At Centennial College, you can do a lot more than come to class. You’re a part of a community, and that means chances to develop yourself personally and professionally. One way is to do this is by volunteering for one of the College’s many events. When you volunteer, it’s an easy way to gain valuable experience while still in school, and more importantly, social connections and soft skills that will help you in the long run. It also means a chance to connect with students you wouldn’t normally get to know. Centennial College offers many ways to volunteer (which you can learn about here), but a common way to do so is at our orientations, where new students come to campus before their school year starts to learn about where they’re going to be learning.
Both Temiloluwa and Kartikay are international students, coming to the College from Nigeria and India respectively. Temiloluwa studies Electromechanical Engineering Technology, Kartikay studies Business, and they’ve both volunteered to help at orientations for multiple years. What motivated them to get involved, and why should you? Read on to find out.
Why did they volunteer?
"I'm an international student," Kartikay says about what led him to volunteer. "Also, I didn't have any relatives in Canada, so it was like starting from scratch, and I wanted to build my network. As soon as I started college, I started volunteering. My first event was the Pride Fundraiser."
"I hadn’t volunteered for any other activities on the campus," Temiloluwa says about why he signed up. "Orientation was my first event. The reason why I participated in it was because my younger sister participated in a Jill of all Trades event, and she told me it was wonderful. She made new friends, made connections, and I was like, okay, why am I missing out on this? So, I applied for the orientation, and it was a wonderful experience. That's why I've done it three times since then."
What does a volunteer do?
Orientation is a big, complicated event, so you can find yourself doing everything from administrative stuff, to more offbeat activities, as Temiloluwa discovered.
"The first thing I did was the cotton candy," he says, "which was a good experience, but oh my god, the cotton candy got everywhere. There was also a booth for students that were registering, there was sharing of the swag bags, which was actually a good experience because it gave me new students to talk to, and ask what they were taking. You could also show them to their meet and greet officers, or show them where the Orientation was."
Orientation isn’t the only thing at Centennial College a student can volunteer for.
"Volunteering at Centennial, you have a lot of different opportunities on different campuses," Kartikay says. "I've done Jill of All Trades at Ashtonbee campus, and Centennial Cares at Progress Campus."
"With experience, I got better," Kartikay says about his various volunteering duties. "And now, you know, I show other volunteers how to do things."
What did they gain from volunteering?
"It's an experience all on its own, because I didn't like communicating with people," Temiloluwa says about the social skills volunteering at Orientation gave him. "Not that I couldn’t. But I had to make myself uncomfortable to be able to do it. Volunteering for the Orientation opened something up in me that I didn't know was there, and my communication skills got better. I am now able to just approach someone and talk to them."
"It’s made me better at communication, and that makes me bolder in anything I do," he adds. "Also, when it comes to job searching, it definitely adds a lot." Most importantly, he connected with his future friend, Kartikay, whom he otherwise wouldn’t have met, since they’re in different programs.
"It was the fall of 2023," Temiloluwa says. "I attended the training for Morningside Orientation, the first one I'm attending. And I was seated at the back with Kartikay and two other guys, I've never met them before, so we introduced ourselves to each other, and we get to know our programs. That's how I met Kartikay. We exchange contacts, WhatsApp, Instagram, and we just said, well, we'll meet each other in the next Orientation. And we did!"
"For me, it helped me with three things," Kartikay says. "My networking, my leadership skills, and obviously my communication. And it's not just my personal development. I’ve also been recognized in different newsletters, and have won a Centennial College Award for Outstanding Returning Engaged Student. I've come a long way since I was here in Canada. I wouldn't say I was an introvert, but I definitely didn't talk to a lot of people. Now, it's the other way around."
Interested in volunteering? Sign up!
"I've talked to so many students that came to Canada as international students, or just new students in general who want to work," Temiloluwa says. "And I can definitely tell you that connection is the key, and this is one of the ways you can get connections. Volunteer for Orientation, volunteer for anything, even outside of the campus, which I've done before. And from personal experience, I've gotten job opportunities through this."
"It's a breath of fresh air, it's something different," he adds. "Most students that I know go to school and all they focus on is the education. That’s not a bad thing, but once in a while, you should put the books aside and do something that relaxes you – and volunteering on campus and outside of campus, it's definitely that thing. You get to meet your friends. You get to make new friends. You get to talk to people about the programs you're doing. It's a whole rollercoaster of emotions."
By: Anthony Geremia