What's In-Person Volunteering with DP like?

At the Detroit Partnership (DP), we offer many weekly volunteer opportunities for University of Michigan students to get involved and give back to the community in Detroit. Here, we wanted to put a spotlight on our in-person programs through an interview with Mary McGreevy, who has been participating in these types of programs for several years, to learn more about her experience.

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

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Can you give a brief introduction about yourself?

Yep! So my name’s Mary McGreevy, I am a senior studying economics. I’ve been in DP for three years.

What weekly programs did you participate in? What were your volunteering duties and responsibilities?

My sophomore year, I was a virtual volunteer – this was after COVID, so almost all the DP programs were online – at the St. Vincent and Sarah Fischer Center (nonprofit providing educational programs to at-risk children and adults), where I did online tutoring. And then in my junior year, I became a general volunteer as well as a volunteer coordinator on the community team for the Downtown Boxing Gym (DBG) (nonprofit providing free educational and athletic programs for children). I went in-person once a week starting in October throughout the whole year. I obviously focused on the academic side of the DBG program; I wasn’t involved with the boxing stuff at all. I would help the kids there with their homework, high school or scholarship applications, basically whatever they needed. I would also help out wherever else I was needed, such as sometimes supervising the STEM lab where the kids worked on creative projects. The program is starting up soon again this year, and I’ll be continuing as a volunteer coordinator and taking on a new role as the community team co-director.

As a volunteer coordinator, we’re responsible for meeting with community partners, the adults that run the program. We facilitate conversations with them, meet with them over Zoom, talk about our organization and how we can help meet their needs. Coordinators are also responsible for the volunteers “under” them, so my duties include driving all my volunteers down to Detroit and holding reflection sessions every week.

As the community team co-director, I oversee and help deal with any problems that arise. For example, if my volunteer coordinators need help getting in touch with someone. So, there’s a lot of coordinating and communicating, a lot of emailing, to make sure our weekly programs which are the bread and butter of DP are running smoothly.

How much time were you committing to volunteering each week?

I would pick up the car and we would leave at 3:30pm to get to DBG, where the actual program started at 4:30pm and ran to 6:30pm.There would typically be two stations for academics and athletics respectively and the students at each station would switch at 5:30pm. We could’ve only signed up for the first session from 4:30-5:30pm, but we figured since we were already driving out there, it would be a waste to just do one session. Afterwards, we would usually arrive back at 7:30pm.

How did you find the time to fit volunteering into your schedule?

I’m the kind of person who likes having their classes in the morning, and that worked out in my favor because a DP mostly works with after-school programs that usually run in the afternoon. Normally, it is the volunteer coordinator that picks a day and time that works for them as well as the program they are volunteering with, so it was definitely a lot easier for me to fit volunteering into my schedule. I would say, for those who are interested in volunteering, to clear up your afternoon schedule for at least one day of the week and see what programs you can work with from there.

What are your thoughts on in-person versus virtual volunteering?

I know that the in-person programs are less popular among students volunteering with DP just because it is such a big time commitment, but I honestly feel like they are the more rewarding programs. I feel like with the in-person programs, you develop a deeper connection with the kids and really get to know them. It’s fun to see the look on their face when they finally understand a math concept or whatever you’re trying to teach them at the time, and that sometimes gets lost when you’re tutoring over Zoom. It’s also a lot harder for the kids to sit behind a screen and focus over Zoom. You have to keep in mind that they have already been in school for however many hours that day; the last thing they want to do is more schoolwork, but being in-person is definitely helpful in encouraging them and helping them stay focused.

Most favorite/memorable/rewarding part of volunteering?

My favorite part would be when you get towards the end of an assignment and get to see the students start to understand it. It’s just super rewarding to see that you made an impact, even if it was just for one homework assignment, especially when they start off in a bad mood, but at the end of it are a lot happier. I remember one of the students I had – his name was Diego – when we got to the end of the session, he said something along the lines of “this volunteer is not as annoying as I thought she would be!”.

You can also form lasting relationships through volunteering. One of the community partners from St. Vincent and Sarah Fischer Center that I had worked with in my sophomore year totally remembered me when I went there for DP Day last year. He’s someone I could definitely go to if I needed a recommendation. Also, just seeing the same people every week at DBG, I was able to develop relationships with them. I feel that for everyone in DP and our community partners, we share this common, genuine interest in helping people, so it’s easy to develop friendships with them.

Do you have any general advice for students who want to get into volunteering?

Definitely check out our weekly programs and see what interests you! We have a lot of different programs for students with different interests, it’s not just all tutoring so it’s alright if that’s not your thing. I personally would recommend volunteering in-person because you can get a lot more out of it.

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Overall, it is evident that participating in in-person volunteering programs can be an extremely rewarding and meaningful experience. While it might seem like a hefty time commitment at first, it is more than possible for many of us to clear one afternoon or evening out of our week to contribute to give back to the community.

Written by Sabrina Wong (Education Team 2023-2024)