How to help (if you're a broke college student)

It's easy as college students struggling with rent and loans to find a handful of excuses as to why we can't help out the less fortunate.

Everyone sees the homeless throughout the town, and almost everyone has been confronted by them and asked for spare change. Now, if we knew the real percentage of those who have actually given money from their pockets, we might all be a little dissapointed in ourselves.

But it's not our fault. It's not that we don't feel bad for these people, we just can't understand how or why they've gotten to be in the positions that they are and we avoid the unfamiliar.

The majority of the student body is financially struggling and it's very easy to understand why we don't want to fork up that little bit of extra cash to donate to someone we don't know instead of putting it towards something we can personally benefit from.

While money is a legitimate excuse, time isn't.

Yes, we're all busy, we're all trying to study and pass finals, but there's always down time and in that down time, there are plenty of opportunities to help others.

Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer.

The Morgantown area has a variety of programs that are constantly looking for student volunteers, whether it be to help serve food at a soup kitchen for organize goods at a food drive.

The Multidisciplinary UnSheltered Homeless Relief Outreach of Morgantown, or MUSHROOM, is a West Virginia University student group primarily focused on reaching out to the homeless.

They meet once a week and wander the streets of Morgantown with supplies like water, food and socks (donated from community businesses) and offer them to the homeless.

One particular goal of the MUSHROOM group's is especially intriguing though. Its first and foremost goal upon locating the needy is something totally free: conversation.

The group's main goal is to offer friendship by having general conversation like "How's the weather?" and "Where are you from?"

I think the groups' idea is very touching and should speak to all of us. Just to say hello or offer a warm smile to help brighten someone's day more than we know and that human-to-human interaction is something we all take for granted.

A not-so-familiar familiar face

As a student at West Virginia University, Morgantown is a place you have to get used to.

The college town is a lot different from most of our hometowns and we slowly become familiar with the city's odd hours, the intricate study halls and its busy traffic.

However, something we've also become well adapted to (though, we may not admit it) is the appearance of homeless people in the community.

After my three years here, these citizens have become familiar faces, though I haven't given enough of my time to become more familiar with them.

My goal is not only to urge others to reach out to those who are poverty stricken, but to better allow society to perceive them as who they are: real people, with personalities and a story, and hopefully: a desire for a better life.
I’ve heard it all before: “I don’t feel sorry for them – they’ve chosen that lifestyle,” “Not my problem,” or “Why don’t they just get a job?”

Though I don’t judge anyone negatively for not understanding or relating to situations they’ve never been in – I do want people to view those who are less fortunate in a different light and stop to ask themselves these questions:

How did they wind up here?
What has happened in their lives that they are now living on the streets?
Where is their family?
Do they have anyone who cares for them?
What would I do if I was in their shoes?

There are many compassionate people in the world – and many in this community. However, it’s hard for people to find the initiative to support a cause they don’t know much about and to help others they don’t really know.

This blog’s main focus is to urge the community to be more observant of their surroundings and introduce them to organizations they can support, like the local Bartlett House, and to give advice on how to help others if you feel like you don’t have much to give financially (like the majority of struggling students living on loans and paying rent, like myself.)

Just because we’re college students struggling ourselves doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference. Just remember – it could always, always be worse.