Genocide Class Reflection

For the last 17 years my father has worked with nonprofits to bring education to refugee camps in the most forgotten places on earth. He goes where the most basic services that we take for granted are lacking. All his efforts are made under the premise that education is the most liberating assistance of all. This early awareness of the abysmal inequalities that exist in the world has profoundly influenced my character and worldview. I carried out a variety of service activities in high school, all focused on helping leverage educational opportunities. My volunteer work allowed me to put my

In tenth grade, my English teacher posed the class with a question: what are you going to do for your community? She emphasized the importance of making a positive impact, even if it meant simply smiling as you hold the door open for someone. She prompted us to go out of our comfort zone and do something for our community. While I had been volunteering at Church and at school, I had never really taken a step out of my comfort zone. Instead of just helping out in, say, a soup kitchen, I decided that it was time

Contributing to my school and community is a true passion. I am involved in programs like the Red Cross, Angel Tree created by The Salvation Army, and Olive Garden’s Pasta For Pennies. My school hosted a Red Cross blood drive, and I was responsible for promoting the event to individuals within our school. We had a total of two hundred students donate blood. We helped save a total of six hundred lives! I also assisted the Program Angel Tree by promoting the program among the student organizations within my school. Our involvement has helped hundreds of less fortunate children and seniors receive necessities and gifts! As a team, the student council also collects spare change from students in our school. Our collaboration with Olive Garden has helped fund the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's School & Youth campaign. I am truly glad that my contributions have made an impact within my community and society! My strong involvement in extracurricular activities has helped me become knowledgeable, principled, and a risk-taker. I carry a strong sense of respect and righteousness, and I approach unfamiliar opportunities with a vision and great courage. I seek to set an example for members within my school, community, state, and

Politically, socially, environmentally or one person at a time, how will you give back to society? Day in and day out many citizens change the world, or they do just the opposite and make the world a worse place than when they woke up. The article I chose to review is, “Community Service” written by Robert Coles. The article tells a story of college students who make a difference in the world through peer tutoring, an act of community service, and have such an impact that they act as role models for Coles and he begins to do the same. Briefly in the beginning of the article, Coles states that, “students are likely to express their lofty political and social impulses and practical desires to change the world through community service, even if in limited or modest ways.”(Robert Coles, pg.93) We must make an ultimate decision about the world we live in, will we choose to make a difference in the lives of fellow citizens or discriminate and punish not only them but ourselves by not sharing the knowledge we have been taught.

I failed a chemistry class, even with tutoring, meetings with the teachers, and at home tutoring from my roommate who was attending EWU as a Biology/Chemistry major. The disaster of that course, diminished my thinly restored confidence and I fled. I took up an opportunity to become an expat and live in Lebanon. The first summer I was there, I witnessed the war between Palestine and Israel, only a country away. The impact my experiences changed how I viewed privilege and what I had taken for granted back home. I felt ashamed at what I had so readily given up in self-pity and comparatively meager issues. Thus, after teaching English for a year and traveling, the profound realization of how imperative my education was towards helping the world become a better place sank in. I wanted to go farther than I ever had but this time I was going to do it right. My life became an awareness of the worlds pain, its need, and my insuppressible desire to solve it. I moved back to Chewelah after nearly a year and a half in Lebanon, and with a wholly renewed

When I began my Civics class, thinking it potentially difficult and boring, I did not initially look forward to this project. However, as I did each activity, I found myself enjoying each and every one. From sitting in a board meeting to collecting trash, I discovered something new in all of the ways I volunteered. Not only did the people I volunteered for gain something through my service, but I feel that I gained a lot as well.

Over the course of my academic career, I have volunteered with Key Club at my school and other various places, such as the Poe Center for Health Education and WakeMed Health and Hospitals. Involvement with each organization has had a tremendous impact on my character. Often, while at the Poe Center, I had hours alone to create educational tools, file papers, and enter data into spreadsheets which taught me responsibility and integrity. I always strived for the best when I completed tasks at the Poe Center and at WakeMed. Each organization has been impacted through my volunteer services. With Key Club, we had monthly trips to the senior home. Each time I visited the senior home, the elder’s faces would light up because many of them did not have

This class has really opened up my eyes to many new views and opinions toward certain information and assumptions. Before taking this class I did not believe I was racist or had any downward views towards any people or cultural. This soon came to my attention that everyone has a little bit of racist in them no matter how hard you try not to be. I also thought that Columbus discovered America, I found it very interesting and almost common sense when we discussed this issue and how the school curriculum has been lying to students in a sense about the discovery of America. The finial bias I soon came to see was that no matter how much you think you will not face other cultures or other religions in schools that you are not familiar with your chances are very slim. No matter where you plan to teach at their will always be situations that you are unfamiliar with.

