Strengthening Community!
Virginia Chaput is an active American Legion Post 21 volunteer with a passion for supporting and serving veterans. A single parent and a half-time student, Chaput is serving in her first term as Smith-Tobey Post 21 Unit President. The Bath resident and UMA Business major has a lot to say about her volunteer role.
“I’m committed to serving veterans, active duty military members and their families. Volunteering has helped me to gain experience building community and exploring possible future career roles.”
Four years ago Chaput helped found the Post 21 Gift of Gratitude Troop Support Program. This initiative involves fundraising, collecting supplies, and shipping care packages to deployed American troops stationed around the world. Chaput was inspired to start this effort after hearing a 23 year old Marine give a talk about his deployment.
But Ginny Chaput is not the only University College student to embrace volunteer work. Many students are master jugglers, including work, family responsibilities and academic commitments into their daily routines. Most are engaged in direct services, mentoring youth, supporting sexual assault survivors, and staffing hotlines. Others are involved in board governance and organizational leadership roles.
Like Chaput, these highly motivated students seek out volunteer community service roles as an outlet for their passions, to make a difference in solving a community problem or to strengthen a community initiative, and as a means of building their own networks.
University advisors and faculty help to promote community service and community engagement by helping students seek out local organizations that need volunteers, publicizing online volunteer match tools such as volunteermaine.org/, and helping them recognize the personal and career benefits of serving as a volunteer.
The rewards are significant; both to the students who participate and to the communities they serve.
While admitting that balancing her volunteer leadership commitments and college can be a real challenge, Chaput sees her community service as a means of field testing her learning.
“I’m a shy person who is perfectly happy to shine the spotlight on someone else. The oral and written communication skills that I have developed in my courses have served me well in my volunteer pursuits. My college instructors have also helped me develop the confidence to test these skills in new and unfamiliar settings—they have encouraged and empowered me to take risks in serving others.”
