At the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, we have a strong culture of serving others. Whether it’s the Torchbearer Statue symbolizing shadowing yourself to give light to others or our university being known as the Tennessee Volunteers, service is a crucial part of your student experience.
At its core, volunteering is engaging in service: non-compensated activities that directly benefit the larger community. To qualify as service at UTK, service must be done with a qualifying organization, such as a nonprofit organization. To learn more, review the complete UTK Service Guidelines.
We hope that this guide will walk you through best practices of successful volunteer experiences.
Before You Volunteer
Once you’ve signed up for a volunteer opportunity, it’s important to review the event details to determine:
- What to wear: If it is not listed, the JCLS recommends wearing long pants, close-toed shoes, and clothing you are willing to get dirty. Leave the white sneakers at home!
- What to bring: if it isn’t listed, the JCLS recommends bringing water, bug spray, sunscreen, and a hat if you could be working outside.
- How to prepare: Some volunteer opportunities may require training or a waiver. Check the event details to make sure you have completed any action items.
- Transportation: Review the event details to determine if transportation is provided, where to park, and where to check in when you arrive.
- If you signed up in ServeUTK, find event details by clicking My Activity in the top right corner, then click Registrations. If you need to contact the event administrator, their information will be on the ServeUTK event page.
When You Arrive
It’s time to start your shift! When you arrive at the volunteer site, follow these best practices:
- Arrive on time (or a few minutes early) for your shift.
- Be prepared to stay for the entire shift unless an event organizer ends the shift early.
- Community partner organizations may provide a background on their mission and who they serve. Stay engaged for any background or instructions they provide.
- Respect your surroundings, any representatives from the organization, the supplies provided to you, other volunteers, and the purpose of the service.
- If you aren’t sure how to complete a task, ask questions! This is valuable for both you and the partner to complete the job correctly.
- Volunteering is a great time to learn new skills and challenge yourself to grow. However, if you feel uncomfortable performing a task, it’s okay to ask for another responsibility.
Before You Leave
Congratulations on finishing your volunteer shift! Before you leave, make a plan for having your service hours verified by the organization.
- ServeUTK Events: If you registered through ServeUTK, your hours will be verified by the event administrator once they check you in for the event. You will not need to add an individual impact to track your hours.
- If you did not register through ServeUTK, you will add your own ServeUTK impact to track your hours. Before you leave, ask who you can list as your verifier. You will need their name and email address. Notify the person that they will receive an email with a button that says “Yes, Verify Impact.” They will not need a ServeUTK login to verify your hours.
- Service Hour Deadlines: If you need your hours verified by a certain deadline, politely ask when they anticipate verifying your hours. You can communicate your deadline, but ultimately, the partner may not be able to accommodate a short turnaround time.
After You Serve
In the Jones Center for Leadership & Service, we believe that reflecting on your experience is an important step. This is your chance to make meaning of the project you completed and what you learned about your community and yourself.
If you are volunteering with others, take a few minutes after your shift to walk through some of the questions below.
Volunteering alone? Make some time to journal or consider some of these questions.
These questions objectively report facts and events of an experience
- What did we do today?
- What did you observe?
- What was accomplished?
- What skills/knowledge did you bring to the project?
- What issue is being addressed or what population is being served by this project or organization?
- Outside of this experience, how do you currently show up for your community?
These questions help you analyze the experience.
- What assumptions or expectations did you bring? How did they affect your actions?
- What did you learn about the people or community during this experience?
These questions help you consider the future impact on you and the community.
- Why does this community issue exist?
- What factors are involved that require this organization or issue to have volunteers to address this issue?
- What did you learn today?
- How can you apply this learning?
- What would you like to learn more about related to this project or issue?
You now have the tools to be a good volunteer! Want to be a great volunteer? Sustained volunteering is the best way to serve. You know more about an organization, your community, and your volunteer skills on the second, fifth, or tenth time serving.
Visit the ServeUTK calendar to find community partners and volunteer opportunities.
Looking for a chance to serve with your student organization? Visit the Guide for Planning Group Service.