Community Service
I feel that it is important for young people to engage in community service. It is important to establish at an early age that you are part of a larger community. One of the things that happens, especially in high school, is that you become quite focused on yourself. Your world is fairly small, mostly just a small geographic area, your friends and family. Community service broadens a young person's world, giving them experiences that they otherwise would not have.
In the course of community service, you see a lot of things. I volunteered at a nursing home, where you basically are assigned one person with whom to meet weekly and talk to. I was assigned a younger person with a mental disability who was unable to take care of himself, a low functioning person. This experience was exceptionally eye-opening. You see the people working there and learn things about the working world. You learn about compassion, and how lucky you are to have your health. You learn that life is shorter than you think. In essence, this experience really gave me a lot of perspective.
I think the ability to get out of your comfort zone, and to gain perspective about things is one of the most valuable aspects of community service, especially with respect to your career. First, you learn some basic things about professionalism, showing up on time, putting in a shift, and things like that. I had some community service where we were re-habilitating...
This was probably the hardest work I've done but it really felt great to know that I made a contribution to making my community better. This is exactly the sort of thing all young people should do, because building that sense of community, and making a contribution instead of just being focused on yourself is pretty powerful. Plus, employers look at something like that and they know that you will work to make their organizations better.
I think it would be a good service to help people understand cyber risks. I have had to do this with my younger siblings, and with my parents, and grandparents. . My parents are okay, but there are always things that people do not realize about cyber security. People are genuinely worried about hacking, but they do not understand simple things like having complicated passwords. So there is a lot of value that this is a value service that can be performed, to help all sorts of people in the community.
There are many aspects to cybersecurity as well. I've talked to people who think it's just about hacking, but there's phishing to think about.. There is cyberbullying as well.. So much of what we do is online, and so few people really understand the risks, even basic things. I feel that this is knowledge that I have, so this is knowledge that I can give. Helping people will make the community a better place. It will keep…
