While community service is beneficial for gaining experience, students shouldn’t volunteer unless they’re passionate about the issue they’re supporting.

From last Saturday through Sunday, participants in National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week are hosting events that provide opportunities for volunteer work. Some who volunteer are passionate about community service, but there are also students who are only interested in adding the cause to their resumes.

Community service is undervalued when volunteers aren’t aware of the issues they devote their time to; having the opportunity to walk in the shoes of the people you are helping will broaden a student’s perspective of the world and its problems.

“It’ll benefit [volunteers] cause they’ll be able to get a real life experience, like often times … we just see something … a sad story on TV or hear about something, but we don’t have that experience ourselves so we can really empathize with them,” said Carrie Morris, senior women’s studies major, who’s volunteered at Feed’em Soup. “But, if you actually see how cold it is, especially now … you’ll be able to empathize with them more, or maybe try to do more in the future.”

But the responsibility shouldn’t be only on students — every cause has an obligation to make sure volunteers are passionate about the causes’ values. Students who commit to helping organizations should be required to have a brief overview of the organization they’re working for, as well as how they’re contributing to that organization’s values.

“I think [students who aren’t interested in learning are] more harmful for the organization than it is helpful … because you have students there, sometimes, not all the time, who are just trying to get their hours. So they come there and they have this attitude that’s not really positive,” said Destiny McDonald, assistant director of Community Service for Student Involvement and Leadership Development. “And when a student is educated on the issue and they understand what they’re doing, they’re usually more passionate and more willing to go above and beyond … not just, ‘Let me check these hours off for my organization.’”

Wanting to impress a potential employer shouldn’t be the main reason to volunteer as an experience is not worth sharing if you can’t explain how you grew from it.