TechNews STUDENTNEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1 92 8 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com STAFF Editor-in-Chief Kori Bowns Opinion Editor Austin Gonzalez IT Manager Kristal Copeland Copy Editors Kristal Copeland Kayleigh Stevens Anoopa Sundararajan Annie Zorn Layout Editors Sijia Wu )(iaoyu Zhang Annie Zorn Distribution Manager Khaleela Zaman Financial Advisor Vickie Tolbert Faculty Advisor Gregory Pulliam MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to promote student discussion and bolster the IIT community by providing a newspaper that is highly accessible, a stalwart of journalistic integrity, and a student forum. TechNewsisadedicated to the beliefthatastrong campus newspaper is essential to a strong campus community. GENERAL INFORMATION TechNews is written, managed, and edited by the students of, and funded in part by, Illinois Institute of Technology. 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Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL 8' NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. AUSTIN GONZALEZ opinion@technewsiit.com | Tuesday, November 1 7th, 2015 Volunteering provides valuable opportunities, skills for all students Shachi Sayata TECHN EWS WRITER On October 24, I volunteered for the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides against Breast Cancer" event organized at Soldier Field in Chicago. The event consisted of a 5k marathon where a lot of survivors and their families participated. The mantra of the marathon was, “walk with us and never walk alone." This grabbed my attention and l was extremely interested in participating. After a little bit of research, I realized that this could actually be an amazing opportunity to volunteer. I got in touch with the event organizers, who were thrilled to have me, and sooner than I realized, I was representing the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network As a volunteer, I helped sign 400 petitions for increasing funding for cancer research. It felt like a huge responsibility! I had hundreds of people come to my desk to sign the petition. My job was to provide them with as much information as possible for them to decide if they were in favor of the petition or not. Most people were in favor of making cancer a national priority and actively participated 1n the events held by the American Cancer Society I am a finance student and negotiation and interpersonal skills don’t come very naturally to me. Both these skills were required to be exhibited by the position I was given that day I realized that by volunteering, I could put my skills to test, learn from my mistakes, network, and develop new skills. I am a firm believer that, by volunteering, we can step out of our comfort zone and explore different possibilities. As students, I believe it is very important that we volunteer since it makes us grounded in our values, opinionated in our beliefs, and rational in our thoughts. All three qualities are excessively important in order to be a good leader. While volunteering however, it is important that you find a cause that you personally care about it. Fortunately today, many websites like Volunteer Match and Chicago Cares can help you easily filter from a wide array of initiatives. This ensures that you work in the area of your choice and for a cause that is important to you. It is a great way to make longeterm career decisions. You can get a volunteering opportunity in a field that most interests you. You can try and test different job profiles and decide what you want to do. By volunteering, you develop a better perspective and start looking at the bigger picture. It makes you think about your values and beliefs and makes you more aware of various socioeconomic events. It compels you to be opinionated and take a stand for something you really care about. You are forced to conduct better research on the topic since, if you are taking lead and representing the idea, you would want to have a better understanding of the factors revolving around the event. If you don’t have time to go to an event, there are many opportunities that let you work from home. The only perspective you should have towards volunteering is that time is money; give your time and the money that exists will be channelized better I had a feeling of gratitude and fulfillment after I volunteered and I would thus like to take this opportunity to encourage every reader to volunteer for a cause they really care about. Go sign up todayl In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see." IMAGIH 111 NEW 6(TTNUM? 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