Reading week gives students the opportunity to not only catch up on studies, but also the chance to give back to the community.

Volunteer work can be fulfilling — it gives the sense of being deeply involved in one’s community as well as having helped that community. Aside from this feeling, volunteering can also be used to build students’ resumes without having to commit to more time-consuming aspects of a job. Volunteering also allows students to gain experience in their field of study before completing their degree and beginning their career.

With many benefits to gain from volunteering, this is something students should definitely look into. Unfortunately, many students don’t have the time or knowledge on how to get involved. Luckily, reading week gives students a little extra spare time and a chance to either volunteer during the week or time to plan out future volunteering endeavours.

There are multiple ways of going about finding a volunteer position — for instance, students can use the University of Saskatchewan volunteer page. The volunteer page is found through the student jobs tab on the U of S website and allows students to search by organization or filter based on college, or down to just postings on campus.

While this route is the best for finding postings for on campus opportunities, there are also off campus postings available as well — which gives added options for students when an on campus volunteer program is not the most convenient. In addition, the U of S also offers another service called CareerLink.

While CareerLink is mainly aimed at setting students up with paying jobs, there are also volunteer postings. There is a range of opportunities on this page — from helping with youth soccer in Saskatoon to international opportunities such as art therapy in Tanzania.

CareerLink’s organizational features are helpful as well, allowing for students to save postings for viewing later or even set up a “saved search” which sends students an email whenever a posting is made within their search parameters.

Another online service for finding volunteer work is through United Way. This website is aimed towards those who are looking to benefit their community, rather than advance their career. The Saskatoon and Area branch of United Way maintains a volunteer database full of a variety of opportunities.

This database pertains largely to arts-focused and charitable organizations‚ and while these certainly would be beneficial to students in certain fields, they are mainly focused on helping the community.

Another way to find volunteer work is through postings on Kijiji and the City of Saskatoon’s website. In contrast to United Way, the City of Saskatoon offers many volunteer opportunities for those interested in health and sports. From arranging fitness programs to flooding outdoor rinks, you’ll be helping keep your community fit!

Of course, there are many more that can be found through searches online, but, students should be careful when signing up for volunteer work with an organization they either do not recognize or trust and be wary of online scams.

Volunteering is a great opportunity for students because it’s flexible, which makes it easy to fit into your busy student schedule. Some organizations only look for volunteers to spend a couple hours every couple of months with them, whereas some expect multiple hours a week — leaving students with no excuse not to volunteer.

Volunteer work can be beneficial to almost any student — it gives students hands-on experience in their fields of interest and it bulks up their resume, making volunteering both a beneficial and fulfilling endeavour.

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Jack Thompson / Staff Writer

Graphic: Lesia Karalash / Graphics Editor