"I find it ironic that back then we had a lot of trouble finding people who were willing to design posters and promo media on print."

I don't see the word free here. Of course you'd have trouble finding people to do anything for free.

They said: "I volunteered and designed a good amount of posters for student organizations." What do you think how many student organization have the excess money to hire a professional designer for a one-off poster? Of course they needed someone to do it for free, or else it wouldn't have been done at all!