"I'm still so amazed when I think about the fact that you would zoom in from literally the other side of the globe last year to do your volunteering sessions," Ms. Andrea reminisces. "It was pretty terrific."

I chuckle at this comment as Ms. Andrea, the director of my school's Community Engagement programs, cheerily tilts her head backward. The desk lamp glare washes over her Zoom camera and casts a white haze over her silver locks. The virtual greetings and the all-too-familiar background of her office corner, complete with sage-green walls and a dashboard decked out in memorabilia, bring back memories of last year's remote classes. With a painstaking thirteen-hour time difference, I would Zoom from my home in Shanghai to Ms. Andrea's office on campus every Friday to do our weekly check-ins. Then, with a few more clicks, I would hop on another link to tutor English Second Language (ESL) learners at Quincy Community Action Program (QCAP). Two years have passed since the world went remote, and yet, wary of the Omicron variant surge, we are still chatting over Zoom.

Just as I dwelled on this somewhat unexpected wave of nostalgia, Ms. Andrea shares the hectic transition from in-person to online volunteering in the spring of 2020. "When the pandemic first hit, everything came to a screeching halt. None of us really even knew what Zoom was, and so we had to figure it out from scratch. And so the very first thing we did after spring break, when we were all completely remote, was making video recordings that we then shared with the schools (service sites). That way, kids could connect and have a read-aloud story."

Indeed, nonprofits and community groups across the country were grappling with the same challenges. New COVID safety procedures in place had upended the modus operandi of volunteering, with some organizations scaling back aggressively to keep those they serve safe. Eventually, nonprofits worldwide transitioned to online volunteering, which presented a new set of hurdles and uncertainties. Many program directors, like Ms. Andrea, scrambled to create a system of online classes, even as access to technology remained scarce among the elderly and in low-income communities. However, the shift to virtual service-work might be a blessing in disguise: the International Committee of the Red Cross reports a rise in volunteer numbers, with hundreds of thousands of people joining the organization across the world.

"Ironically, in the pandemic, there were some silver linings in the new ways of doing things," says Ms. Andrea. "For QCAP, for example, there were more volunteer pairings last year via Zoom than we've had before in person because it gave the flexibility of doing it throughout the week at different times."

To learn more about how my weekly virtual volunteering site QCAP has responded to the pandemic, I chatted with Ms. Chen, the advisor for the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program. Sitting against a nondescript white wall, Ms. Chen sports a clean pixie cut and a white scarf that stands out against her red sweater, a symbol of prosperity and vitality in anticipation of the Chinese New Year. She tells me that the ESOL program –– whose majority of students belong to an older generation –– faces lots of technological challenges. "Initially, we had some students who just called into the class. The student could not see anything, and the teacher couldn't possibly describe everything that she was presenting on Zoom. It was amazing how she lasted six months learning just on the phone." Nonetheless, the ESOL program offered Chromebooks to its students by September, though fluency with software applications remained a stumbling block through the rest of the year.

Another problem soon cropped up: the ESOL enrollment rate dropped to a record low. Directly before the pandemic, the wait time for the ESOL courses, which run from September to June, was at least one year. Now, the organization needs students. I ask Ms. Chen how she makes sense of the new wait time, and her response is rather poignant: "I think last year, folks just put their whole focus on surviving the pandemic. So coming to class is not that important. And we hear similar things from other programs. Everybody seems to be having problems with enrollment." Ms. Chen adds that once the students participate in the program, they come to the meetings consistently. So the attendance rate is good for the most part. 

Despite the overwhelming odds stacked against community-based volunteering during the pandemic, program leaders like Ms. Chen –who focused her entire career on helping people in her own community– remain optimistic. "I can definitely see the appeal of wanting to stay online. It might be difficult to get some of the students back to the classroom. They are so used to rolling out of bed and joining classes. They don't have to find parking spaces," Ms. Chen teases. 

As our virtual interview comes to a close, I decide to power off my computer entirely and fight off my Zoom fatigue with a brisk walk to main campus -- that is, before hopping on another tutoring call for ESOL. The pandemic has changed the way we engage with the world, and certainly with volunteering. Using new technologies, volunteers like me can take action in this time when so little feels within control. The flexibility of online volunteering not only broadens its scope of benefits but also brings global support to local nonprofits, my own volunteering an example. In our ever-evolving world, volunteers will always find more innovative ways to address the issue at hand in the true spirit of human perseverance.