This article is adapted from Davidson Institute’s “Considering Your Options: A Guidebook for Investigating Gap Year Opportunities”, part of our collection of free guidebooks for gifted and 2e families. For a deeper dive into supporting your gifted or twice-exceptional child, we encourage you to explore the full guide.
“Giving Back” is the act of doing something for the good of a society, a community or subset thereof with no expectation of reimbursement for time, energy, or actions. The most common type of giving back is volunteer work or community service conducted through an existing organization whose mission is to provide goods or services needed by a specific population or community. Generally speaking, a giving-back type of activity will aim to provide this good or service to members of a community in a not-for-profit setting. Giving back can be thought of as synonymous with the term philanthropy, which is broadly defined as activities or efforts to improve the well-being of humankind. The term philanthropy often conjures images of wealthy individuals donating money to a particular cause, but those who donate their time and energy (like you) are philanthropists as well.
As you can see from the broad definitions of these terms, giving back (or philanthropy) can come in many forms, limited only by your imagination. While some people may only be able to dedicate a couple hours a month (or week) to volunteering, this is still an extremely valuable way to contribute, and crucial to keeping nonprofit organizations going. According to Volunteering and Civic Life in America, 62.6 million volunteers dedicated 7.8 billion hours of service to community organizations in 2017! Can you imagine the void that would be created if all those people just stayed home?
Volunteer work is only one way to get involved. Some individuals feel so passionate about a cause that they may take on a leadership role with a larger time commitment (which may include a wage, stipend or other reimbursement). Others may decide to create their very own organization aimed at giving back. This obviously requires a significant commitment and could potentially become a permanent full-time occupation.
Why give back?
City, county, state, and federal governments, along with private companies, are not able to fulfill all the diverse and unique needs of all communities. This leaves a significant number of tasks for other organizations to fulfill while also creating the need for volunteerism and the nonprofit sector. These unfulfilled tasks can include just about anything, from environmental conservation efforts to providing food, shelter, health care or education to those in need. Volunteerism and the nonprofit sector play such a critical role in American society that the Corporation for National and Community Service (the nation’s largest grantmaker supporting service and volunteering) has a budget in excess of $1 billion dollars for fiscal year 2010. This means there are more opportunities than ever before for aspiring young volunteers like you. Whatever the pressing needs of a given community might be, engaging in a giving-back activity to address these needs is a surefire way to help others, gain valuable “real-world” experience, and feel great about yourself in the process.
Benefits of Giving Back
Young people everywhere are working hard to affect positive change in the world. Gifted young people are no exception, many of whom have made significant positive contributions to their communities before they graduate high school. Besides the intentional benefits of doing something that is personally fulfilling and helping others, there are many additional benefits of participating in such activities. These “latent” benefits include bolstering your resume for college admissions (not to mention scholarships or grants to help pay tuition), developing important skills in business, communication, leadership, and professional networking. Exciting possibilities for funding, employment and even world travel await those willing to dedicate their time to a worthy cause. According to Miriam Weinstein, author of Making a Difference: Scholarships for a Better World, “Your background of consistent community service or activism will make you extra attractive to most colleges and graduate schools.” Additionally, the experience and knowledge gained through volunteering and participation in other service-oriented programs will better prepare young people with the skills needed for success in the job market after graduation. Therefore, one need not be the high school valedictorian or varsity athlete to be the recipient of scholarship money and participant in extracurricular opportunities. Contrary to conventional thinking, community service experience is a valuable asset for the college applicant, even as much as sports and academics.
Giving Back and Gifted Kids
As you probably already know from your own life experience, gifted young people do not fit into any standard mold. Having said this, a number of research studies, along with our experience at the Davidson Institute, have indicated that a common trait among many gifted young people is that they have an extraordinarily high capacity for empathy and a strong desire for justice at an early age (Fielder, 1998; Lovecky, 1994; Piechowski, 1991). This heightened sense of empathy and perceived “right and wrong” can result in a great deal of anxiety, particularly when faced with injustices seen in the media, their communities, or their own lives. If this sounds like you, becoming involved in a giving-back venture aimed at making a positive difference (whether environmental, humanitarian, educational, etc.) can be an empowering first step toward remedying these issues. Giving back offers concerned individuals a place to start when trying to make a change for the better. Younnis and Yates (1997) have identified community service involvement as benefiting young people by promoting social problem-solving skills and fostering optimism for a better future. This drive to “do the right thing” and make a positive contribution to society is commonly cited as a reason Young Scholars give when asked why they have decided to give back.
In addition to satisfying the need to help others or remedy injustices, additional developmental benefits of community service activities have been well documented with empirical research. Furthermore, the idea of “service learning” (incorporating community service into a school curriculum) as a vital component of a well-rounded education has gained momentum in recent years. This has led to a great deal of research on the potential benefits of service learning as a pedagogical tool (Andersen, 1998; Conrad & Hedin, 1987; Kenny et al., 2002; Mannes, 2002), which strongly supports this as a positive developmental experience on many levels. While gifted students do have a different learning trajectory when compared to others, benefits such as the development of critical thinking, leadership, and problem-solving skills, as well as communication and teamwork experience provided by involvement in community service, cannot be overstated.
Davidson Young Scholar Ambassador Program
The Davidson Young Scholar Ambassador Program is designed to encourage Davidson Young Scholars to plan, implement and maintain their own community service ventures. Once selected for this competitive opportunity, Ambassadors-In-Training participate in an 18month training process in which they take part in the following expert-led online training seminars:
- Business proposal and goal setting
- Interpersonal communication
- Leadership and ethics ▪ Philanthropy
- Self-Advocacy
- Public Relations and Media Training
- Fundraising
In addition to these online seminars, Ambassadors are also matched with an advisor who works with them throughout the 18 months of training to assist them in whatever way necessary to ensure the success of their projects.
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