Does your resume look short on experience?  For busy students who are applying for their first jobs, volunteering could be valuable for a resume.

Lisa August, assistant director of the Career Development Center at Buffalo State College said it also means students are more marketable to employers also to become familiar with a career.

The Volunteer and Service Learning Center is located in the Career Development Center Office in Grover Cleveland in Room 306. The center works in conjunction with local organizations in need of volunteers to help students find experience that best suits their needs.

According to the Career Development Center’s Web site, there are over 100 volunteer opportunities available relating to all majors at BSC. Students can also receive college credit through service learning, which are courses that give experience through community service projects.

Laura Hill Rao, coordinator of the Volunteer and Service Learning Center, said that each semester about 450 students participate in the program. Last year, the BSC Office of Institutional Research reported total undergraduate enrollment was 11,072; meaning about 24 percent of the total student population.

Veronica Zaenglein, 21, an art education major, first heard of the program through a guest speaker in one of her classes. Zaenglein decided she wanted to help teach art to children (ages 6 through 13) in the West side community. For a semester, she donated two to three hours every week.

Her experience has helped her feel more confident in building up her resume while embracing diversity for teaching.

“It opened me up to different cultures; a lot of them spoke Spanish,” she said.  “At first it was very frustrating. It helped me working with large groups and classmates around me.”  “For that I feel more prepared that I am student teaching.”

For students who have rigorous and time consuming schedules, Zaenglein said 20 volunteer hours in a semester goes by fast.

“A lot of my classmates said that they could not do 20 hours. Spending only two hours a week means a lifetime for these kids. It’s not a lot of time. After I got into it was definitely worth it,” she said.

Rao also said volunteering means employers will get a sense of a recent graduate’s character.

“Volunteering shows how you are committed on a regular basis for an organization and also how you are engaged in the community,” she said. “It shows that you have values and gives the employer a picture of who you are.”

For more information about becoming a volunteer, log on to the Career Development’s Web site at http://www.buffalostate.edu/offices/cdc/

Michelle King can be contacted at: kingmk23@mail.buffalostate.edu