A STUDY ON VOLUNTEERING ACTIVITIES AMONG STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY_HOẠT ĐỘNG TÌNH NGUYỆN CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐẠI HỌC

Volunteering plays an important role in the development of many countries around the world. The number of volunteer participants has increased sharply. These are very practical and meaningful actions, bringing many benefits to society. However, there are some students who still do not fully understand the role and importance of volunteering, never even participating in those activities._ Hoạt động tình nguyện đóng một vai trò rất quan trọng trong sự phát triển của các quốc gia trên thế giới. Số lượng tình nguyện viên gia tăng đáng kể ngày nay. Những hoạt động đó rất hữu ích và có ý nghĩa đối với xã hội. Tuy nhiên, nhiều sinh viên không hiểu được lợi ích và tầm quan trọng của hoạt động tình nguyện, thậm chí chưa bao giờ tham gia vào những hoạt động này.

A STUDY ON Volunteering activities among students

at University

Volunteer work plays an important role in the social and community development of each country, especially developing countries with low GPA The benefits that it brings are great, but for many people, especially students, still do not know the nature of volunteerism They still have no interest in volunteering, so the number of participants is not really that much or joining for compulsory reasons This paper investigates some type

of volunteering; the amount of time spent on volunteering among university students as well as several benefits it brings to us Besides, effective advices to encourage voluntary activities are also mentioned The methodology of this article use questionnaire and interviews of students The purpose of this research is raising students’ awareness about volunteering It is hoped that this research could be useful resource for students about volunteering.

Table of contents

List of figures

Figure 1: The percentage of students who join in volunteering

Figure 2: The reasons students want to be a volunteer

Figure 3: The amount of time students spending on volunteering

Figure 4: The percentage of students who feel about benefits of volunteer

1 Introduction

Volunteering plays an important role in the development of many countries around the world According to Cynthia More, a volunteer is the person who dedicates time to help the others with poor condition without having profits or other benefits After 1990, the number of volunteer participants has increased sharply, and a particular interest has been given in order to encourage citizens in the life of societies and make them responsible, teenagers in particular 2011 was considered as the European Year of Volunteering when the number of organized activities and events was numerous in the European Union In that time, a study was conducted within Europe to find and analyze relevant aspects related to voluntary activities A result of the study shows that volunteering does not depend on age or sex, but educated people are the most popular class in joining voluntary organizations On the subject of interest, solidarity and humanitarian aid were ranked the highest Regarding the benefits, volunteering has the important contributions to the developments of young generation, improves knowledge and life skills and promotes social demands (TNS Opinion and Social, 2011) The results of a study carried out by the Centre of Marketing and Social Forecasting in Roman in 2013 showed that students took part in voluntary activities the most – 29% Almost they are interested in social services related to education and environment The important purpose of voluntary decision is help people (40%) (CMPS, 2013) As it can be seen from the statistics provided above, in our country with a developed education, volunteer movement is held in many schools and localities, among them can be mentioned as blood donation movement, donation to support flood victims, families with poor conditions These are very practical and meaningful actions, bringing many benefits to society However, there are some students who still do not fully understand the role and importance of volunteering, never even participating in those activities Therefore, raising the awareness and responsibilities of each student is one of the main works to do

On the basis of these ideas, this paper provides information about some kinds of voluntary activities, the amount of time students spent on as well as the purpose which they join in and some advantages of volunteering which provided by students of Ha Noi

University The questions which have provided for the study were: What kind of voluntary works they join in? How much time they spent on it? Why do they enjoy? And what are the advantages they bring?

2 Method

This research paper is based on data survey by collecting questionnaires and interviews

At the beginning, we randomly selected regardless of gender and education level of 50 students to fill in a questionnaire It includes 9 questions divided into 4 main groups Firstly, there are 2 questions about the amount of time and student participating in volunteering Secondly, a question was designed to show kinds of voluntary activities they join in Thirdly, questionnaires consist of some multiple-choice questions and a scaled question which perform the reason students take part in Finally, another scaled question has willingness to conduct benefits of volunteering The main aim is to enquire deeper into students’ opinions about voluntary works Actually, some useful ideas of students were conducted in the interviews

3 Results

This research collected ideas from 50 students of Ha Noi University regardless of gender and learning ability Firstly, all of them have been asked about their previous volunteer work and according to the data we collected, up to 40% of students have never participated in volunteering Among the remaining 60% of students, most of them participate in donations to support families in difficult circumstances and blood donation programs at school Most are of the same opinion that they choose to become volunteers

to help the local community and make friends

Figure 1: The percentage of students who join in volunteering

With regard to volunteer reviews, we give 5 main features included boring, waste of time difficult, interesting and useful So as to simplify the statistics, “boring”, “waste of time”,

“difficult” has been grouped into “negative feedbacks”, the others have been combined and labeled “positive feedbacks” Of the 50 students were surveyed, 60% of them responded that volunteering is interesting and helpful experience, while the others think that it is bad and boring

Regarding to the reasons students want to become a volunteer, we give 3 ideas including

“Help my local community”, “Meet people/ make friends”, “Learn new skills”, almost half of students agree with the first reason (47%), 33% of pupils are satisfied with the second idea and the others hold final (20%)

Figure 2: The reasons students want to be a volunteer

Figure 3: The amount of time students spend on volunteering

Turning to benefits of volunteering, we provided 5 main advantages for pupils to examine how the results of volunteering affect them included “ confidence, esteem or self-management”, “Skill like teamwork, communication, leadership”, “Health, well-being or fitness”, “Time management” and “Conflict resolution skills” More than a half of those said that they feel normal after finishing voluntary works The percentage of students who get the benefits of volunteering is over 40% Meanwhile, the others felt worse when they completed voluntary activities, accounting for more than 15%

