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In this speech, Stephanie Poplin argues that by volunteering we can enrich our lives (a claim of value). Stephanie organizes the speech using Monroe’s five-step motivated sequence pattern. She begins with the attention step, making the speech relevant to listeners. She next points to audience members’ innate thirst for fulfillment in life (the need step) and suggests that volunteering can satisfy or solve this need (the satisfaction step). Next, Stephanie offers vivid examples of how listeners will feel when they volunteer (the visualization step). She concludes by directly asking the audience to get involved (the action step).
The Importance of Community Engagement and Volunteerism
STEPHANIE POPLIN
University of Oklahoma
Stephanie establishes the attention step by stating that listeners have the power to make profound changes in the world.
“Great social forces are the mere accumulation of individual actions.” Think about that—“Great social forces are the mere accumulation of individual actions.” This was said by noted economist and antipoverty activist Jeffrey Sachs in a March 2005 Time magazine essay about helping the world’s poor. And it’s true, right? Every great volunteer organization and every great social movement, from the Red Cross to the Peace Corps to the Civil Rights Movement, achieved what it did through individual actions, yet all those actions were history changing.
I’m Stephanie Poplin, and I would like to speak to you today about why it is imperative that you give yourself the opportunity to live a more successful and meaningful life. One way of achieving this is by contributing—by putting yourself into the community that surrounds you. I’m referring to community service and civic engagement. Today, I will talk to you about what you can personally gain from your involvement and participation in your community.
Stephanie introduces the need step by claiming that volunteering is a “requirement for happiness.”
Stephanie quotes two credible sources to illustrate her point.
Volunteering may seem like it requires too much time and energy. In truth, it’s a requirement for happiness. Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, made this observation: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” Echoing this, Helen Keller, who was both blind and deaf, yet devoted her life to others, said, “The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.”
Clarifying potentially unclear terms is important, regardless of speech type.
Now, traditionally, when you hear the words community service and volunteer, what do you think of? Some of us become confused by “community service,” since it can refer to both an alternative to jail time and to an altruistic act of giving to the community. Here I am speaking about the latter. And what about the term volunteer? Here, we think of someone who wants to do good—someone who wants to improve the lives of those who are less fortunate. And while this remains true, attitudes towards volunteering are changing. Volunteers are realizing that in addition to satisfying altruistic goals, community service offers some major personal benefits.
She establishes the need step by appealing to her listeners’ core concerns and self-actualization needs.
In today’s job market, for example, it’s becoming evident that college graduates need more than just paper qualifications. We’ll need to be able to stand out from the crowd, to be resourceful, to be initiators, to be team players, and to possess a get-up-and-go attitude. These are now the desired skills of employers, and volunteering can provide all of this.
Demonstrating how volunteering can solve our innate need for fulfillment, Stephanie transitions into the satisfaction step.
Stephanie uses sources that her college audience is likely to find credible.
Research bears this out. Student Volunteering UK conducted large-scale research into the benefits of volunteering. Results show that volunteering can enhance employability and develop and strengthen new and different job skills. In our own country, the Corporation for National and Community Service has found that volunteering makes us better problem solvers, a key trait employers look for. I think we’d all agree this is a necessity for us, especially given the stages our lives are in right now.
Virtually every paid job can be mirrored by a volunteering opportunity, according to both the Corporation for National and Community Service and Student Volunteering UK. Taking part in community service is a new and pioneering form of work experience. Not only is it seen as work experience, but employers view job applicants who have volunteered as having greater initiative and commitment than applicants without volunteer experience.
Stephanie demonstrates the visualization steps, which reinforces outcomes associated with the solution (volunteering).
Research from Student Volunteering UK and the Corporation for National and Community Service also lists outcomes, other than résumé building, that students felt they had gained through their participation in volunteering. Here’s some of what they found:
Volunteering also benefits physical and emotional health. The Corporation for National and Community Service did a review of recent research on the health benefits of volunteering. It found that volunteering builds social support networks and enhances a sense of achievement and meaning, which in turn leads to lowered rates of depression and even lowered mortality rates.
