Community service has become entirely second nature to me. I go and volunteer at least once a week in many different capacities. I belong to several service organizations, and I even live in the Community Service House.

I don’t even think about it when I sign up to go help at an event, it’s just what I do, but I feel that I should stop and think about why I’m doing it every once in a while. Nowadays, I go to volunteer because I have to – I need to log enough hours to stay in the Community Service House and to remain a member of Alpha Phi Omega, the co-ed service fraternity on campus.

I’ve also had the importance of doing service drilled into me since I was eight years old, when I became a pledge to the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls, an appendant body of Free Masonry. I’ve then grown up in this organization that promotes leadership and service, and taken high offices in the state of Pennsylvania to help guide the younger members of the organization.

So it would seem that mostly outside forces motivate me to go help people, but that’s really not true. The best part of giving your time and energy to help others is those others and their reactions to the service.

I have gone on three mission trips with Heart and Hand to Philippi, WV where we build additions onto homes in one of the most impoverished counties in the United States. We build and furnish the room and bring gifts for every member of the family, and once they see everything all finished, the expression of joy and gratitude on their faces is just amazing. To know that you have made a significant impact on another human being’s life is so uplifting, and I never want to stop experiencing that.