Energizing community participation of student leaders

The following is the initial draft of a talk I had delivered in front of college studends last November 26, 2008 at the La Salle University Araneta.  I was invited in lieu of Hands On Manila to talk about the importance of volunteerism.  The talk was part of a college-wide initiative to mold student leaders to act as role models to the university populace in terms of community activism.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.  I would like to thank De La Salle Araneta and the Office of Student Affairs for this opportunity to share to you my experience.  Let me start by talking about how I started volunteering and what has changed since then.

After a number job interviews, I finally settled with Greater Good Radio for my first-ever full-time job as a writer.  Greater Good Radio is a Hawaii-based media organization that promotes social entrepreneurship, volunteerism and servant leadership.  They interview community and business leaders, and tell their stories in hopes of inspiring and motivating others to do the same.

I started working for Greater Good Radio back in January 2006.

During that time, being outsourced did not appeal greatly to me.  I asked myself, “Why would I work with a company that is thousands of miles away?”  I thought I would give myself six months with the company. 

But those six months became two years.  I had eventually come to believe in the mission of Greater Good Radio.  The company instilled in me that sense of being one for others.

Yes, they teach us the value of sharing and giving back in grade school and high school, and in some cases, also in college.  Our education institutions were never remiss in instilling in us the importance of altruism. 

But in my case, I was never able to practice it fully until I started working.   In April or May 2006, I joined Hands On Manila.  After my story, I’ll talk to you briefly about this organization.

Through Hands On Manila, I got involved with the Pangarap Shelter in Pasay City in the Scoring Points program, where volunteers engage the children in sports and other activities.  (site San Beda rowing team and oar painting).

But my weekly visits to Pangarap Shelter only lasted a few months.

The thing about volunteering is that you have to find your niche.  Just as everything else, you have to find where your passion lies… even in volunteering.

It’s not that being with the kids did not appeal to me.  In fact, I have great memories of the children of Pangarap Shelter.  I still visit the place, although not as frequent as I used to. 

I just thought, “How can I better leverage myself through my skills and talents?”

So, I became a volunteer writer.  When I left Greater Good Radio early this year, I did not totally sever my ties with company.  I work freelance for them.  Leaving Greater Good, in fact, opened up a new opportunity for me to be of service. 

In April 2008, we brought the concept here in the Philippines, although at a much smaller and less active scale.

I started a blog site called Greater Good Philippines where I post my interviews with Filipino volunteers, social entrepreneurs, executives of NGOs, and even your ordinary man on the street; and also coverage of events (which is what I primarily do now with Hands On Manila), and similarly themed articles culled from various internet sources.

You can visit the site at greatergood.i.ph. 

But I never would have started Greater Good Philippines if I had not worked for Headstrong.  Just to give a little background, Headstrong is an IT consultancy company.  See, Headstrong allows its employees to grow beyond what our work offers us.  The company fosters personal and professional development.  The management gives us room to pursue our passions. 

I was four months in to my position as content provider for Headstrong when I started Greater Good Philippines.  I opened this up to our country manager and told her about what I wanted to do.  And she said, “You know what, if you’re passionate about it and if it’s for a good cause, I am willing to give you an hour every week out of your office hours to work on that.”

That’s another point that I want to put forward.  Once you step out of the school and start looking for a job, I suggest you find a company that has an embedded CSR campaign.  If that company has none, gather your colleagues and start one.

That’s what we’re starting to do at Headstrong.  We have employees who are actively engaged in the community, but the social responsibility only comes at individual levels.  What we want to accomplish is an established, institutionalized CSR campaign that will involve the company as a whole in whatever activities we execute.

I am getting myself involved now as much as possible, especially in our company.

But I look back sometimes and think, “What could I have done to become a better person?” 

I have no regrets about college.  College was rife with awesomeness.  But I could have done something to make it better, to make it more worthwhile.  During those times that I stayed at home when we had no classes, watching Eat Bulaga or Magandang Tanghali Bayan (MTB), I could have volunteered instead.  But the thing was that I did not know how.

Many of us want to help… but don’t know how.

That’s why I encourage you, as student leaders, to lead by example; to raise your hands and persuade others to follow suit. 

In the words of Mark Ruiz and TJ Agulto, co-founders of Hapinoy, “In this day and age, there is no excuse not to be extraordinary”.  You have all the resources, all the ideas for the taking.   

The difference between being extraordinary and being ordinary is that “extra”.  Great people take that extra step.  They raise their hands and stand up amongst the crowd.

And I end my talk with a few take home points:

1.      If there is an opportunity to raise your hands and volunteer to and for a cause, go for it.
2.      When you’re volunteering, encourage others especially your family, friends and loved ones to join you.
3.      Find what it is that you’re passionate about; whether you want to help in an orphanage, or elderly home, or do you want to teach sports?  Teach maths? 
4.      In everything you do, think about how it can better yourself.
5.      And, the simplest of all volunteerism acts… follow traffic rules.

Thank you very much.

Photo from Cinemanila.org.