Arik House

P.4
Centennial Staffing Volunteer Experience
Volunteering for a company called Centennial Staffing. Centennial is a company that
runs security for events such as concerts and sporting events. I have many experiences working
with Centennial. I have volunteered for them a few times when I was a freshman, a few times
when I was in my sophomore year, and once in my junior year. I’ve had many duty’s each time
I’ve worked with them, they mainly revolve around security, public safety and cleaning up after
the event.
Everytime I have volunteered at this company I have been assigned to a position where
I’m either standing, guiding people to various locations throughout the venue or anything that is
related to security, it wasn’t anything major or terribly dangerous. I always worked with an adult
who is responsible enough to take matters into their own hands, I even worked near police,
which I really enjoyed. There was no specific age range, people who were no younger than
sixteen. Being involved and facing individuals who were aggravated was a guarantee on a daily
basis. This was high stressing job, which is why I have a newfound appreciation for
management that run these events and for this field of work.
When I first volunteered I was only fifteen years old. I was a “bag checker” at Rice
Eccles Stadium for the University of Utah versus UCLA game. My job was to essentially check
bags of fans going to watch the game. I would do a thorough check to make sure fans weren’t
bringing in anything that wasn’t allowed in the stadium. Because I was new at this, and it was
starting to snow, a guest was very impatient with me and was extremely aggressive towards me.
I had no clue how I should have handled the situation, I was pretty terrified. Luckily for me the
manager stepped in and handled it in the most professional way. I took note to that. I remember
my last experience with this company I was working with an employee who had worked with the
company for many years. He taught me how they set up the venues, how they handle guests,
and how they clean up the venue.
After my experience with this company I learned a lot about how staff handles complex
situations, the job is complete focus and no goofing off, and every problem has a solution. My
take away from this volunteer experience is that when I’m clocked in I must focus from the time I
get there to the time I leave. I apply these experiences to my job I have now, it has taught me
how to be a leader and I couldn’t be more grateful to have volunteered.