Reflecting on My Experience

There are many things I learned and got to experience through the service learning project and my visit to the community and Our Next Generation. From the outside the community seems rough and not overly welcoming. I got to talk to some of the community members through my investigation for the first half of this project. Although the community members were very friendly they didn’t have much excitement about their neighborhood. Our Next Generation seemed to give inspiration to the students. The staff seemed very encouraging and the students felt comfortable. This facility was not like a school but rather a place to come for help in school. Yes they required students to do their homework but the program doesn’t just dismiss them once they’re done. Instead the program has their volunteers stay and interact with the students in games and other activities. This is the part of Our Next Generation that really interested me.

At first I was nervous about getting paired with a child I didn’t know and how they would react to me. Then I saw how excited the children were to have someone there to help them. Once I saw their excitement it made me excited. The idea of volunteering never really interested me before and I had never thought to go out of my way to do something like that. I enjoyed seeing how the relationships and tutors grew through the few hours they see each other each week. I was also very shocked that there was a waiting list to get into the program. I had never heard of a waiting list to be tutored but after going and seeing the program in action I can now see why students are excited to be there. This is the type of program I would go back and volunteer for. As I left the building I noticed on one of the boards they had photos of the students and their tutors, above the students was the quote “Children are our most valuable natural resource” by Herbert Hoover; above the volunteers “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; it’s the only thing that ever has” by Margaret Mead.