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Volunteer and community involvement
Reflecting on my service learning experience
Volunteering experience college essay
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The most meaningful service-based group experience I have had at Florida State was with the Alterative Break program offered through the Center for Leadership & Social Change. My alternative break trip was spent in Vero Beach, Florida working with the Indian River Habitat for Humanity community. Habitat for Humanity is an organization in about 1,400 communities across the United States and 70 countries in the world. Their vision is to create a world where everyone has a decent place that they can call home. They work to alleviate this problem by building homes and subsiding the costs for people and families in need of a decent affordable home. I helped address the community need of providing homes for families the local community. Many …show more content…
The first couple of days of the trip were spent building the home by putting side panels up. We worked with the Vero Beach Habitat for Humanity staff in alleviating their stress and helping wherever they felt necessary. It was especially interesting since it taught me a lot of transferable handy skills that I could use if I wanted to continue with Habitat for Humanity in Tallahassee. One of the most rewarding components of the Habitat for Humanity is that the families who are going to live in these homes also aid the process of building it. This is inspiring since it allows these families to understand the Habitat for Humanity motto about it not being a hand out, but a hand up. In the last couple of days, we worked on a home restoration project. This project did not require us to build a home; however, we helped repaint a woman’s house. This was impactful since we were able to meet her and she was so thankful. She expressed to us that she used to be embarrassed to invite her grandchildren to her house because of the way it looked. However, after I helped paint it she was looking forward to finally being able to “invite her grandbabies over to see grandma”. It truly warmed my heart seeing the impact I had on the
After volunteering three times with the social action committee and high school group from Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church in the previous years, the Houston Food Bank became very familiar both in regards of their history and how their volunteerism works. The Houston Food Bank is a non-profit organization that seeks donations of non-perishable food items to serve the low-income families in eighteen counties across Texas. However, during a recent trip to the food bank with the University of Houston-Downtown College of Business, the interactions with a larger group of classmates became more dynamic. Three main topics involving group work at the Houston Food Bank are service learning, community service, and volunteerism. Service learning
While sitting in my dorm room watching a DVD, I looked around and suddenly realized how lucky I was. I lived in a decent sized room with lighting and air conditioning that I could adjust to make myself comfortable. Then I thought how even more lucky I was to be able to go home too yet a nicer living facility at my own house that I have to share with nobody but my immediate family. It made me begin to wonder how many people there are that do not possess this luxury. That is when I thought of Habitat for Humanity. The only thing that I knew about it was that they built homes for underprivileged families with inadequate shelter. I wanted to see though exactly how this specific organization made a difference in peoples lives. Hopefully my research will enlighten my readers of the living situations of many families around the world, maybe even convincing some to volunteer themselves.
...was also heavily involved with the community. My intern group was involved in at least two volunteering events per month on average. We spent time volunteering our time with Feed My Starving Children, KPMG Family for Literacy (a KPMG sponsored volunteering effort to help kids struggling to read), and Habitat for Humanity.
...Bridgewater State University was a complete success. For some that she presented in front of, it could have been the first time that they have ever heard of her community center in Tanzania or the first time they have ever heard of Tanzania. Relating to her overall purpose of being at the university, her message was received well by many. As she said, she wanted to make people more aware that volunteer work can help inspire people to make a difference in their communities. She has successfully presented a case were two people exiled from a country; in which they were brought up, and moved to a country that is 180°different having success in creating a stronger community and were able to have that community become worldly known: with the lack of technology. This is a remarkable and evident accomplishment of the organizational structure utilized for social services.
at the orphanage, I was able to help build a sidewalk and a garage for
During the summer or even on weekends my mom would take me with her to go help out her patients. Which included bathing them, feeding them, and caring for them. Not only did I help my mom with her patients but I would always help rake leaves, pick up trash and make their yard look nice. I can’t even image how they would’ve done all the things I did for them with their fragile bodies. I’m glad I was there for them and made a difference. Aside from helping my mom’s patients. I helped an elderly man who was on fire in his backyard. It was around spring time and I heard someone screaming yelling “help” so I went around to look and there he was on fire. I tried so hard to put out the fire and it felt like mission impossible but I did not give up even though the ambulance were on the way. He was burnt pretty bad, but I was so glad I found him. Who knows it could’ve been worse! He is still alive till this day and sits on his porch waiting for me to pass by his house every morning to say good morning. It’s such a wonderful feeling to know that I not only changed a life but I saved
A service learning experience is designed to enhance a student 's growth in personal and social development and to obtain an understanding of community involvement. For my service learning experience, I volunteered at Change Point Center. In this reflection paper, I will discuss in depth information about the services that Change Point provides, my goals while I was there,and what I ultimately learned from this experience.
