I used to think volunteering meant lifting boxes and checking tasks off a list—until my freshman year at the Salvation Army. As families shuffled past, a mentor leaned over and said, “It’s not the work—it’s who you make feel seen.” That rewired my idea of service: from labor to giving people the dignity of being noticed. I carried that lesson to my local library, guiding children through reading and homework each week. One shy student barely looked up, shrinking into their chair. Using whisper reading and word cards, we celebrated small wins. When they finally read a sentence aloud without hesitation, the change was unmistakable. Switching between Español and English often unlocked confidence in seconds. That skill shaped everything I built next.