Ever considered the opportunity to offer your help or engage with someone you might learn something from? Volunteering with the eCYBERMISSION STEM competition provides an awesome platform for college students to do so.

In 2013, an estimated 62.6 million American citizens volunteered, with 26% of those volunteers devoting their time to educational opportunities. This paints a great picture of the multiple educational opportunities available at your fingertips nationally—mentoring, coaching, teaching, fundraising, and so forth. With STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) being a hot topic in education and a major focus of President Barack Obama’s administration, it is important in the volunteering space to help involve more and more youth in STEM initiatives.

Many STEM-related educational programs, like eCYBERMISSION, provide opportunities for college students to get involved with the community. eCYBERMISSION, a free web-based STEM competition offered by the Army Educational Outreach Program, challenges students in grades six through nine to team up and identify a problem in their community by using scientific practices or engineering design processes to propose a solution and compete for awards up to $9,000 in savings bonds.

Last year, the eCYBERMISSION Volunteer Program created a unique opportunity for colleges and universities across the United States to participate in the STEM competition as Student Virtual Judges. As the role suggests, Student Virtual Judges help score a minimum of five team projects online, known as Mission Folders. This is an excellent opportunity for college students to connect the engineering and scientific principles in a critical-thinking application.

This volunteer opportunity allows college students to not only boost their resumes and build on existing skill sets but also to grow as individuals. No matter how students give their time to volunteer, the end goal is to accomplish good work. The work done with eCYBERMISSION is rewarding, and volunteers have the opportunity to make a real difference.

Since the creation of the Student Virtual Judge program, eCYBERMISSION has seen several colleges and universities adopt the volunteer program as part of their STEM curricula. Some colleges and universities actually require a human relations or community service project for graduation, so volunteering as a judge could definitely meet that requirement. Because this is a STEM competition, students in any of the four disciplines (science, technology, engineering, or mathematics) would benefit from this opportunity. Education major will get a chance to see what sixth through ninth grade students are capable of doing.

eCYBERMISSION is a great opportunity for college students to engage with others and volunteer. Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter @ecybermission to see how others are taking action!

To register as a Student Virtual Judge, visit http://ecybermission.com/VirtualJudge/RegisterCode. Learn more at www.ecybermission.com/Roles. Questions? e-mail us at missioncontrol@eCYBERMISSION.com or call 1-866-GO-CYBER (462-9237).