Service Learning in Retrospect

Over the past several months I have done a few things for the first time in life; such as interview strangers, walk around unknown neighborhoods snapping pictures of strangers homes, and volunteer work with children. Although I was hesitant to do these things in the beginning, in the end I am glad I was able to follow through.

I have never been the most outgoing person so, out of the new the new things on my list, interviewing a stranger was by far the most nerve racking part of this project. Luckily I found a nice library with a kind staff that was more than happy to participate. From this I learned a little bit about the neighborhood and about people’s feelings toward the direction that the city needs to take. While I feel that I accomplished my goal it could have been more successful had I been better more at ease. I was relieved to get out and take a walk.

It is amazing how much more you notice when you aren’t whizzing around in a car. I was surprised by how many abandoned homes were in such a close proximity of each other while at the same time the remaining houses looked to be very well maintained. This wasn’t an area of slums and bums like the thought of boarded up windows and doors congers up but instead a neighborhood showing the signs of hard times; although other factors could play in.

While Volunteering with Our Next Generation (ONG) I learned more about the community then from any previous outings, and mainly unintentionally. During one of my visits to the center I partook in a group meeting between the children and the staff. At this meeting the children expressed their wants and needs for the program, Homework Club, but also concerns and events happening in their own lives. One child was looking forward to his father getting out of jail so that they could move away to a new home in the South. Another child shared her feelings about their father having recently passed away. Both of these cases of losing a parent must have had an enormous impact on the family; perhaps one of the boarded up houses were theirs, being forced to find cheaper rent due to sudden loss of income. However, the majority of the time at ONG wasn’t this depressing.

Working with elementary children was a lot of fun and the staff of ONG are very strong, dedicated, people who do their job very well. The kids obviously had their good and bad days but in general were well maintained; especially once they got started on something that interested them. Besides it being fun it was also very rewarding helping them do their homework.

When I signed up for Multicultural Diversity I was a bit nervous, knowing it would require some volunteering, but after my experience I’m glad it did. I haven’t been around a group of kids since I was one of them myself and it was a nice refresher in how open and blatantly honest they really are (a kindergartner told me my hair makes me look like a girl! I just laughed while they giggled and ran away). Sure, it wasn’t all fun, but it was all a great learning experience.