Community Reflection Paper

It is also a “boundary spanning” activity in that it requires active involvement from people both within and outside of the classroom context, often resulting in participant contributors who represent a variety of generations, ethnicities, social groups, and experience levels (Billig and Furco, 2002, p.vii). Service-learning is designed to reduce the boundaries between an institutional campus environment and the community around it. It is designed to connect learning to real experience through service and reflection (Ball and Schilling, 2006; Becker, 2000). As a baseline to facilitate this development, service-learning is distinct from other types of community service and civic engagement experiences in that the service-learning experience must not only have a service and reflective component but also be clearly tied to the curriculum through learning objectives and theoretical underpinnings (Bloomquist, 2015; Pritchard, 2001). As Barbara Holland, former Director of the U.S. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, shared, “Service-learning is all in the hyphen. It is the enrichment of specific learning goals through structured community service opportunities that respond to community-identified needs and opportunities.” (Kenworthy-U’Ren, Taylor, and Petri, 2006: 121).

Service in the school and community is an insight to your character and work ethic. I have over 20 hours of community service from many different experiences. Last summer I worked for Camp Barakel, a summer camp, in the kitchen. I assisted in serving food and cleaning. I learned discipline and teamwork through this valuable experience. Not only this I’ve worked with the Elderly in Rehabilitation centers and the patience and nurturing qualities is something that will forever be valuable in my life. Last but not least working as Big Sister or Buddy to a 4th grade girl has given me the chance to positively impact and influence her life as simply as having a friend is immense. All of these service opportunities as added to my character and prepared me for the responsibilities of

The critical difference of service learning and the traditional learning style is that students are learning and addressing real needs in the community. Which connect students to the community through meaningful interactions with others, safety, and educational needs. This specific course includes readings, discussions, and activities to support

Often, we never see the effects of our actions. Sometimes, we find ourselves comfortably distancing acts of service from why they are committed and whom they impact. I never genuinely understood what lies at the root of service until my freshman year of high school.

This crucial four years of Highschool is what shapes up a person. Things like friends, families, and new experiences are what teach life lessons and morality. I believe that through the service activities I have taken part of this few years, I learned new qualities about myself and new aspects in life. I have learned the role of a leader, all the charitable things service can offer, and I have built a character. What impacted me the most was the “Jessey J Mcray Elementary School” program, and the Service Day activity I did in freshman year. Volunteering is a great way to bring people together and it provides physical and mental rewards for whoever decides to do it.

In order to gain the necessary skills needed for social work, service learning is necessary due to the fact that it serves as an introduction to skills that may be utilized later in the field. Completing my service learning hours at Harvest Hope Food Bank provided me with the necessary experiences to ensure I am able to impact clients positively and in a more professional and ethical manner. Values and ethics, connections to generalist practice, and experiences with the organization all shared important roles in helping me comprehend the importance of interactions with others in communities, resulting in being able to better understand the various clients I may encounter.

Winston Churchill’s quote "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give" embodies what community service is really about. Over the years I have had the pleasure of working for several organization and volunteering in a variety of different areas. There has been a community service experience that changed my life tremendously though. From 2009 until 2014 I had the amazing opportunity to work for the Nash-Edgecombe County Teen Court Program and doing so profoundly shaped my future.

I found Kathleen Cahill’s presentation on service learning to be very interesting. I have always been aware of how important it is to do service for your community. In high school, I had to complete 100 hours of service over the four-year span. This increased my awareness of the importance of service, and showed me a variety of organizations the exist in Erie, PA. However, I was never aware of the high level of poverty that exists in Erie until I saw Kathleen Cahill’s presentation. I was shocked to learn that the number of those living in poverty in the City of Erie, is around 30%. This statistic made me realize even more the importance of service, especially in the Erie community.