4 Discussion of findings

4.1 Some kinds of voluntary activities which students enjoy

According to the results we collected, most students participate in volunteer activities that take place at the school A student said that: “My school often has a lot of volunteer activities that take place every year, so volunteering is very easy and brings excitement when they can make friends with other departments” There are many kinds of volunteering we can mention, such as fundraising and administration; environmental, elderly and disabled, homeless Each job has different activities and benefits depending

on the desire of each student to join For instance, in environmental activities, everyone will take part in environmental protection works like cleaning streets, planting trees, collecting the garbage around the beach With the students interviewed, most of them joined in the blood donation program at school This is a very regular activity in every school without spending too much time on students Moreover, it brings tremendous benefits to society when it saves the lives of many people However, to be able to participate, you need to have good health, not infectious diseases Besides, volunteer programs to help flood victims and disadvantaged families are also encouraged by students This can be considered experience activities when you will set up a group and

go directly to difficult areas to help them It will take a lot of students’ time to prepare and participate as well as demand good health and enthusiasm, but this is really a good experience and brings many positive things

Overall, there are many volunteer programs suitable for students depending on their interests and abilities

4.2 The amount of time which students spent on voluntary activities

According to the results as shown in figure 3, page 4, it can be unexpected that the time spent on volunteer work of students is very small Although it can be said that in our country, activities have been expanded throughout all schools and widely propagated, the number of participants has not yet reached expectations This leads us to ask why the time pupils spend volunteering is so little A first-year student explained that: “Study time

is one of the barriers for us to participate in volunteer work; the subjects are quite difficult so we need to focus on that” This is a common problem among the students when the study is one of the top issues in our country Besides, the reason pupils do not like to volunteer is because it is somewhat boring Most students will enjoy activities

such as playing sports, playing video games or participating in social network sites daily.

It is easy to see that your awareness of volunteering is not right, thinking that volunteerism is complicated and difficult, costly and time consuming

4.3 Reasons why students enjoy voluntary activities

On the whole, the main reason encourages students to do volunteer work is to help the local community with 47% agree with this statement Followed, meet people and make friends rank second with 33% Finally, it is learning new skills which stand at 20% This figure gives us an overview data about which factor is the most important that affect student choice It is easy to see that the motivation to have a contribution to society is the biggest acceleration to voluntary work In addition, benefits from it also a noticeable point when the chance to make friend and broaden knowledge is pretty high

4.4 Benefits of volunteering

According to the results as shown in Figure 3 we can jump to conclusion that regarding the enhancement in confidence, self-esteem or self-management, students find no benefit

in other skills like teamwork, communication, leadership, or technical skills; health, well-being or fitness, time management; conflict resolution skills This result comes as no surprise to us that the percentage of students join in volunteer activities among students stands at a low level The question is to mention to some positive side of volunteer activities which was conducted randomly on 50 students has pointed out volunteer activities help they develop perceptive ability such as confidence, esteem or self-management It is understandable because your role as a volunteer can also give you a sense of pride and identity, and the better you feel about yourself, the more likely you are

to have a positive view of your life and future goals (Jeanne Segal, 2018) On the other hand, in contrast with the former idea, the other sections seem to raise less carefulness from the student when most of them vote for stay the same This phenomenon is explained by Harold Goodwin “The problem is not with the volunteers, although they should be more wary of the motives and practices of the organizations that send volunteers” Another noteworthy point is skills like teamwork, communication, leadership, or technical skills is received a smaller percentage of people in agreement

than we thought with 12% increased greatly and 28% increased whereas up to 56% chosen stay the same In theory, joining a charity organization help you chance to practice important skills used in the workplace, such as teamwork, communication, problem-solving, project planning, task management, and organization However, our statics has not shown a positive fact about volunteer activities The problem causes this fact can be ineffective of some organizations or clubs on campus, and students also should join in these activities regularly with a dynamic, pleasure and voluntary spirit

5 Recommendations

Based on the above discussion, the following advices are given Regarding to the amount

of time spent on volunteering, the time that students volunteer is greatly influenced by factors such as academic issues, family and students’ psychology Therefore, Universities and Volunteer organizations need to co-operate and motivate students to do this For instance, schools should increase their extra-curricular activities for students who volunteer and open skills-based classes to become a volunteer; voluntary organizations need to open more campaigns and propaganda about benefits of volunteering to raise students’ awareness

With regard to difficulties encountered when volunteering, they should set up specific plans such as travel routes and what to do during the trip so that students can understand when going directly to remote areas On the part of students, it would be the best for students when fully equipped to participate voluntarily and responsibly in assigned tasks,

be friendly with people

6 Conclusion

In conclusion, we really hope the results and analysis would be a good source of motivation for students to become volunteers The article still has many limitations in discovering the effects of volunteering for students as well as aspects like age, gender or psychology that influence their ability to volunteer It is our hope that in the future, there would be more research articles on this subject going further into solving these limitations and making the topic perfectly

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Journal of Prevention 17(2):231-258 Retrieved from URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258768263_The_effects_of_volunteer ing_on_the_young_volunteer?fbclid=IwAR1BHP1ZM4cHPLGjIJMysBWLqCh cMYFv5zO0ft9_dHRwgJjdfDw04l_R18

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Eurobarometru special [Volunteering and Intergenerational Solidarity, Special Eurobarometer], Direcţia Generală Comunicare, Parlamentul European Accessed: 06-02-2016 Available at: www.europarl.europa.eu/pdf/eurobarometre/2011/juillet/04_07/rapport_%20eb7 5_2_%20benevolat_ro.pdf