My Volunteering Journey
My community service began seven years ago and continues to this day, totaling 500+ hours of my personal time. Some of my volunteering I did alone, others with a group, but I treasure every moment of it. During all this time, I met people from different walks of life, different nationalities, and different backgrounds, and I am so thrilled that I could influence their lives for the better. I firmly believe that volunteering is a great way to obtain valuable social skills, gain new experiences, and connect with like-minded people who are willing to make a positive impact on society. I invite you on my community service tour, highlighting my involvement with several nonprofit organizations.
Volunteering with FIRST®
Founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST® ( For Inspiration and Recognition for Science and Technology) is a global nonprofit organization and the world’s leading youth robotics community, delivering robotics competitions that inspire innovation, build self-confidence, collaborative problem-solving skills, and prepare young people for the future through a suite of welcoming, team-based programs.
I have been involved with FIRST® for the last seven years and donated 100+ volunteer hours to its four programs in different capacities such as project judge and referee for FIRST® Lego League teams, judge and robot demonstrator during FIRST® Lego League Jr. EXPOs, FIRST® youth advocate during the “FIRST® at the Capitol” Day, co-hosted and helped to organize of the FIRST® Tech Challenge meet and was the summer robotics bootcamps presenter, and field re-setter for FIRST®Tech Challenge and FIRST® Robotics Competition events.
I am so thrilled to be a part of FIRST® and plan to continue volunteering with this organization in the future.
FIRST® Day in the Capital
I took part in the Missouri FRC teams initiative to visit Jefferson City, Missouri, and present a Resolution to be signed by the House of Representatives officially declaring May as the FIRST® celebration Month.
After the resolution was read, each present member of the House of Representatives put their signature down. Afterward, our whole group of 50+ students and coaches was invited to the room, where we were met with a standing ovation from the members of the House. Later, we took a group picture with the Governor. It made a powerful impact on my life to confirm that I was volunteering my time to a good cause, with an organization that is doing its best to eliminate the STEAM access gap and offers competitive robotics opportunities for the youth.
My team captain and I were pleased to be invited to demonstrate our FTC robot to the youth who presented their projects at the FIRST® LEGO League Jr. EXPOs and to talk to event visitors and participants about our involvement with FIRST®.
| We engaged many of the 95 FLL Jr. teams’ members (23 teams) and their families in conversation about our involvement with FIRST®, our robot build season, and what we do during the off-season. All present adults and children had a chance to try their hands at driving the team’s robot through the jungle of the “Relic Recovery” Challenge blocks, clearing its path by collecting them. |
| I demonstrated to children how to operate our robot and talked to adults about the benefits of STEM involvement. We reached 245+ visitors of the EXPOs. I spent 8 hours of my Saturday at those two events, and I was delighted to meet the youth who would definitely follow in my footsteps on their STEM journey. |
Volunteering at the MO State “Rapid React” FRC event
I volunteered many hours to ensure that FIRST® events ran smoothly. I am glad to help in many capacities, including as a game field resetter. This position may not be as exciting as judging or refereeing, but it is essential to ensure the match starts on time. I volunteered in this position for eight events over the years, dedicating about 80 hours of my personal time. When additional help was needed to set up the FRC field properly, I would gladly join the group of adult volunteers and use my mechanical skills to assist with any tasks.
Volunteering with UCF
University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando invited interested high-school students and first-year college students to participate in its virtual, Skype-based UCF STARTALK Program, “How Words Shape People: Understanding Business Russian through Proverbs”, sponsored by the NSA’s National Cryptologic University. I decided to take this challenge, successfully passed the interview (in basic Russian), signed a 2-year commitment contract, and was admitted to the STARTALK Program. Oh, boy! That was the most challenging class I have ever taken. Russian grammar was like walking in the dark without a flashlight to me. Besides the 140 hours I officially volunteered to the Program (in my classroom and at summer camp), I was expected to triple that number by self-learning to keep up with the class’s pace.
As part of the STARTALK Program, every participant successfully passed the first-year Russian language exam and was automatically admitted to UCF’s 3-week Russian Language Immersion Summer Camp, where we needed to speak Russian, hear Russian, breathe Russian, and eat Russian food (which was pretty good most of the time). It was quite a challenge, but I had a great experience. I improved my Russian, made new friends, and learn to dance the Polonaise. We were immersed in Russian language and Culture, where we took virtual tours of historical parts of Moscow and St. Petersburg and spent some time memorizing excerpts from Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” to be ready for our Summer Camp graduation Ceremony.
After a two-month break, I spent another year working on my Conversational Russian. I successfully passed a combo exam ( a dialog, a reading passage, a short poem in Russian at my choice memorized, and a discussion of my resume in Russian, which I had prepared in advance), acquiring the Novice-Medium (European scale) level of Russian Language proficiency.
Besides my personal successes in the STARTALK, I am pleased to know that my group and I helped test the newly revised Program, which will be used with the students to follow us.
Volunteering with Gateway Robotics Club
I had a pleasure to volunteer 62 hours of my free time with Gateway Robotics Club where the active group of high school student led by one of our mentors participated in different STEM Community local outreach events such as robot demo at the City Park, Gateway Open House, St. Louis Science Center Sci-Fest, 15th “Annual Pancake Dinner” fundraiser, robot sponsor presentations and homeschool fairs. We interacted with visitors, engaged them in various STEM activities and challenges, demonstrated our FTC and FRC robots, and taught students some tricks for successfully piloting them.
Additionally, our Club hosted the FTC kick-off and helped to run the FTC scrimmage at the Collegiate High School. We were very proud of all our community service efforts, which resulted in a few new robotics team members joining our club.
