Residential Learning Community Analysis

My first year in the society, I stayed in the background, meaning I just went to the meetings and the community service opportunities. After a year of doing this, I decided that it was not enough. In my junior year of high school, I wanted to do more with my experience. I ran for presidency of my school chapter, and I was elected the first time around. With this authority I started a special community service project, peer tutoring. This idea was accepted and was soon brought to the student body and adopted into the school

Over the past two years (2014-2016) I have participated in the National Junior Honors Society. As a member, I commit to completing community service and to learning among my peers in order to develop into a superior leader. I have taken part in activities such as fundraisers, team building activities, and several forms of community services such as working in a soup kitchen, daycares and organizing social events. Recently, I volunteered for a week as a vendor at a temple in Tacoma, raising money for the establishment during the Cambodian New Year festival.

So being a National Honor Society student, the last couple of years I’ve loved finishing ways I can help my community. I’ve always loved doing little things to help someone who needs it Community service to me, is more than just holding the door open for someone, picking up trash, or helping someone with their groceries. I want to help people grow and be a better person while serving my community. I’m glad I do more than volunteer, I try to impact the lives of people and I feel that is what I have

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).

1) As a Roncalli student, I have been able to participate in many memorable service activities both as an individual and in a large group. From freshman year, I have accumulated the most service during the summer time when I have had the opportunity to be involved coaching youth teams in different sports. This service is the most special to me because it is a way for me to volunteer in activities that I myself love and have a passion for. It has taught me a lot, and I think I have gotten as much out of it as the girls I coach have. Another notable service is the service I was able to participate in with my classmates as a volunteer at Journey Home. This service really opened my eyes to the issues people and families face here in Aberdeen. I was happy that I was able to experience and learn something new while helping a cause and helping people in my own community that I otherwise would have never known about. This year, I was also able to volunteer to be a group leader at a Roncalli Junior High Retreat. When I was younger I always knew it was something I wanted to experience and I loved being there. It was great to meet the younger kids and help them along throughout the day while they experienced a retreat for the first time. I hope to continue these service activities as I get older and move out of my time in high school wherever I end up.

God calls us to serve and to do everything with love (1 Peter 4:10, 1 Corinthians 16:14). As a Student Affairs (SA) professional, my main goal is to help students discover their calling and equip them to better serve the world while integrating their faith. Smith (2004), states why it is important to serve as a mentor during a critical adult faith development stage. In The Council for the Advancement of Standards and Higher Education (CAS), CAS has incorporated faith, spirituality and religion into the standards and competencies that they advocate for individuals working as educators in the student affairs field ( Smith, 2004). In the CAS masters-level graduate program for student affairs standards (2004) the authors spoke to the essential need to incorporate spirituality.

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

This life lesson has influenced me to become a member of various community projects and organizations; promoting change in my community. Service is a value very dear to me because I love to give back to the community and help people who are in need. Truth is the core value that defines the integrity of a person's character. Truth defines me simply because I believe honesty is the best policy. To be trustworthy is to be accountable and dependable. I would enhance the legacy of Howard University by bringing excellent leadership skills, team working skills, honesty, integrity, and excellence. I would bring new innovative ideas and perspectives to the university through my diverse approach on sensitive subject matter such as Racial Disparities in America to Gender Equality for Women. I also would bring my drive for community service to the many programs on the University's campus such as their Alternative Spring Break. The core values that the university holds dear are the same motives that push me to make a difference in the world. I live by these values daily which would prove me to be a great addition to Howard University’s

Service brings me great joy, and I continually seek ways that I can help those around me. The day after school gets out, my youth group and I are leaving for Mexico City to serve with an organization, Niños de Mexico, that provides a safe house for orphans and children from broken homes. I also recently committed to volunteering my time each Sunday with the kids at my church. My efforts to serve extend through my daily life as well, for example, when sister has had a rough day, I make her tea or brownies. I take care of my neighbor’s kids for free when they’re having a busy week. None of these tasks feel like work to me, I love to help people as much as possible. I look forward to the new service opportunities National Honor Society will provide.

Next, to add yet another facet to my well-rounded student life, I have looked beyond myself to the community I am a part of. When I moved to Yokosuka, the Kinnick Community Service Club caught my eye. To serve my community, I began feeding the homeless around Yokosuka every Tuesday night with the club. Also, I participated in many Red Cross events, such as delivering Christmas cards to sailors aboard the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan. A different way I have recently found to serve my community is by working as a lifeguard.

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.

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

While staying at the Honors Living Learning Community, I hope to make close connections with both my peers and honors staff. I believe it would be beneficial to stay in these dorms as a freshman as opposed to others because, I will easily be able to meet and find members in similar classes as me. This would allow for a tightly knit network with a familial presence to grace my first year of college. In the end, I hope to gain a better understanding of my peers that share similar goals as me. To aid in others’ learning experience and have friends who want to aid in mine would be advantageous to my college experience because I would be able to grow in the best learning and living environment possible.

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.

NC State’s focus on student life outside the classroom, specifically it’s devotion to serving the surrounding communities of North Carolina is one way I feel I could contribute to campus diversity. Having attended a Jesuit high school, volunteer work has always been an important part of my life. I found out about the Alternative Service Break program after exploring the numerous activities and clubs that NC State offers its students. I was drawn to the program because of the mission’s straight-forward focus to make a difference in the community through, “public service, civic engagement and service-learning.” Additionally, the ability to develop a close network of like-minded peers and mentors, who share similar values and interests, would