Does helping volunteer in different countries help?

[nate1192]

so I've been wondering about this for 2 years now. For the past 2 summers of my freshman and sophomore, I go to Taiwan to help as an English assistant teacher teaching kids from k-9 grade. Does this help me? Also does speaking another language fluently(Chinese) also help? I am also taking honors Spanish 4 this year and plan to take ap Spanish next year

 

[Elisabethromy]

志工的經驗自然是有幫助的，至於中文的水平，可能要結合你其他的考評才能確定有沒有幫助。

 

[brovol]

For what its worth, I think folks make a bigger deal about volunteer or community service hours in terms of application credentials. To my knowledge they are not scored at all on the WCS. I think it shows that an applicant is service oriented, and generous with his/her time, and that the candidate can manage time; all of which are helpful with respect to the subjective analysis, but frankly, once you have established a minimal amount of community service, that box is checked, if you will. I dont think doing the volunteer work out of the country will hurt at all, but not sure it will make a material difference either. Speaking another language will likely help though.

 

[AROTC-dad]

Mandarin IS considered to be a strategic language, but it won't add WCS points to the best of my knowledge. It will just be helpful in your career.

 

[bookreader]

WP likes to see volunteering but how could they possibly give more weight to volunteering in one location over another? Many volunteer in their communities because overseas travel is simply not possible for any number of reasons.

 

[brovol]

Volunteering abroad not only gives an opportunity to bring positive change in a society, but also encourages cross cultural learning which helps to create understanding and global awareness. Depending on the different programs arranged you can teach in the schools, provide disaster relief and support the people who are traumatic situations and gain an experience which is rich in humanity.

....and then there is the proposition that charity begins at home.

 

[OGKid96]

It does help for applications. I didn't do my interview for my nomination in person. I did it over the phone while at an orphanage in the Philippines. So volunteer work does help especially when it's outside the country

 

[USMA 1994]

Community service is a very small impact if any to your WCS. All strong candidates will have some sort of service so you will need to have more objective achievements to differentiate your self in the application process.

It may help in the nomination process as the MOCs are much more subjective.

 

[Cerberi]

Your experiences, which are pretty unique, provide an excellent opportunity for your essay. I don't know how much the essays are weighted (I would argue not significantly). But, you are bringing experiences/skills that most of your competition is not, so in that respect in a head to head comparison with someone with all other things being equal - it probably helps your case.

I believe this plays into what the military and the service academies call 'diversity' or at least want 'diversity' to mean vs sex/race.

You have experienced other cultures and made an effort to make a difference. (not that volunteering locally doesn't also make a difference)