By Julie Schwietert Collazo
Artwork by Tara Tassio
If you’ve scrolled on Instagram or TikTok recently (and we know you have!), you’ve probably seen them: college admissions influencers who have a lot to say about teen volunteering. They agree with the conventional wisdom that says volunteering is important for teens (and for their college futures), but they have some controversial thoughts about what kind of volunteering. “Spending 100s of hours volunteering at a hospital is probably one of the easiest ways to get yourself REJECTED from an Ivy League school,” says @ivy_roadmap, who captions the same reel with this: “DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE VOLUNTEERING!!!”
“Ugh,” says Kristin Spiros, a guidance counselor at John Jay High School in Cross River. “College advisors on social media LOVE being provocative for the sake of their own engagement,” she says, and she urges teens to avoid paying too much attention to them. “I’ve seen so many videos where they’re giving numerical rankings to volunteer opportunities: ‘Oh, food pantry? 2/10. Soup kitchen? 5/10.’ That’s ludicrous. The best volunteer opportunities are the ones that are meaningful to you and speak to you. If you can find one that is related to a passion of yours or has something about it that has pushed you out of your comfort zone and can help you contribute to your personal growth, that’s a really good volunteer opportunity.”
How do you get started?
Spiros suggests that you conduct a self-inventory before looking around your community to see what volunteer opportunities are available. “The first thing to consider is yourself,” she says. “What skills do you have? What’s inside your comfort zone and what’s outside it? What are your strengths, preferences and passions?”
Once you have answered these questions, you can move on to the next one: How do you find a way to spend your time that speaks to these things? “Local organizations are in need of teen volunteers,” says Clare Murray, executive director of the Community Center of Northern Westchester. Murray adds that “organizations love teen volunteers because teens bring curiosity and energy. They are excellent ambassadors for the organization’s mission.” She suggests starting with your school as the first stop for learning more about local organizations and their volunteer opportunities.
A school-sponsored volunteer fair can introduce you to dozens of local nonprofits, where you can learn more about these groups’ missions and their specific needs. If you don’t see a need that matches your skill set, Murray encourages you to inquire with the representative attending the fair. “Sometimes help is needed in areas that are not posted or are less traditional, so let the organizations know if you have skills with technology or additional languages.” The same goes for other experiences that might be valuable.
Spiros agrees that your school is an incredible resource for learning about local volunteer needs. She holds an annual meeting with each student and their parents to “set the stage” for the next academic year. While courses and grades are definitely an important part of that conversation, one of the big questions they discuss is “What are you doing with your time outside school?”
Even if your school doesn’t schedule these kinds of meetings with a guidance counselor or advisor, you can take the initiative by going to the guidance office and asking for support to map out a plan for the next school year.
Where else should you look?
“You want to be more than a ‘box checker,’” Spiros says, referring to students who clearly only volunteer to look good (or check that box) on their college application. “What college admissions officers want to see is what you choose to do beyond school,” she explains. “Who are you via how you spent your time? If your volunteerism speaks to that, that’s a home run.”
Your parents and other trusted adults may also have solid leads for you about organizations in your area and the volunteer opportunities they offer. Churches, synagogues and other houses of worship can often point you in the right direction, too, or you can join projects they organize, such as toy drives around holidays, packing food baskets for families in need or visiting the elderly.
Finding a lead through an adult in your life is great, but Murray emphasizes that you should contact an organization about volunteering. “Hearing directly from teenagers goes a long way to showing an organization that you are responsible and take initiative,” she says.
Don’t be limited just by what’s available
Both Murray and Spiros point out that teens should never be limited by the advertised needs or available volunteer positions at local organizations. Murray says that even at organizations that don’t have any open volunteer roles, you might still be able to help if you’re passionate about their mission. She notes that often organizations are simply short-staffed, and they’re very busy. They may lack the internal staffing to manage on-site volunteers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be part of their work. “Ask if there are other ways to help,” Murray says. For example, she suggests organizing a food drive or school supplies drive that contributes to the organization’s mission, even if you’re not volunteering with the organization itself.
Spiros adds that some of the most impactful volunteering she’s seen from teens is also some of the most creative—and it hasn’t always happened within the walls of a nonprofit organization. These were volunteer roles that “developed really organically, by students who saw a problem and tried to solve it.”
One of her students, who was interested in journalism, decided to start a social media account to highlight the achievements of other students in the school. “He was practicing his skill and his passion,” she notes, “but he was also building community by celebrating people around him.” Another student decided to launch a “sideline sibling” service, where she would watch younger kids on the sidelines of local sports games. “This girl saw the problem of parents going to games of older kids but not being able to really watch the games because of the distractions of younger kids, and she decided to do something about it.”
Spiros adds that even volunteering experiences that are one-off projects, or projects that recur only periodically, can be impactful if they’re responding to an identified need. One of the volunteer roles Spiros remembers the most was exactly that. A trio of charismatic best friends had a friend at another school who decided not to go to the prom because of their disability, and the dynamic trio decided they were not okay with this. They jumped into action, with one serving as his date and the other two serving as dates for two of his friends. In addition to the lifelong memories made that evening, Spiros says that after that prom, the three friends ended up doing this again and again, attending multiple proms—all as volunteers. All three of these examples, Spiros says, were impactful and memorable because they were all “really authentic and self-directed.”
You found the perfect opportunity–now what?
“Once you’ve identified your ideal volunteer opportunity, it’s important to treat it like a job,” says Murray. “Show up. Be punctual. Be willing to take on a variety of challenges.” Murray and Spiros agree that teen volunteers shouldn’t shy away from the jobs that may, at first glance, seem to be boring or low-impact. Many organizations’ volunteer roles involve “monotonous, repetitive tasks,” Spiros notes. Don’t despair! Spiros insists that these kinds of responsibilities are crucial for nonprofits. “The work that may seem menial frees up more skilled workers for more skilled work,” Spiros points out, “and that’s of ‘tremendous value’ to organizations.”
Spiros also says that teen volunteers should have conversations with their parents or friends about their volunteer work. Use these conversations as an opportunity to debrief about your experiences. “Tell them what you saw and observed while you were there,” she recommends. “You should also talk about what you contributed and who benefited from it.” These conversations are important because sometimes they are not clear in the moment, and talking with someone who knows you well can help you reflect on your experiences and articulate what they have meant to you—and to the people you’re helping.
Finally, if you are applying for college, make time to give some thought about how you’re going to frame and explain your volunteer work so that it has the greatest impact on the admissions committee. Volunteering is just one chapter of your story, says Spiros, and it helps you paint the bigger picture that tells others who you are and what’s important to you. In this, she seems to agree with @ivy_roadmap, who really was just fishing for clicks. Contrary to his “DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE VOLUNTEERING!!!” caption, he also admits, “The thing that makes Ivy League schools want to accept you is [sic] not the hours you spend [volunteering], but the story that you tell.”
This article was edited by Isabella Aranda Garcia and fact-checked by Rinn Kress. The artist used Adobe Creative Suite.
This article was published in the July/August 2026 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.
Julie Schwietert Collazo
Julie Schwietert Collazo is a writer, editor, fact-checker, and translator. She is also author of the travel guidebooks MOON New York State and the forthcoming MOON Hudson Valley and the Catskills.