As a member of this group we are given a plethora of opportunities to serve the underprivileged. One of my experiences with community commitment included going to an elementary school and assisting faculty members with overgrown foliage and installing shelves in a supply room. In addition to the opportunities provided in HES I found service through the Christian organization, Cru at OSU. During my time with Cru I got the chance to travel to Indianapolis for IndyCC. During the conference, I participated in a day of outreach where a we would donate food boxes provided by local churches to underprivileged people in the city. One couple was gracious enough to invite my group into their home and share their life stories with us. It was an eye opening experience, revealing a secondary form of service, being in the present. Service doesn’t have to be tangible, it can be conversational as

I personally believe that service learning is a great thing for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that service learning can give you great exposure to having face to face interaction which I think millennials try to avoid. Another reason that service learning is a great thing is that it can teach some people about how to be more compassionate as well as helping students understand their civic responsibilities as young adults. As stated by Flecky & Gitlow (2011), “a unique aspect of service-learning is that it incorporates structured opportunities for students, faculty and community partners to reflect on their interactions and activities in light of both educational and community objectives.” (p. 1-2). My interpretation of this quote is that the authors view service learning in a positive light. My understanding is that the authors believe by students reflecting on their interactions with the community, it can help further their

I have never attended a community meeting or any meeting regarding my community therefore, attending this meeting for the first time was a great first experience. I was able to see how a meeting is ran and how the organization works in order to help make improvements in my community. When I went into the office the meeting was being held, I was offered an agenda and other informational forms regarding the meeting. The agenda provided information of how the organization of the meeting would be and who will be going over what topics. The meeting was a timed meeting where Richard Hernandez and Bill Houtt managed on recording to keep data. The issues that were discussed were citizen’s request for city improvements, a short review of the 2016 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) Accomplishments, which is a grant that helps build homes for low income families and was reviewed by Rhonda Haynes a community developer. Lastly, the Sidewalk at Divisadero and Rinaldi, North Visalia citizen report were also discussed by Bill Houtt a member of the committee, and construction issues in N. Visalia discussed by Lt. Brent Abbott.

On July 18, 2017, I attended the City of Gulfport’s City Council Meeting. The council is made up of elected members of the community whose focus is the city’s goals, major projects and infrastructure improvements. The council makes decisions that range from community growth to land use to finances and strategic planning. Competencies demonstrated during the meeting were Competencies 3 and 5. Competency number 3 focuses on Advanced Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice. The meeting demonstrated knowledge of the ideas and concepts related to the notions of social justice, advocacy, leadership, social change, social support, social networks, and social capital consistent with a MSLC perspective. This competency was demonstrated by addressing community concerns by incorporating ideas of citizens and community leaders. Community leaders such as council members and the mayor provided support and clarification of city policies. The citizens advocated for changes in their community by bringing their issues to the city council for resolutions. Competency 5 focuses on Engaging in Policy Practice. This was demonstrated by advanced skills in social work practice including the ability to link theory, policy-practice, and research/ evaluation, and to employ leadership skills to demonstrate and promote such a linkage. This competency was demonstrated by city council members and the citizens of Gulfport, MS. They worked together to ensure

As a student, I have become more aware of the needs of my community. I have always worked at being active in my community to help those in need. Most of my volunteer work revolved around collecting donations and lending a helping hand at shelters. My volunteer work did not usually involve an academic base. I was not concerned with the ins and outs of why homelessness was a problem or the difficulty women faced finding assistance to escape abusive relationships. I just knew the shelters were always in need of donations and that is where I found myself helping most. In this paper, I will describe a personal experience I have had with service learning. I will also select one service learning idea from the National Student Nurses’ Association planning guideline that interests me and describe how this type of experience will enhance my nursing student experience.

For the service learning project, I teamed up with three of my classmates to volunteer at a lady’s conference at Imani Restoration Centre church (IRCC) on the 16th of September, 2017. IRCC is a non-profit organization which is a Kenyan community founded that focuses on bringing African immigrants together to support and learn the things of God. Samuel Mwangi, the senior pastor of IRCC, said that through the counseling sessions that he holds at the church every Thursday, he discovered that most ladies go through the same challenges. Therefore, he thought it would be great for him to organize a lady’s conference, so that ladies could come together to share and support each other (Personal communication, September, 16, 2017)

Now that the different facets of the multiverse theory have been explained, what about society’s reaction? My hypothesis is that society will freak out and eventually progress into a nihilistic and existential society. Inevitably, there will also be individuals who react differently. I believe society’s reaction will mirror that of what happened when Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution. Because society went haywire when their view of the world was changed, no doubt society will react in a similar way because their view of the entire universe itself would change. A majority of the population sees our universe as a singular entity that exists on its own. Outside of our universe, there is nothing, since everything we know of is contained within the universe. But the multiverse theory claims that other universes exist outside of our own. Those universes contain other versions of ourselves in different contexts, different jobs, different socioeconomic levels, and with different passions.