



UP College of Business Administration Homecoming
December 4, 2010
(bottom photo: Dean Velasco, Chancellor Cao, UP President Román, Mrs. Brown, Dean Ben Paul Gutierrez, Dean Virata.)
Congratulations, and Thank You, Annabelle! :-)
People volunteer for a wide variety of reasons, especially wanting to help others. But it's also OK to want some benefits for yourself from volunteering.
Some people are uncomfortable with the notion that a volunteer "benefits" from doing volunteer work. There is a long tradition of seeing volunteering as a form of charity, based on altruism and selflessness. The best volunteering does involve the desire to serve others, but this does not exclude other motivations, as well.
Instead of considering volunteering as something you do for people who are not as fortunate as yourself, begin to think of it as an exchange.
Consider that most people find themselves in need at some point in their lives. So today you may be the person with the ability to help, but tomorrow you may be the recipient of someone else's volunteer effort. Even now you might be on both sides of the service cycle: maybe you are a tutor for someone who can't read, while last month the volunteer ambulance corps rushed you to the emergency room. Volunteering also includes "self-help." So if you are active in your neighborhood crime watch, your home is protected while you protect your neighbors' homes, too. Adding your effort to the work of others makes everyone's lives better.
Your Motivations
Think about how much you receive when you give and consider why you want to volunteer. You may have several different reasons. Here are just a few of the many possible motivations identified by other volunteers:
You will probably have some special reasons of your own. Remember that the motivations you have to select the place to offer your services may not be the reasons why you stay. Once you're on the volunteer job, you will continue to serve as long as you feel that your efforts are accomplishing something, that your talents are appreciated, and that you make a difference. And if you also like the people with whom you work, so much the better!
As long as you are truly serving through your volunteer work, isn't it wonderful that such an exchange occurs? In fact, it tends to strengthen your commitment to volunteering when you can see the benefits to both the recipient of your efforts and to yourself. And it is much more comfortable than "charity" because it upholds the self-esteem of those with whom you volunteer.
A longer version of the list of motivations for volunteering can be found in The Volunteer Recruitment (and Membership Development) Book by Susan J. Ellis.
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Info about 'Alalay sa Pamilya at Bayan Foundation'
Here’s the account of St Josemaría’s death: On June 26, 1975, Msgr. Josemaría died suddenly in Rome. The previous month he had made his last visit to Spain, where he received the gold medal of his native town, Barbastro, and visited the nearby shrine of Torreciudad, which had been built at his request, and was about to be inaugurated. His death marked the end of the foundational stage of Opus Dei and, in the words of his successor, the beginning of the “stage of continuity and fidelity”. Msgr. Alvaro del Portillo, then Secretary General of Opus Dei, acted as its head until the elective congress was held. (Excerpts from Immersed in God: Blessed Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei, as seen by his successor Bishop Alvaro del Portillo)
VIDEO: A selection of images from the Holy Masses celebrated on the liturgical feast of St Josemaria.