INSPIRING YOUNG PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Olivia Kim. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Olivia Kim is an inspiration to people of all ages. But for other high school students, she’s a standout example of the power of volunteerism.

Olivia has always enjoyed helping others, so she didn’t think twice when her best friend started NYCvolunteer, a youth organization that highlights volunteer opportunities for high schoolers in New York City. Knowing that many young people are looking to get involved in their communities with volunteer work, the duo realized they could streamline the process by creating a volunteer team that could tackle everything from hosting bake sales to visiting senior centers in the New York City area.

Olivia got involved with the group in 2024 and quickly became vice president of the organization. In that role, she not only coordinates events and communicates with organization partners, but she also serves as a leader who mentors new team members and develops innovative service initiatives. Olivia’s ability to foster strong relationships with both volunteers and nonprofit partners has played an essential role in sustaining NYCvolunteer’s impact in the New York community. With Olivia’s dedication, NYCvolunteer has grown its team to over 150 active volunteers who have contributed over 500 service hours to their community.

A rising high school senior, Olivia plans to attend college and medical school. Her passion for helping others has inspired her dream of becoming a doctor. She cites getting out of her comfort zone through volunteering as one of the most helpful tools for informing her future goals. By being exposed to all sorts of populations, she’s learned the true meaning of helping others.

Her journey is the ultimate success story of volunteerism, and it’s likely to continue for many more decades.

What inspires you to volunteer?

Ever since I was little, I have loved helping other people. It just makes me feel good. Doing something to help other people is just such a good way to spend my time. Also, it’s very motivational for other people to help them start volunteering. I particularly love volunteering at community centers or nursing homes, because I love talking to other people and meeting new people, and socializing. It’s such a great way to meet and talk.

Tell us about your volunteer role with NYCVolunteer.

I do a lot of work behind the scenes. We look for volunteering opportunities by emailing different places and collaborating with other organizations. One organization called Gem, which is focused on helping seniors, and we’ve collaborated with them a bunch of times. We reach out to them and establish and coordinate a perfect time that works with all of our members and the venue. We also have different teams under us, including a design team. They design posts on our Instagram for different events. They make these event posts so that people who look at our account can find different ways to get involved. We also host other events, like bake sales and card-making gatherings.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

My best friend started this organization. She realized that a lot of high schoolers nowadays want to add activities to their college application and build out their extracurriculars, but they don’t know how to do that, or where to find these opportunities. We aim to highlight any volunteering opportunities for high schoolers in New York City.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

We want to grow the organization as much as possible. We’re looking to expand the number of followers we have so we can reach out to more people and let them know about more volunteering opportunities. I think it’s great that we have a solid New York community that can help each other out in finding opportunities and even meeting new volunteers. I feel like that’s important. Doing things together is more impactful on the whole community. I think growth of this community is one of our biggest goals.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I thought it would be easier. Sometimes it’s pretty hard to get people to go attend the events. There was one nursing home we went to, where it was pretty hard to communicate with the seniors who couldn’t hear as well. Some of our volunteers may have felt uncomfortable, but I think getting out of your comfort zone and overcoming obstacles are important parts of the experience.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

You need to take action so that it spreads awareness and reaches more people, and increases impact. Keeping it to yourself isn’t going to do much. Going to these events and taking action is important. Volunteering grows us as a community as well.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

I would say, if you wanted to do it, you would. There are so many opportunities that you could find online. I know we started our nonprofit to help people find things that they can do, but there are also so online sources that you can research and look up to find things that you can do. It may not be a big commitment. It could be gardening or going to a soup kitchen. You can still volunteer for a day. You can still meet a lot of people in a single day. One piece of advice that I would give is don’t be afraid, and you won’t regret it at all. It’s all for a good cause.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

Age doesn’t define anything. Just because you’re a high school student doesn’t mean that you can’t start working toward a cause. Anything is possible.If you want, you can start your own organization with a strong mindset, and you can have people join your community and grow your organization. You can gain support just by doing little things, step by step.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Olivia? Find local volunteer opportunities.