(January 23, 2001) — Dressed in a clean white uniform with an identification badge clipped to your crisp, newly ironed shirt pocket, you walk through the automatic sliding doors, prepared for another day in the emergency room. Along with your first step into the hospital’s atmosphere, your nose instinctively cringes at the hospital’s unique scent of bitter medicine. Greeted by the bustle of the hospital, muffled voices on the intercom and the vastness of the hallways, you begin to do your share of volunteer work at the hospital. Hospital volunteers file papers, help nurses and assist patients in wheelchairs. High school students spend countless hours volunteering at hospitals, libraries or public service centers. Often times, students begin their first approach at community service hours at a local library doing tasks such as shelving, stamping and organizing. Eventually, these occasional hours on weekends become a weekly routine of volunteering at hospitals, childcare centers or other locations. Students can even be found spending four to five hours a day lending a helping hand out at neighborhood events or organizations, animal centers or retirement homes. For the majority of students, what may have started off as a job taken to fill the required community service hours may develop into a future career. Although many volunteers search for a place to fulfill the mandatory community service hours, public services always seem to be in need of volunteers. Guidance teacher Randy Tiffany said, “The feedback that I receive from the organizations is always positive.” Tiffany also mentioned that it is beneficial for the organizations to get the help they need for free. Whether it means running a quick errand or performing a substantial task, public service centers seem to welcome hard workers. Community service is clearly beneficial to organizations, but what is in store for the volunteers? Besides meeting the required ten hours during the freshman year, through community service, students can gain experience in different areas of work. Certain volunteer hours may open new paths for a future career choice and teach many valuable life skills. But not everyone finds community service to be a helpful stepping-stone in getting accustomed to working in the real world. Senior William Yoo disagrees with the idea that students acquire working experience through community service hours. He said, “Community service only helped me up to a certain point. It didn’t prepare me for everything.” Sophomore Zaruhi Najarian commented, “It can be so boring! Usually the same job is done every time.” Nevertheless, assistant principal Joan Shoff said that “by helping and giving to others, you receive something back.” Shoff emphasized that as students of Clark, we should concentrate less on what is mandatory and not think of what we “have” to do, but more of what we “can” and “should” do.