Do you know how many hours you should volunteer for your graduation? The higher grade you are in, the more pressure you have about volunteer duty which you have not got enough, not only TOEIC score or getting a job. If you are an university student who graduated middle school, and high school in Korea, you must have a experience of volunteering for volunteer duty. These days, there are many volunteering which are possible from home such as watching videos related with volunteering. One of the easiest ways that students could get volunteer hours is a blood donation.

Since July 2010, according to the Ministry of Health & Welfare ‘s implementation of social welfare volunteering admit criteria, regardless of donation type, whole blood donation or apheresis, 4 hours counted on every donation. According to the graduation criteria of Dankook University (DKU), students should volunteer 32 hours in school include field volunteer and online special lecture. A person can donate 5 times of whole blood, less than 24 times of apheresis, so it is possible to satisfy demand for graduation of school with 8 times of apheresis. Therefore, the number of students who try to complete their volunteer duty with blood donation are increasing because they are busy for studying and finding job.

Then, what kind of field volunteering is possible, except blood donation? First, there is a university students class guidance mentoring program which managed by several cities. Students who participated this volunteering program do mentoring volunteer at schools or children center which are specified by each city. Especially, volunteers care teenagers who are in vulnerable social group for man to man. It can be a kind of talent donation because volunteers support customized learning. Furthermore, not only mentoring and class guidance, but also there are various volunteer opportunities such as donative activity, flea market, farm village volunteering, supporting local events, and various campaigns. Therefore, it is a great opportunity to help children and grow with them and do meaningful volunteering as a student. Also, there is unique volunteering
which can volunteer abroad. It usually consist of short term or medium and long-term and send volunteer group to countries which are vulnerable in welfare. Several companies and banks host it, and also DKU detaching volunteer group to Cambodia and Laos now.

Then, how Dankookians volunteer now? According to the survey from 100 DKU students, 72% of students volunteered at several public institution and mentoring. 15% of online volunteering, and other methods took 13%. 92% of students except few freshmen knew about blood donation volunteering, but students who really used blood donation for their volunteering duty was just 17%. However, 68% of students answered positively to the question that if they will donate their blood to get volunteer certificate for their graduation if they are senior and don’t have enough time for volunteering.

University students’ volunteer activities are for students’ own personality and mature self formation. Moreover, it is also a great opportunity to learn team work and gratitude when they meet many people during field volunteering. There is a concern about volunteering because it could be a ‘black sheep’ which is just for graduation, not from good intent. Furthermore, it seems a pity that there are many volunteering for finding job, which lose original purpose of volunteering.

It is true that the effect was huge after blood donation accepted as volunteering to encourage private blood donation, because highschool students donors increased rapidly 890,000 in 2009 to 1,050,000 in 2013. It is a good phenomenon that the number of blood donation has increased of course, but it is also worried because students could treat the donation as an expedient or advantage for their job. Therefore, there should be countermeasure to prevent that donation will be a way to harm the volunteer spirit.