Why everyone should try to volunteer (at least once)

Mixing different passions can effect in awesome initiatives. For example from a combination of a passion for coding and teaching you can create a great programming club for children — Arduino, Sctrach and Python training for beginners. And everything of this without a salary, but you can achieve a lot more. Let me tell you what.

Everything starting from…

First of all, just imagine that you get the task to organize classes for 12 pupils. The number of students mainly depends on number of teachers, usually it could be up to 10 children per one mentor, but also on numbers of special tools and toys with which you would like to work. Also you need a properly equipped place (sometimes with computers) and it should be completely for free, because the idea is to create a free educational project for everyone. And also you have little time for doing it. It will be a mission impossible if you do not have friends working in big companies with meeting rooms that they can share with you. Another options are University and School classes. Maybe can you contact with some foundation? You need to look around and decide how you would like to organize such event.
Next step is recruiting pupils. If you cooperate with some organization, they will help you with promotion. Just prepare some form to register students (remember about personal data protection) and poster to promote the event. But to create promotional materials you must to know exactly what you would like to do with pupils and what you can offer them and their parents. Remember that adults have to trust you to entrust their children to you. Constant contact with parents during the project is very important. Next step - place somewhere an ad. Currently the best information channel is Facebook. Create an event or even a special page for this purpose. The Internet is a powerful tool.
If you have reached this far, then you are just starting the real organization of your workshops. Did you remember the moment when I said that you had to think about what you could offer to others and then prepare the program for classes? Hmm, the first classes with kids will show you that your plans need considerable revalidation. You must be prepared that you will be modifying part of it on a regular basis.

During organizing workshops I was working with PROJEKTOR, CoderDojo, Girls Code Fun and Nokia.

Let the classes begin…

Probably the most obvious profits of volunteering are soft skills (and meeting new people of course). Doing so many things in variety environments teaches you planning and time management. And it is worth pointing out that your audience is diversified. I got, as my firs group, children in age between 7 and 16. It means that you have to adapt your content to various listeners to make your presentation engaging to all of them. Of course you can reduce this diversity by mentioning in the form, to which kind of age group of children your activities are directed. But still you do not know in what exactly kids will be interested. That is why modification of content of workshops could be necessary. What kind of lesson will it be for you? Children can ask unexpected questions - you will learn how react and deal with it. You will also practice teamwork and leadership. Children can argue about toys and computers - you are the person to resolve theirs problems. All those skills are strongly needed in the job market.

Writing a contract (general rules of workshops) with kids.

It looks like a lot of hard work…

Yes, that is true. But I cannot say that I do not achieve anything. Thanks to volunteering activities I discovered new programming and educational tools for kids. I also participated in many trainings and learned a lot from workshop tutorials and co-mentors. Children show me another view on abstract programming problems, which is helpful in understanding some customers' needs. I also meet fantastic open-minded people, which are real funs of teaching and sharing their knowledge. I learned a lot and I am using that knowledge on my daily basis. Hope it will be similar in your case. So go on and volunteer!