Since starting high school, I have spent my summers and my weekends volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Before senior year, I was able to work as the leader of the media department at a ReStore where I improved the retail system for books, CDs, and DVDs, trained new volunteers, and raised money towards funding the building of houses for deserving low-income families. I realized my own privilege in having the ability to help others through community service. This experience connected me to the organization and my local community and inspired me to restart the club at my school. 

As President of my school’s Habitat for Humanity club, I organized for a group of students to help build a “Hospitality House,” which was specifically built to support the diversity of families in the community by housing a young Burmese couple and their 15-month-old son. Working sweat-equity hours alongside us, his mother thanked us for spending our free time to build a home for her family. It was an exceptional experience not only to see building progress on a Habitat home but to see the positive effect in their family’s life. I plan to continue volunteering to help the community around me by raising money to fund homes and building houses to support their families.