Experience Summary
Being a volunteer to Franklin County Children Services Malaika program is one of my most meaningful experiences. I was a mentor to two underprivileged African American seven-year old sisters. The program matches mentor and mentee of the same race which also has its ground. On the one and, the mentees feel more secure and open-minded to those they find similar. And on the other hand, we may become closer towards each other than if were of different races.
When I was mentoring these two girls, I realized how little opportunity they have got. That is why one of my main tasks was to show them a normal life. We usually did things with the girls they normally aren’t able to do at home due to the lack of life privileges. For instance, I took them often to the library, read with them and helped with their homework. Moreover, I tried to show them a wonderful world of science and education in particular. So we visited a cosi science museum, went to the zoo to learn about different animals, got ice cream, talked and laughed, etc.
Not only they felt the transformative nature of our communication, but this experience changed my outlook as well. The feeling of common bond and culture, and that some people still need the help of the more priviledged occured to be extremely meaningful for me. After this program, I decided to continue mentoring and giving a hand to other people as long as I can.
My last significant experience is participating in a buckiserv trip to Newark, NJ. It was a weeklong trip. There I spent 40 hours a week as a teacher’s assistant (in a kindergarten and first grade) in an educationally disadvantaged part of the community. For me this experience was especially important because I grew up in the neighboring town of Hackensack. This place also lacks opportunities for a better life. So I got a chance to go back to my little Motherland and do some contribution to their development, especially now that I’m studying in college. Many of those who live there, still haven’t got such an opportunity that I have. I also spent some of the week taking an active part in rebuilding homes that were destroyed by hurricane Sandy. It was extremely important to me since I understood those people from my own life experience. When I was a child, my family was very poor as these people are now, so we also relied on outside help much. That is why it is so important to give a hand to all these people right now.
I also participated in another weeklong buckiserv trip to Tampa, Florida, to perform various community service acts regarding Florida’s ecology. What we do was going to local parks and removing invasive species and cleaning along beaches/lakes, etc. I was a leader of this trip along with being an active participant. As a leader, I was in charge of the entire itinerary. For instance, I was in charge of planning everything for the whole week. I also kept in touch with our hosts in Florida prior to our trip.
Morill Tower activities Board (14th floor representative/ Black Student Association Representative) (2012-2013/ 2013-2014 school years)
As for my participation in this program, I was chosen to represent the 14th floor of my dorm. As a representative I was in charge of planning events for the floor. For example, I had to organize events with the floor RA to help freshman get accustomed to a campus. Being a BSA representative gave me a chance to plan events more targeted notwithstanding diversity and exclusion. I was in charge of spreading awareness of BSA events around the dorm. I also had to organize such events as the African American Heritage festival. The most transformative feature of this experince was that I acquired leadership traits of character, which wil definetely help me in future.
Moreover, I volunteered at Mt Carmel St Ann’s Hospital. There I spent 40 hours of working in the kitchen. I was responsible for delivering food to patients in order to assist kitchen staff and I also was in charge of making sure that patients food orders were in line with their health restrictions. This gave me a chance to interact with patients and gave me experience in a hospital setting. This is the list of my responsibilities: I assisted in tray assembly and delivered freshly made food in a timely matter based on requested meal times; and selected quality, nutritious meals with patients in compliance with their diet restrictions.
I shadowed Dr. Earl Walker, a dermatologist, once a week for 8 weeks. For the first time in my life I had an opportunity the see the doctor's life from the inside, i.e. how to treat patients, how to diagnose, give advice, address health threatening concerns, his perform in office small surgical procedures, etc.
For the time being, I am Undergraduate Social Work volunteer at Columbus Free Clinic. That is why I was able to participate in the non-clinical side of health care. I realized how it was important to help patient not only with medicine but also to support them spiritually, showing them perspectives for future, making them forget about their illnesses at least for a minute. After communication with those people I also mentioned that they were more ready to fight for their health, which is an important element in a curing process. I worked in conjunction with MSW students and medical students. There I gave patients demographic surveys to screen for things such as mental illnesses, eye care, dental health care, etc. I analyzed then surveys and sat with patients to discuss options such as insurance options, where to go for health care, where to go for eye care, etc. Basically, I educated them on options for other healthcare depending on how they answered questions on the demographic surveys.
I also performed research at Ohio State School for the blind with Dr. Irene Hatsu. Among my responsibilities there was to collect data on the nutritional habits of selected OSSB students; to analyze students regarding their knowledge and executions of nutrition, cooking and kitchen habits. Research purpose was to provide nutrition intervention and education for the disadvantaged (in this case the blind students). One of the main goals was to improve nutrition and health. From observations, and surveys we worked with each individual student and helped with their needs. The goal of this research was to assess the quality of the school’s nutrition education through interviews and observations. I had the opportunity to interact directly with a vulnerable population to administer surveys and food frequency questionnaires.
