How nonprofit organizations changed the way I see the world

By Evan Schoenborn

When I first dipped my toes into volunteering, it was with the casual intent of fulfilling a few required service hours for school. I didn’t realize I was stepping into a river whose current would carry me through four transformative years of nonprofit work and irrevocably alter the lens through which I view the world.

Since then, I’ve worked with a wide range of nonprofits: from beach cleanups and food drives to humane societies, foster care programs, and the Special Olympics. Each experience was a prism, refracting a different color of compassion and resilience. What united them was an unshakable devotion to service, often performed in obscurity, fueled by conviction rather than recognition.

What I’ve come to realize is that nonprofit work runs not on applause, but on ardor. It is sustained by the quiet fire of people who labor not for acclaim, but because their conscience compels them. Whether it’s feeding a family in need, cleaning up a shoreline, or advocating for those without a voice, they persist, being torchbearers of change in a world often slow to notice.

Perhaps the most indelible lesson I’ve learned is that leadership isn’t always loud or laureled. Sometimes, it takes the shape of a silent sentinel, staying late to stack chairs when the crowd has gone home. Sometimes, it’s a steady hand guiding a younger volunteer or a discreet intervention to prevent a quiet collapse. And sometimes, it’s simply the act of showing up, again and again, when no one else does. Leadership, I’ve found, is often the art of invisible architecture.

That ethos of uncelebrated consistency is what led my sister and I to co-found Making Waves FL - a student-led organization that connects young people with meaningful volunteer opportunities. We didn’t launch it with a blueprint or bravado, but with a simple realization that many students wanted to serve yet had no idea where to begin. Now, we help them do just that: discover causes they care about, cultivate confidence, and feel the quiet revolution that begins when you give yourself to something greater.

Looking back, I see that working with nonprofits hasn’t just deepened my understanding of my community, but it has reshaped the topography of my identity. Service has been etched into the grain of who I am. It has taught me that one doesn’t need expertise or grandeur to make a difference. You need only a willingness to step forward with an open heart and the courage to act upon it.

If there is one truth I hope others glean from my journey, it is this: you don’t have to wait for authority, accolades, or certainty to do something meaningful. Begin now. Begin with whatever tools your hands can hold. Begin in your own corner of the world.

That is how movements are born.

That is how we make waves.