[ALee]

Before I entered the tech space ten years ago, I had won some scholarships because all I wanted to do was public service either through the government or non-profits. For me volunteering was initially a way to increase the CAS credits (an IB requirement in high school), but eventually morphed into probably the BEST way to feel good and to recharge. I don't know what it is, but being community-focused activates something in the brain that is different from the more hedonistic side and helps re-center all my efforts at work. I'm weird I think though - most people don't actually care about helping the least among us and I can understand why. It's literally all cost, but somehow if you do it, you get this great sense of accomplishment and if you do it with friends, it's even better.

For me, the following volunteer activities are great: 1) Group activities, like building housing in the bay area - Habitat for Humanity cannot keep tech from at least literally building housing for San Francisco despite the local community not wanting us to. Other group activities include meal preparation, food bank help - I strongly suggest organizations like OneBrick

2) mentorship/tutoring - it's quite rewarding when you can teach someone something. You know that it'll live with them for a while and you've literally touched a human life

3) Donating - I know people hate this, but if you do it, it's probably more important than you just putting a little bit of your time.

In general, I think of volunteering as really a form of consumption actually which benefits society