Matthew Moor is a third year Sociology major and Education Studies minor. He is the director of Volunteer Connections and a Student Involvement Leadership Consultant, also known as an SILC. I met Matt through work, as I’m also a SILC. At first, Matt seems kind of shy. However, getting to know him better makes clear that Matt isn’t shy; he just has a gentle and calm soul. Some may describe Matt as a nice guy, but that doesn’t really describe him correctly. The word that describes Matt accurately is “genuine.” One hundred percent genuine. Always willing to sacrifice his time to lend an extra hand to whoever needs it, whenever they need it, it seems that Matt has never been selfish in his entire life. I asked Matt if he was willing to help me with this article by letting me interview him. Of course, his answer was yes. Oh, Matt.
What exactly is Volunteer Connections and what is its role here on campus?
Volunteer Connections is a department on campus and we’re kind of like a clearing house for UCSD students interested in volunteering. We help direct them to volunteer opportunities that align with their interests. We host three service opportunities each quarter of the academic year. Fall quarter we hosted a volunteer expo which let on and off campus community service organizations table on Library Walk. We host College Day during winter quarter, which is when we invite a school located in an underserved area of San Diego to come to UCSD and get paired with a UCSD mentor for the day to go on scavenger hunts and hang out at the carnival we put on for them. During spring quarter, we put on our biggest event, Hands On San Diego. For this event, we physically go to a site off campus to do service like renovation, gardening, and helping at food banks.
What do you do as the director of Volunteer Connections?
As director, I’m in constant communication with the team as a whole, which includes twelve Volunteer Connection members. The team is responsible for hosting office hours, which is when students can come in to seek advising on the different volunteer opportunities that are available. I also help run meetings, once a week, when we discuss how office hours are going, and usually work on whatever project we’re doing for that quarter. I also serve as the liaison between the professional staff and the team. I also get to attend AS Service meetings.
How did you become director of Volunteer Connections?
I found out about it during Zero Week of fall quarter of my freshman year on Library Walk. I was drawn to Volunteer Connections because I used to volunteer a lot back at home and wanted to find something like that here on campus. The director my freshman year, Tamiko, really loved my optimism and enthusiasm for volunteering and connecting with people. When that year finished, right away, she told me, “Matt, you’re going to be running this place one day.” At that time, she was a fourth year, I was the youngest one in the group, and everyone else was going to leave. That’s pretty much how the torch got passed onto me.
Why did you want to become director of Volunteer Connections?
If there was one thing on campus that I knew well, it was Volunteer Connections. I had joined as a freshman so I knew the organization and the members pretty well. I wanted to seek a greater role in Volunteer Connections because I had put a lot of time into it during my freshman and sophomore year. I don’t know, it was nice meeting with AS Services and feeling like I was a part of something greater than myself. I just love helping people, and this is my chance to help people.
Does it ever become too overwhelming as director?
Yes. I feel like the morale of the team falls on my shoulders, so the pressure at times can be overwhelming. Before I used to be a regular member, but now there’s a lot more pressure. There are more people I need to communicate with and I’m the go-to guy on the team now. Everyone is always asking me questions like, “When do I need to get this done? When do you need this by? What do you think about this over that?” The relationships between me and my team members have changed in the sense that I’m delegating tasks now instead of being assigned tasks alongside them.
What do you do as a Student Involvement Life Consultant?
At this job, I wear mini hats (inside joke), communicate with students in person, through email, over the phone. And I help them reserve spaces on campus, plan events, answer TAP questions, and schedule meetings with advisors. We also plan events here, too, like service opportunities such as UCSD Cares. My co-workers and I just get our student body more involved. I actually just got hired to be the SILC Lead for the next academic year. Shout out to my co-lead Alex Atashi, woot woot!
What are the most important things you’ve learned in your various positions?
With Volunteer Connections, I’ve learned that your time is the most valuable gift that you can give to somebody. Aside from the countless hours Volunteer Connections puts into service projects, it’s when I’m actually there in person at the service project that is the best. The people there are so happy to see you doing all this great work. As an SILC, the most important thing I’ve learned is you have to have confidence. When I started off as an SILC, as a new hire, as a “noobie,” I had a very low confidence level as an SILC. The job seemed kind of overwhelming. I would make these assumptions that everyone else was better than me and I always thought I was going to get fired because I made so many mistakes. Haha! But, the more time I spent here, the more confident I felt in my abilities. Now, it’s almost like second nature and I love it.
What are you trying to do in the future?
I don’t know, but I want to help people. Like physically in person work with them, not over the phone. And help them, whatever help is to them. When I first came to college, I thought I wanted to be a dentist. I was meeting with my dentist regularly and he was advising me on what classes I should take and so forth. He mentioned that I should try to major in a social science because all the other dentists will be majoring in sciences and he said I needed to be different. He was a Psychology major at Berkeley. So, I looked into sociology and I loved it. And through sociology I learned about education studies and so I minored in that. I don’t want to be a dentist anymore. I want to help people, but not in that way.
You do have a great set of teeth. Do you floss?
Not as much as I should.
What’s your favorite quote?
Uh… no, that’s a bad one. (Giggles.) The past is gone. The future doesn’t exist. Your time is now.