Just as volunteering can help individuals become happier and healthier, it helps strengthen communities. Community building is an incredibly important social outcome of volunteering. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, volunteers are absolutely crucial to creating and sustaining healthy communities.
Knowing that people tend to adopt a behavior if they know that people like themselves have done so, Stephanie mentions examples of student volunteers.
Fortunately, since the tragedy of 9/11 now nearly a decade ago, as well as the election of President Barack Obama and his call to national service, there has been a surge in student volunteers. Volunteering has increased so much since 2001 that today’s student volunteers are sometimes called the “9/11 generation” by leaders of charitable organizations. The Corporation reports, for example, that each year since 2001, 3.3 million college students—over 30 percent of the college population—gave their time, up from 27 percent before 9/11. Tutoring and mentoring are the most popular volunteer activities, with 44 percent of students spending at least 12 hours a week on these activities. Students who take service learning courses and who work part time volunteer more often than those who don’t have jobs.
Still in the visualization step, Stephanie offers personal testimony to demonstrate how volunteering can make a real impact.
I have experienced the benefits of community service firsthand through my involvement in Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is an international organization fueled by hundreds of thousands of volunteers who join with future homeowners to build simple and affordable houses.
It wasn’t until my first experience building a home, here in Norman, that I realized the impact this organization has on its volunteers and the families involved. I’ve always had a bedroom of my own to escape to, and I’ve always had a kitchen to make breakfast in the morning, but there are two little boys who now have this for the first time, thanks to the University of Oklahoma’s chapter of Habitat for Humanity. I have always taken my home for granted, but now I can be a part of giving these little boys a home of their own.
These words link back to the speech’s central idea to promote thematic unity.
Sometimes big changes follow from small events, such as my sheetrocking an empty space that will eventually become a living room that these little boys and their mom and dad can enjoy together.
Here Stephanie transitions to the fifth and final step, the action step.
To encourage action, Stephanie offers contact information for volunteer organizations.
Someone once told me, “You don’t find yourself; you create yourself.” As college students, we have every opportunity in the world to create a life that is successful and meaningful. Use your good fortune, and choose to create a life that is service-oriented. Walk over to OU’s Volunteer Programs office on West California, or go to their Web page. You’ll find great ways to combine volunteering with earning your degree. You can also go to Step Up’s community volunteer network—just Google “Step Up!”—to find volunteer opportunities in your area. Visit the Habitat for Humanity Web site and click on “Local Affiliates” to find the branch nearest you. These are just a few ways to find volunteer opportunities. Many others exist, from countless nonprofits, to houses of worship, to local, state, and federal government programs.
Stephanie signals the conclusion.
Stephanie briefly reiterates the main points.
We have seen how you can personally benefit from contributing to your community. Whether you want to make new friends, improve your job prospects, test a potential career, or build confidence, help build communities, beat depression, and even live longer, volunteering can be the answer. People who have spent time volunteering report they get back in personal fulfillment and satisfaction more than they ever expend in inconvenience and effort.
Stephanie concludes by repeating the quote from the introduction, bringing the speech full circle.
We all have the power to make an impact one way or another. After all, “Great social forces are the mere accumulation of individual actions.”
Works Cited
Corporation for National and Community Service. College Students Helping America. October 2006. www.nationalservice.gov/pdf/06_1016_RPD_college_full.pdf.
Motivational Quotes Web site. Quotes on Volunteering Page. www.motivationalquotes.com/pages/volunteer-quotes.html.
Sachs, Jeffrey D. “The End of Poverty.” Time, March 6, 2005.
Student Volunteering UK. The Art of Crazy Paving: Volunteering for Enhanced Employability. Accessed January 8, 2008. www.studentvolunteering.org.uk/.