Most students that are interested in higher education spend their high school’s careers trying to build an enticing resume.

The more clubs, sports, and community service hours the better. Clearing weekend schedules, committing to spending the whole day picking up trash, kids are constantly volunteering to better their community.

This involvement is great but is the reasoning behind it genuine?

Community service should be done without expecting an incentive at the end of it. Having spent an abundance of hours, volunteering should be done because one wants to do it. Not because they feel like they are required to a good deed. 

The second students enter high school it is instilled in them to be “involved” and give back to their community. Those are the traits in students colleges look for in students. But what if college wasn’t in the picture? What if colleges didn’t look at community service hours? Would students continue to give up hours of their time? Probably not.

If students truly wanted to give back to their community they would volunteer at other places and events outside of the ones advertised through their school.