Profile Component of Multimedia Project for Timbs
Part III—Profile Component
Most students’ Saturday mornings are spent sleeping in or catching up. Some students, however, are waking up bright and early to give back to the community.
Allaire Gehm, a senior education major at Winthrop, is one of them.
Gehm chooses to spend every Saturday morning volunteering at Petsmart’s weekly adoption day, a program that she is passionate about. She said that she tries to devote as much of her spare time to the project because of the dedication the two women who run the program devote to the cause and the care of the animals.
“The people who run operation care take these animals in off the street,” Gehm said. “…They help them work through any emotional or physical torment or torture that they’ve gone through.”
Gehm is one of an increasing number of students who have chosen to participate in community service since coming to college. “Community Service in the Transition” is an article in the Journal of Higher Education written by Helen Marks that showcases the relationship between college students and service in their local communities. Marks said that most students who volunteer as high school seniors lose moment by the time they reach their freshman year of college, making them less interested in bettering the community than ever.
Gehm goes against what Marks claims to be the norm; as a high school student, she volunteered frequently in the community. She was a part of the Beta Club, a national service club, in high school up until her senior year.
“I’ve always volunteered, since middle school I think,” Gehm said. “I admit I stopped for a year or so when I got to college, but then I found out about Operation Care and I found something I was really passionate about; I can’t imagine not helping out now.”
The National Corporation for Community Services found statistics to contradict Mark’s claims. To the contrary, they said, the nation is seeing record numbers of college students that choose to devote their time to the community. The number of college student volunteers increased by 600,00 in the past five years.
Gehm said that while she is glad that the nation is seeing greater numbers of college volunteers, she doesn’t see that same work ethic much in some of her own friends. Gehm said that some of her friends in sororities only volunteer if their sorority requires it, which doesn’t show much motivation.
“I mean, I think that they just make that an excuse and say oh well, they’re doing good so that’s why I like my sorority or fraternity,” Gehm said. “But I’m sorry; you don’t have to be in one of those to do volunteer work. You can just volunteer for the heck of it.”
Elizabeth Farrell, who wrote an article simply known as “More College Students Are Volunteering,” said that the major motivation for college volunteers seems to have stemmed from the 2001 terrorist attacks. Since then, service oriented classes have increased dramatically, which Farrell said has seemed to impact students to volunteer on their own time as well.
Gehm’s motivation stems from a simple desire to do good for the animals they are helping. She said that she finally has found a cause that she is really passionate about, and has found a way to apply that to the Rock Hill community.
“…Those kitties and those puppies, they’re so cute and they just melt my heart so if I can go and give some love to some kitties or puppies who don’t get that on a regular basis, I think that’s helping those animals because really love helps anybody,” Gehm said.
Gehm said that she plans on continuing her devotion to Operation Care for a long time because she loves and respects the cause. She also said that she hopes to see more college students devoting their time to their local communities outside of school because it is important for everybody.
“I think it’s great that more college kids across the nation are volunteering, but I think that everybody should find something that they’re really passionate about volunteering for,” Gehm said. “If everybody found just one cause they could devote themselves to out of sheer love and belief in it, the community would be such a better place.”
