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Reflection on volunteering at school
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"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve." - Albert Schweitzer Each community is like a human body, it requires a constant life force to survive. Volunteers and community service workers are the blood that maintains our communities. It fortifies our foundations. A community is only as strong as the weakest link. We must empower those weakened by poverty, discrimination and other social injustices. Compassion is a learned behavior. We obtain it through our parents initially teaching us morals such as empathy, kindness, and fairness. Secondly, we can reinforce it through school-based service learning projects. Mandatory school-based community service learning will benefit our country by an increase in volunteerism from the heart and social skills in our children and teens in the future.Service is your engagement in the relationship of the act of giving. Service is its most sincere when we help through whom we are not by what we do. We have to have compassion in order to serve correctly to be in the situation with someone not just for them (Wade, Rahima C., 1997). Volunteerism is embedded in the fibers of Americans. For centuries we have aided our society in all aspects of volunteerism. Harvard University, in 1636, formed the first academic library which was staffed with volunteers. In 1736, the first Volunteer Fire Department was established; in 1857 the American Red Cross was organized using volunteer labor(Megan 2011). As volunteers, will we promote charity or solidarity? Charity exhibits as insincere, superior, and often views the poor as sub-human. Solidarity presents ... ... middle of paper ... ...g-Youth O’Sullivan, Theresa A., Community Service in The United States, Alternatives to improve volunteerism among Americans, Tallahassee, FL August 2004 Vessels, G., & Huitt, W. (2005). Moral and character development. Paper presented at the National Youth at Risk Conference, Savannah, GA, March 8-10. Retrieved [date], from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/papers/chardev.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harris_Wofford Wade, Rahima C. "From a Distance: Service- Learning and Social Justice." Integrating Service Learning and Multicultural Education in Colleges and Universities . Ed. Carolyn R. O'Grady. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000. Youth helping America educating for active citizenship: service learning, school-based service and youth engagement 3/2006 Publisher: Corporation for National and Community Service. http://www.nationalservice.gov/
Service-learning is defined as a “course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility” (Bringle & Hatcher, 1995).
The author’s purpose was to persuade her audience that volunteering should not be mandatory. She reviews the history of the beginning of the program that was initiated by President Clinton, who apparently believed community service should be mandatory for graduation.
“Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.” – Unknown.
Service learning is a rather new concept, but it has proven advantageous in connecting students with their communities when paired with reflection and when included in school curriculum. . Weigert’s (1998) view of ser...
. Motivations to volunteer: The role of altruism. International Review on Public and Non-profit Marketing2006;3(2):79-91
Journal of International Development, No.10; pp. 427. Anonymous (1995). Make a Difference: An Outline Volunteering Strategy for the UK, Volunteering Unit, Home Office Public Relations Branch, London. Eberts, Marjorie and Margaret Gisler (1991). Careers for Good Samaritans and Other Humanitarian Types.
Growing up, my parents and other influential figures around me modelled the importance of community service through their continual volunteer work and dedication to improving the world around them. Whether it be participation in a well-attended project or persistent contribution to a helpful organization, those aforementioned individuals were formative in guiding me towards a path filled with opportunities for having an impact on my community.
Provide Service-learning opportunities as a teaching method that combines meaningful service to the community with curriculum-based learning. This way students improve their academic skills by applying what they learn in school to the real world; they then reflect on their experience to reinforce the link between their service and their
Furco (2013) states that “service-learning draws from a number of well-developed theoretical frameworks of learning and development (e.g., experiential learning, situated cognition, youth development, constructivism, etc.), yet many studies are atheoretical” (p. 18), or the lacking of theory used. I examined the use of two theories to determine which one is more beneficial to the development of a service-learning program and will yield the greatest positive impact on student academic achievement and civic engagement.
Community service is something that I have always engaged. In college, I worked with chemically dependent children as both a caretaker and a mentor. After I graduated, I taught at-risk children in a community youth outreach program. To remain involved and aware of the focus of my studies during my first year of law school, I volunteered at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center teaching youth their basic legal rights. Essentially, we strove to empower kids by providing practical information about the legal system and to help them develop more favora...
Community service is a common service for people to take care of each other and volunteer. People apply to different community services: soup kitchen, taking care of children and homeless people, clinics, churches, schools, neighbor's house and many countless places to volunteer. Some people really enjoy to work at community services while others do not. These community services can be a punishment for criminals because a court assigns them to do so. However, some people do not agree with community service supporters. While some people believe that there should be a community service requirement for high school and college graduation because students need to learn and have experiences there, they are right; on the other hand, a community service requirement should be allowed for two reasons and not be allowed for another three reasons.
Individualism is rampant in our world. More and more people are concerned with what they want, when they want it and how they want it. They put blinders on and go about their work, convinced that “looking out for number one” is the only way to succeed and find happiness. If everyone were to adopt this way of thinking and living, the world would become violently competitive, gloomy, and callous. However, if we open our lives and give service to those less fortunate than ourselves, we allow our hearts to receive immeasurable happiness. There are countless members of society, who make service and ultimately self-sacrifice a part of their everyday lives. One of the greatest examples the world has of a self-sacrificing person is Mother Teresa. She said, “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love… It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.” Doctors Without Borders is a powerful humanitarian organization that was most recently volunteering in Haiti. Part of their mission statement reads, “…We unite direct medical care with a commitment to bearing witness and speaking out against the underlying causes of suffering. Our aid workers and staff protest violations of humanitarian law on behalf of populations who have no voice, and bring the concerns of their patients to public forums…” These are just two mainstream examples of people and organizations that live and work for others, to improve the quality of their lives.
Volunteering enables an individual to make a positive impact on his or her community, while empowering the individual to better his or her life. This summer, I had the opportunity to volunteer at many diverse locations. From the hospital to the local library, I truly value my experience and treasure everything it has thought me. Volunteering lets us experience and learn things that we otherwise would not have learned; volunteering opens doors for us that we may not have been able to open before. Volunteering provides us with guidance and tolerance which we may use in the future to aid us in our decisions. At first glance, volunteering may seem to only benefit those who are helped, but on a deeper level, one can realize that volunteering benefits the volunteer as much as, if not more than, those who are helped. Not only does volunteering make a difference in one’s community, but it also helps the volunteer become a smarter, happier, friendlier and more caring individual.
Specifically, volunteering brings in revenue from nonprofits and “free” work. In fact, in 2009 an estimated value of $169 billion dollars was contributed to America in volunteer participation (Corporation for National and Community Service). Volunteers bring an unexpected abundance of revenue that appears in unpaid work. In addition, it enhances communication within a society. Significantly, volunteering provides insight from first hand experiences for the community’s wants and needs and if these wants and needs are being met by volunteers communicating their volunteer experiences (Young). When there is better communication within a community it is easier to understand what the wants and needs are for a society to better function. Finally, it provides services in many different forms. For instance, in a local sense volunteers can benefit many sectors such as public works and transportation; public safety, health, and human services; parks and recreation; and support functions (Young). Like stated above, it is evident that there are many different types of volunteer jobs that can be done and anyone can help by using their personal strengths to better the community. Overall, there are many economic benefits that are brought to a community that essentially leads to a safer
Without community service, people would not know the meaning of charity and giving back. Community service can be defined as a service that is performed for the benefit of the public. Community service is not a responsibility or an obligation; it is a commitment. A person must want to do it with good intentions and not because they are being forced to do so. Basically, community service is a way for a person to give back to the community in which they live.