Today’s guest post comes from Zachary Hecht.

My entire life, I’ve walked straight past them. If they dared to approach me, I would turn my head the other way.  If they attempted to speak to me, I would pretend like I didn’t hear them. However, over the summer — this all changed. On a PANIM-BBYO program, IMPACT: DC, I finally stopped and spoke to a homeless person.

I have always held certain beliefs about homeless people, but these misconceptions were all shattered on one sunny day in a park in Washington D.C. For about half an hour I spoke with a man who was homeless. This man transcended every homeless stereotype. He was college educated, well read, and completely lucid. I soon realized that you do not need to be mentally unstable, or unintelligent to be homeless, just unlucky. It could happen to anybody, even me. This wasn’t the first community service I had ever done, nor was it the last….but it certainly was the most meaningful.

Recently I sat through a presentation by the CEO of Youth Services America. The CEO stated that my generation of teens is doing more community service than any other generation and that he couldn’t be prouder. Upon hearing this I wasn’t surprised, but I was also a little skeptical. Today teens complete hours of community service for school and to pad their college resumes. So while there is an abundance of service taking place, it isn’t always thoughtful service. I like to say this type of community service is volunteering as a means to an end.  And, while any community service is positive, this kind of service is the least meaningful. Most of the people that do this service do not put their heart into it and they rarely get anything out of their experiences.

It’s my feeling that community service needs to be completely revamped. There shouldn’t be requirements or standards.  Teens should do community service because they want to. When teens do community service they need to be inspired.

This is no easy task…. While inspiring a teen doesn’t necessarily require a large amount of work, it requires getting the teen to take a leap of faith.  Earlier when I mentioned my experience in the park, I failed to highlight what preceded it.  I didn’t just arrive; for over a week I learned about what being homeless was. PANIM was able to captivate me through education. This is why I was willing to take a leap of faith and speak to a homeless person in a park.   Community service should not be just a quick hour of volunteering with no introduction or closure. It needs to be an educational and worthwhile experience. It needs to be an experience that truly changes the way a teen think and feels.

If we are able to do this — community service will still be done, but not so a teen can graduate high school, or so they can get into college…. Community service will be done because teens will want to do it.

Zachary Hecht is a senior at Commack High School where he is a High Honor Role student and an IB Diploma candidate. Zach is on the regional board of BBYO’s Nassau-Suffolk Region. His interests include international relations and economics.