Homeschool Fair STEM Outreach event
Volunteering with Cybertronics Robotics Club
“Take your teens to work” Open House event.
Volunteering with the Cybertronics Robotics Club was one of my early community service highlights. I volunteered over 100 hours with that organization, donating my spare time for STEM Community outreach events at the Magic House during its FIRST FRC Open House, “Raceway STEM Lane” of the World Wide Technology, “The Spirit of St. Louis and STEM EXPOs “, and Monsanto/Bayer “Take your child/ teen to work” Open Houses, helped to organize and host FTC meet and Cybertronics Club Open Houses.
Our STEM outreach during the “Take your child/teen to work” Open House events provided us with an opportunity to interact with 620 young people who had a chance to drive our FTC robot “Viper”, hear us talking about our Club and FIRST programs, build and program small LEGO WeDo robots, and do many other STEM-related activities. Our Club’s table was among the most popular at the event.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, our club decided to join the FIRST Teams initiative to 3D-print visors for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). I took the initiative to lead that project. I contacted the local maker space, which was the drop-off location for visors, and requested the printer file. After checking the file and adjusting our 3D printer, I started the process. The first printed visor didn’t look that great, but after changing the printer settings, the next one turned out pretty good. I was satisfied with the outcome and started a new 3D printing job. The first batch of 12 visors came out in good quality, but we ran out of the filament. We asked the Club administration to purchase a new one color of the same brand, but unfortunately, they got the wrong one. After feeding it into our 3D printer, the extruder head clogged, so I cleaned it up. I communicated with the administration about the low-quality filament issue and, after it was resolved, continued my work. I 3D printed 25 visors, volunteering about 20 hours of my time from start to finish of this project. After all of them were cleaned of access filament, placed in ziplock bags, and marked, they were delivered to the maker space to be assembled and handed over to the first responders at the local hospital. I am very proud of being part of this community service project.
3D printed visors for PPE
Our FRC robot is playing with a Magic House visitor.
The Magic House welcomed children and their families to the FIRST FRC Open House event. Our team engaged spectators in conversation about FIRST and its programs, the benefits of robotics involvement, and provided attendees with an opportunity to interact with our robots. We reached about 350 people, including 195 children. I was the lead robot demonstrator and engaged young children in “play catch with a robot” activities. Older youth had a chance to pilot our robot. This event was fun not only for children but also for me. I hope that some of those children will continue pursuing their endeavors.
We received a “Thank You” card from the Magic House’s administration praising us for “dedicating our time and efforts to help make Robotics Day a success”! Job well done!
Volunteering with Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Charles County (BGCSTC)
A member of the BGCSTC administration contacted me to help maintain St. Charles Club’s small outdoor vegetable garden. During two seasons (May-October), I cut the grass between and around raised beds using an easy-to-operate electric push mower and a weed wacker to trim excessively long grass in hard-to-reach areas for the lawn mower. I was responsible for keeping batteries charged and for maintaining and cleaning all equipment after every use. I volunteered 30 hours to this project.
Additionally, our team was asked to demonstrate one of our past years’ FTC competition robots during the Club’s Crystal Ball, an annual fundraising event. Our team captain and I graciously agreed. We spent 5 hours interacting with hotel guests and event attendees, demonstrating our robot, and encouraging them to try their hands on a controller. Successful drivers received their Robot Driver Licenses from team members. This event hosted 500 guests, and I approached at least 20 of them to pilot our robot.
Last adjustments before a new robot driver will take over.
Learning to drive the team’s robot
Robotics Demonstration during the BGCSTC Open Houses drew the attention of diverse youth and their families from the local community. All present adults and children had an opportunity to try their hands at piloting the team’s robot, working its way through the blocks’ jungle, clearing its path by collecting and scoring them in the glyph box.
Hands-on sessions with robots such as LEGO WeDo and VEX IQ engaged youth, sparked their interest in robotics, and encouraged parents to sign their children up for the “Summer Blast” camps, where our team, including me, would teach robotics. We connected with 85 children during those events.
Volunteering with Optimist Club of St. Charles
Optimist Club of St. Charles is a subsidiary of Optimist International. This nonprofit organization has been striving to “bring the best in our youth, our community and ourselves” for more than 100 years. Optimist Club of St. Charles serves youth and the St. Charles community.
Over the last three years, I have volunteered at the “Helping Hands for the Holidays” event, which provides resources to low-income families.
My goal was to help the Optimists to set up their table and the equipment they needed to show the informative video about the club ( if such things will be done ), help at their booth, interact with visitors, including children who would stop by to get a Christmas ornament kit, and run the free to enter raffle if my help will be required.
Children’s gifts to be raffled
The first event I helped with required a monitor and a laptop to view and run the Optimist Club’s 50th anniversary video, which told visitors about the club’s history, the programs it ran, and the financial support Optimists provided to youth and various service organizations in the community. I was handed a flash drive with a well-composed 10-minute documentary talking about the Club’s legacy. I used my own equipment to ensure everything worked at the event. Despite all my efforts and the setup, not many people were willing to take the time to learn about the organization. Given the low interest in the video, the following year’s Club officers decided to skip the video demo.
From the beginning of my service to this Club, I have been helping them to run the free Christmas raffle for a chance to win a gift card or a Christmas present for a child, put together samples of offered Christmas ornaments, and provided step-by-step demos for children on how to put them together if help was needed.
My service was greatly appreciated, and I received 2 Certificates of Appreciation, recognizing my 28 hours of volunteering, and signed by the President of the Optimist Club of St. Charles.
I was asked to volunteer again this year, and I will definitely set aside my personal time to help them out again this December. I receive great satisfaction from knowing that I am doing something good for the community I live in.
Making Christmas ornament samples