Volunteer Ideas for Education Majors

If you decided to join the passionate and hardworking group of today's education majors, congratulations! Despite common perception, education majors are difficult and require a lot of dedication and hard work. But this education majors also have the benefit of being part of one of the most rewarding career paths available.

Requirements for completing education majors and obtaining a teaching job vary from state to state, but almost always require some amount of volunteer work related to the field. Education majors may find it difficult to fit volunteering into their busy schedules, but the hands-on experience is worth the extra time commitment. Are you looking for volunteer opportunities geared at education volunteers? Here are a few volunteer ideas:

Local Schools

Your education advisor should have contact information for the public and private schools near your college. Local schools are always in need of volunteers, and are especially happy to help education majors get much needed experience. These schools will often have a variety of volunteer opportunities already in place, but are also willing to try out new volunteer ideas suggested by education majors. Volunteer opportunities may include leading an after school study group, tutoring or mentoring students, assisting teachers, coaching sports or leading other extracurricular activities.

Project Eye-to-Eye

This volunteer project is specifically designed for college and middle school students with ADHD and learning disabilities. Each college student is paired with a middle school student, who they visit and mentor throughout the year. Once a week, all members of the local chapter gather to work on art projects, meanwhile making new friends and learning ways to manage stress and deal with learning differences. By building relationships between learning disabled middle school and college students, the program hopes to convince struggling pre-teens and teens that they are college material and that they can succeed in school.

Children's Museums

Remember goofing off at children's museums when you were little? Relive those memories by joining a volunteer program at a children's museum near your campus. Most children's museums offer volunteer programs especially designed for education majors. Volunteer opportunities at children's museums include supervising children, participating in theater or music performances, teaching classes or helping out with summer school or after school programs. Many museums also welcome volunteer ideas and input for new children's programs and classes.

Reading Partners

Reading Partners volunteer programs are mainly based in California and Washington D.C, but there are similar volunteer opportunities in hundreds of communities across the United States. In these volunteer programs, education majors are matched with low-income students, especially students with special needs. Education majors visit their reading partners once a week and read to them for an hour or two. Afterwards, the reading partners discuss the book they've read or complete lessons and activities that go with the book. These volunteer programs are perfect for education majors with time restraints, as they are very flexible and only require a commitment of one hour a week.