While I have been blessed with many opportunities that helped me grow by pushing me to new limits, my volunteer work at South McKeel Academy through National Honor Society is my most memorable. The way I was brought upon this experience was not with the average vote. One morning I showed up to the 7 A.M. meeting ready to hear about how all

Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian refugee explains the feeling that she and many other immigrants feel directly after moving to the United States. “It's kind of hard to believe that you belong when you don't have a home, when your country of origin rejects you because of fear or persecution, or the city that you grew up in is completely destroyed. I didn't feel like I had a home. I was no longer a Jordanian citizen, but I wasn't American, either” (Don't Feel Sorry for Refugees - Believe in Them). Like many other refugees, she got stuck in between her new and old life, not feeling like she belongs anywhere. The loneliness that many experience is extreme because they have no connection to their old home, but know no one to connect them to their new one. Many immigrants, including Beatrice Ziaty experienced the distaste that their new neighbors and fellow community members felt toward the new immigrants that had suddenly moved into their town. In her first couple weeks in Clarkston, Georgia, Ziaty got robbed while walking home from work one night. “The incident robbed Beatrice of the hope that her new home would provide her and her family a sense of security. She became obsessed with her boy’s safety”(31-32). This incident popped the perfect bubble that she was living in and showed her the reality of the United States, and how the perfect ideals of America do not exist in the way that she pictured it. This feeling of unwelcomeness was also felt by Albert, a refugee from Uganda when he experienced racism because of his skin color. “I thought everyone would be nice, loving and caring, but everything changed when I got here. Racism, discrimination and a lot of things changed my expectation” (Hirsch). The racism that he

As what seemed to be an almost non-existent summer comes to an end, I have had time to reflect on what I hope to accomplish during my last year roaming the halls of James E. Taylor High School. I picture the impossible calculus problems that I will be required to solve or the piles of books I will struggle to finish as my literature exams near, but one thing that I am truly enthusiastic about is service. Improving my grades had been my most important goal as I began my high school career, however as this draws to an end, I have come to realize that the one thing that will truly leave a mark and will hopefully inspire others is the service that I have given to my community. Through Key Club, I have not only made friendships and bonds that I

If i was to make the world a better place for all I feel like i would need to be perfect, and as you probably know, i am not. However, if i was able to leave an impact to start the change for the world i believe my skills and talents would be beneficial. The skills and talents that i would say would be most beneficial is the fact that i am very open minded to other people's opinions yet, i can stand my ground on my own. I can also say without a doubt that i am a very humble person and take pride for what my parents did to get me where i am today. The last thing is that i stick to my word, and will keep a promise as long as if i can trust you. Now, let's get more into detail.

My Genocide class senior year introduced me to the idea that everything a person does is selfish. The idea of being construed as selfish creates a defensive feeling in many people, as the class demonstrated with the introduction of the idea. After this class introduced me to the idea, it became a strong belief of mine, but is it a fact that nothing we do as a species is completely selfless? Or did it just appeal to me as a fact as a result of my friend presenting the idea? Or was it just an obvious explanation for some people’s actions? Or was I, as Mooney would say, “rationalizing [my] prior emotional commitments” (Made-Up Minds, Mooney)? Bacon created a method to explore the truth of a claim like this, for, he believed that “Man, being the

Service learning has given me the new opportunity experience helping others and including myself. I enjoy volunteer work because It’s a way of giving back to the community, but also I’ve become confident in public speaking. In addition, volunteer work is a great rewarding experience, and it 's also helped me develop social skills, by supporting others. The contribute can make a positive impact in many ways, Barack Obama said, “ the best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the work with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.” There are element that could promise will succeed in life, however, I believe to learn and discover. I will continue volunteering work whenever I can, and I strongly encourage people to join volunteer work because the meaningful impact the lives of their and help thousands of the students confront in reading. It was a great pleasure for me to contribute to the organization to the development of the community through Political Science class volunteering work. The impact that was able to make our community better future.

From this experience volunteering I will hopefully be able to continue tutoring or helping students who are struggling in school. I am going to remember this experience when I am a teacher and be able to pay more attention to the students who are struggling and try my hardest to make sure that no one falls too far behind. I will also make sure that all my students get the help that they need in order to succeed. Overall this experience has taught me a lot and enlightened me with new perspectives from where people come from and their home