Maria Pidgorna is busy. She’s just completed her third-year as an International Relations student at UBC and while studying she’s managed to squeeze in a trip to the Ukraine, an exchange/study trip to Belgium, a research/reception job at a law firm, a blog – and she’s preparing to leave at the end of September to teach English in a village in France.
So when Maria thought about her jam-packed schedule and the possibility of volunteering/interning, she wondered: Is volunteering really worthwhile?
Now, after a summer working at her volunteer internship position with Vancouver’s Musica Intima, her answer is:
Yes. It is. It really is.
In fact, now Maria has a hunch – nay, a full-fledged theory – that volunteering and internships are two-way, mutually beneficially arrangements. While there might be the conception that volunteering is a selfless arrangement, with the person donating her time completing a possibly boring or thankless task for the good of the community, Maria thinks the whole thing is way more reciprocal than that.
In fact, she argues, volunteering – especially during a recession - can be a way to gain essential skills that employers will no longer assume the risk of teaching you.
With Musica Intima, for example, and with the help of Karly Pinch, the Art Internship Coordinator for Career Services at UBC, Maria worked out a learning objectives agreement. She and Musica Intima outlined their mutual responsibilities to each other. Maria agreed to show up on time, with a professional work ethic, and contribute; Musica Intima agreed to teach her the skills she wanted to learn.
And by doing this, Maria knows that this summer she had the chance to develop new – and higher level – skills that a “regular” employer might not have invested the time in developing with her.
And so Maria’s theory shakes down like this: with volunteering, although you aren’t paid for your time and devotion there most definitely is compensation available for your contributions – and it is more valuable and enduring than cash. “With volunteering and interning,” says Maria, “the teaching is your compensation.”
