar work and education experience.  

Service-learning partners are a good job reference like that of a boss or professor.

Colleges struggle to deliver service-learning courses, however, students can seek out their own projects or partnerships. Doing so shows leadership and can gain a quality job reference to help launch your career.

How It Works

Step 1: Leadership Training

Complete online training to learn about:

  • education related projects we facilitate
  • strategies for maximizing social impact
  • utilizing your personal assets for impact
  • practicing soft and transferable skills

Step 2: Practical Experience

Use our practice field and project support or work with coaches to:

  • build skills while earning service hours
  • turn class projects into work experience
  • connect and work with service partners

Step 3: Personal Development

Conclude each volunteer project with a reflection activity designed to help you:

  • see your impact and personal growth
  • add volunteer work to your resume 
  • build experience stories for interviews

Our Practice Field

PeerTakes

Signaling That Student Engagement Matters

Share life stories and information with younger students you share a connection with through school or student activities to help them see how their actions or student engagement today can impact their future in ways that can make life easier or harder.

Soft Skills: empathy leadership, communication, emotional intelligence, networking, interpersonal skills

Campus Collabs

Collaborating to Improve Student Support and Success

Support efforts to improve student support and success by aligning class projects or collaborating with people on campus to help education and workforce development leaders, community organizations, or school programs better serve students.

Soft Skills: leadership, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, networking, teamwork, communication, work ethic

Teach it Back

Helping Students Become Stronger Job Candidates

Learn how to use technology, labor market data, and resume and interview strategies to become a stronger job candidate. Apply the knowledge to boost your resume and practice for interviews; then teach other students and help them do the same. 

Soft Skills: adaptability, empathy leadership, communication, problem solving, work ethic, interpersonal skills 

    Marshall University, SL Course Student

I was attracted to the PeerTakes projects our service-learning class was doing because I know that mistakes I made as a high school student cost me time and money in college. I didn't know how unprepared I was until I arrived on campus. I wanted to work with teachers I knew and that my younger siblings still had so I could help students get the information they needed to avoid common mistakes and be successful.

PeerTakes Projects Added to My Resume

  • Gained valuable leadership and soft skill experience through ongoing involvement in mentoring activities.
  • Collaborated with former high school coaches, teachers, and staff to create opportunities to be a mentor.
  • Motivated athletes to focus on academic success by sharing challenges and pitfalls college athletes often face.
  • Demonstrated empathy and understanding by sharing my story of aiming for college even though it isn't the norm for our blue-collar community and counselors and information about pursuing higher ed is limited.
  • Had the highest number of mentoring impressions out of 28 students in my service-learning class.
  • Organized and led a study group to help freshman engineering majors better prepare for exams.

Emily, IUPUI, Graphic Design Major

Rather than the usual path of designing a portfolio around a pretend business, I wanted my capstone project to involve social impact so I would have more to talk about in job interviews. I met a ServeFully coach at an event and worked with her and my advisor to define the scope of work for the topic "redesigning the service-learning experience for students." 

Campus Collab Project Added to My Resume

  • Built my capstone project around making a social impact.
  • Fostered positive relationship with a service partner.
  • Collaborated with advisor and partner to define scope of work.
  • Researched campus data and designed a data collection tool.
  • Interviewed professors, administrators, and students.
  • Compiled data and delivered findings in a poster format.
  • Surfaced pain points and data for my college's Department of Teaching and Learning to consider in program design.
  • Empowered ServeFully to improve their volunteer work design process by surfacing the characteristics students most want to see.

Luke, Marshall University, Senior

I was concerned about not having an internship or any real work experience on my resume. A ServeFully coach pointed me toward a free resume optimization tool designed by education and workforce development leaders to facilitate the shift to skills-based hiring. I practiced optimizing my resume and then taught other students how to use it.

Teach It Back Project Added to My Resume

  • Supported work of Open Skills Network and Lightcast to address labor market challenges surrounding the shift towards skills-based hiring.
  • Trained how to use a free resume optimization tool being piloted to help facilitate the use of a common skills-based language for job postings, course syllabi, and resumes.
  • Fostered relationships with campus administrators and businesses to get sponsors for a Career Fair booth.
  • Demonstrated using the tool to tailor resumes for job titles to the skills job postings are demanding.
  • Achieved 20% beyond target goal of teaching 100 students how to surface skills experience they may have gained in class or find missing skills they need to add to be more competitive.

The ultimate volunteer work experience for busy students who want to reach their personal goals.

Impactful

Increasing student engagement and success is one of our country's greatest challenges. It is also the space where student volunteers are uniquely qualified to draw on their personal experience, skills or assets to maximize their impact on society and their resumes or as we say, to serve fully.

Meaningful

Student volunteers possess valuable insight that can help younger students avoid pitfalls and find success. When student volunteers serve schools and students they share a connection with, they possess greater empathy and are more motivated to keep serving and building experience. 

Personal Value

It's hard for young job candidates to get their foot in the door, especially when their resume lacks experience. Making it easier for students to leave school with quaility work experience, references, and contacts enhances their education and empowers them to gain a competitive advantage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

We offer leadership training and project support that .

Do I have to be a college junior or senior?

Our coaches are carefully selected based on their qualifications, experience, and specific areas of interest. The unique perspectives they gained through their own successes or failures connect them to the education projects they facilitate or the students they coach. Each coach undergoes a rigorous screening process and in-depth training to ensure they meet our high standards. They collaborate with other coaches to stay informed and ensure they are steering their students to the ultimate service work opportunities.

Is ServeFully a non-profit I will be supporting?

Volunteer work can be performed in-person and online, allowing students to choose the format that best suits their needs and preferences. PeerTakes requires partnering with a teacher, principal, athletic coach, or club leader who can arrange a virtual or in-person visit. Whether a Campus Collabs or Teach It Back project is in-person or online is totally up the student who is designing or joining a project. Creating volunteer opportunities that are accessible and flexible are always our top goal.

Is the volunteer work in-person or online?

If your enrollment is sponsored by a school, athletic department, fraternity, sorority, or other student organization, they will have already arranged for a well-aligned coach to work with the students in the group. All students complete a survey prior to their initial coaching session. Based on the specific needs, challenges, and learning goals they express, our direct enrollment students are matched with a coach who is best suited to facilitate their success. Our goal is to create a personalized and effective learning experience for every student.

Make an impact–become a ServeFully coach today!

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