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Volunteering can
help with job search
Young adults and adolescents are among the hardest-hit groups during this recession. With an economy that can best be described as “slow to recover,” we seem to be the last folks hired and the first folks fired.
Lawmakers generally tend to concern themselves with other voting blocs, but this epidemic among young Americans should not be ignored. How can we get the experience necessary to hold a job when nobody will hire us because we don’t have that experience?
Getting that experience is only one benefit of volunteering. I was an unemployed college graduate when a friend gave me priceless advice: if you can’t get a job in your field, volunteer in your field. Now, as a graduate student, my experiences as a volunteer have made me more well-rounded and engaging in the classroom. My resume is bulkier and more attractive. I have more friends.
I’ve discovered more about myself.
It’s a wonder more young people don’t volunteer, but I can understand why: trying something new can be scary for some people. Some people may not have much free time or energy. Even our leaders don’t often trumpet their volunteer experiences, nor do they often urge others to volunteer.
Volunteering, like most things worth doing, has short- and long-term benefits. The biggest obstacle is getting started, but it’s very smooth sailing from there.
Nico Meyering
Oneonta
You can’t be
friends with gas
As I passed a “Friends of natural gas” sign I wondered: What’s it like to be ‘friends’ with a gas? No sharing of good times or the important events in our lives over a beer, or helping each other, there. They must mean being ‘friends’ with the gas drillers, aka frackers. But these are the same people the landowner coalitions say they will protect us from, so that we don’t sign a detrimental lease. ‘Friends’ like this we need to keep a close eye on, and not get too comfortable with.
We also see signs about ‘responsible’ fracking. If this industry did not have numerous exemptions from laws protecting us and the environment, it couldn’t even operate. Until these exemptions are removed, and there are civil and criminal penalties for violations, there can not even be a pretense of responsibility.
Our state government couldn’t even call for a health impact study of this dangerous and contentious process. Until this process is proven safe by a respected and independent scientific study, and its impact on New York life is carefully evaluated, there doesn’t seem to be any responsibility or friendliness on the part of the industry or Gov. Cuomo.
David Grodsky
New Berlin
