Alan He

Alan He (Alan He (alanhe) on Twitter (Alan He))

I interviewed my brother, Alan, on his volunteering. He has volunteered several times to better his local community, and the community of the town where he went to college. He served in a variety of ways, from working in soup kitchens, to helping people with their taxes.

He first started volunteering when he was in high school. Most decent colleges require you to have volunteering experience on your resume. So for that reason alone, he took up volunteering at the Echo Center. It wasn't a very prestigious work and my brother states that he wouldn't have done it if it wasn't required. He, along with many other high school students were cleaning tanks and caring for the animals. Yet this was a start in volunteering, which would provide him experience.

He then went onto college, and during this time he began to volunteer yet again. There were some opportunities for the local students to volunteer in various places, such as a school, but my brother decided to volunteer in a soup kitchen called the Hamilton Food Cupboard. The town economy was based mostly around the university next to it. Most of the people had jobs servicing the college students. There were people who lived in poverty and needed help. My brother met and served the homeless and needy, which he says was a humbling experience. He stated that he met people in the community that he would have never interacted with if he hadn't been working at the food cupboard. For him, there was an immediate gratitude that came from the people he was serving, and he could see how he was helping. The link wasn't as subtle as working at the Echo Center. He didn't volunteer for a credit or for this resume, he volunteered to better this community.

My brother also volunteered in the Colgate volunteer income tax assistance program, where he helped people file taxes and get their earned income tax credit. This experience was a little less direct compared to the food cupboard, though helping people with taxes can be just as rewarding. Some people didn't have access to the proper tools to get their taxes done, and others just couldn't for many reasons, such as disabilities or homelessness. My brother likely helped some of the same people with their earned income tax whom he had served in the food cupboard.

My brother worked for months on each of his volunteering experiences, and plans on doing more in the future. He has learned a lot from his endeavors and has become a better person from those endeavors. He helped his college community for the years he was there and, along with the work of others, has made it a better place for the people there. This is why my brother is my hero.