Today's post is written by Alvina Lopez, a freelance writer and blog junkie, who blogs about accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: alvina.lopez @gmail.com.

"According to the most recent statistics available, about 6.9% of college graduates aged 16 to 24 are currently unemployed; that's a 2.9% increase from 2007. If you are part of this unfortunate pool of young graduates who can't catch a lucky break, and if you grow nervous by the day because you are already receiving letters in the mail from loan officers about payment plans, an easy solution may reside in the form of volunteer work. That's right, volunteering may just be able to help struggling recent grads find employment, be better prepared for grad school, or even resolve their debt crisis. To learn how, continue reading below.

Enhances Resume

Ask any expert and they will say that volunteering when one is unemployed (no matter if  volunteering on a large or small scale) is one of the easiest ways to boost one's resume and better their chances of finding a full time gig. What is does is shows employers that you have remained "active" throughout your job hunt and still managed to allocate your time effectively. Plainly put, an employer doesn't want to see that you've been unemployed for an entire year and all you've done to fill the time is go on interviews—it's not enough. Volunteering, on the other hand, demonstrates that throughout your unfortunate unemployment phase you still managed to give your time and energy to your community or to a specific cause.  If you happen to land a special leadership role by chance even better. This experience can also help beef up your resume. The skills you learn such as managing a team of 20 or recruiting sponsors for an event may just be the skills an employer is looking for in a hire. And if the organization you choose to volunteer for has an area where your diploma will be of good use—maybe you were a public relations major—then  try to see if you can write press releases or help out the communications department. This sort of career-related volunteering will almost serve as an internship and will help you enormously. If you decide that you would like to return to graduate school and earn your master's  a year after graduation, volunteering works in the same way—it shows admission officers  that you have remained "active."

Increases Networking

Another reason why volunteering is such a lucrative outlet to find employment is because you will be working with a magnitude of different people—these people serve as a great networking platform.  When volunteering, diligently work to build relationships with the people you work with, especially your team leader. They will be able to vouch for you and write stellar letters of recommendation.  And because even the most successful and established people volunteer as well, you may just meet someone who works in the industry you want to be involved in and he or she may just hire you—or at least give you some contacts or some leads on companies that may be hiring.

Alleviates Loan Debt

Lastly, if you decide to work for some of the bigger leading volunteering organizations such as the Peace Corps, the AmeriCorps or any of its affiliates such as the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), you may just be able to get your loan reimbursed for your service. Each program is different, but typically you can either receive a full or partial loan cancellation for volunteering for "x" amount of consecutive years; or you will be offered a stipend check that can be applied to loan debt if you choose to do so.