Following participation in an Engaged Department Institute sponsored by Campus Compact, a service-learning requirement was instituted for all majors in the department studied beginning Fall 2002. All faculty were encouraged to incorporate service-learning in their courses. A training session on service-learning was the centerpiece of a departmental retreat in January 2002. In order to develop closer relationships with community agencies, the department hosted a faculty-partnership luncheon the following fall semester. Potential community partners were invited to meet with faculty in an effort to forge new relationships with the University. In order to institutionalize service-learning, all recruitment advertisements specifically mention service-learning and all new hires are expected to include service-learning components in their courses. As a consequence of these efforts, this department has gone from teaching only a few courses with service-learning components to offering twenty five different classes (thirteen courses) by Fall 2002.
Up until a few years ago I never thought that one of my grandparents would be in a nursing home. I had always been lucky to have them healthy. However, this changed about a year ago when my grandfather had a mini-stroke, which caused him to require extra care my grandmother could not provide. Watching my family deal with my grandfather made me aware of the care and services the elderly need and has made me realize how important it is to volunteer at a local nursing home.
Taking time to volunteer at the many nonprofit organizations, homeless shelters, advocacy centers, philanthropic fundraisers, local schools and child care facilities in the inner city is not always at the forefront of young people’s minds while navigating through their college experiences. But, with a little push from student organizations, local nonprofits and passionate individuals, volunteerism and community change can start to take a front seat and become not just an opportunity, but also a priority in the lives of young people.
The trip opened my eyes and I was grateful for the opportunity to share what God had given to me. Another task we had the privilege of helping them with was building a new chicken coop. We built a new roof and cleaned it up so that the chickens wouldn’t get too hot. The tricky part was communicating that we built exactly what they wanted. Therefore, I was there to both help construct, but also help get communication between us and the owners under control.
“Habitat for Humanity ReStores are nonprofit home improvement stores and donation centers that sell new and gently used furniture, home accessories, building materials, and appliances to the public at a fraction of the retail price.” (“Habitat for humanity international,” n.d.). The proceeds made from sale of items are used to fund the building of Habitat for Humanity homes. Benefit can be had by donating or purchasing from the stores. Donations are tax deductible and items purchased are offered at a much lower rate than
As a child, the event that I remember most was an evening at the park with my siblings and dad. Although my dad spent numerous days and nights working, he would always find a way to fit in time to spend with his kids. It was a lovely spring evening in Cathedral City when my siblings and I wanted to go to the nearby Panorama Park. My dad didn’t hesitate and the next thing I remember was packing our new bikes into the trunk of his truck. We quickly rushed over as the sun was setting and as soon as we arrived it was nowhere to be seen but we were determined to play for as long as possible. Before we left, we begged my dad to play one round of hide-and-go-seek in the unlit park and soon enough we were running around like chickens without their heads. Many rounds passed and my dad found each of us every time until he could no longer catch his own breath. As children, most of us don’t want the newest toy or the shiniest jewelry but instead memories like these that will forever stay with us. Not only have events like these brought me joy, but people do as well. About two years ago, I started my first job as a host for a Mexican Restaurant named Pueblo Viejo Grill in Palm Desert. This first job experience made me appreciate people and realized how much joy they bring into my life. Of course, as an employee of a restaurant, there will be those customers that make it their hobby to complain as much as they can just because
This year, I had the opportunity to give back to the community in many ways. I volunteered at Helping Hands, Meals on Wheels, and the county Science Museum. These volunteering experiences further opened my eyes to the needs of my community and the many opportunities to serve by volunteering.
I performed my community service with Habitat for Humanity. The non‐profit organization chooses the applicant that purchases the house and Habitat only charges them the cost of the materials. Almost every worker is a volunteer so Habitat for Humanity does not have to pay a high amount of wages. I felt good about myself being one of those volunteers. The future owner of the house had to work on it too. They are...