Introduction
The main reason for going to school is to impact on one’s community positively. This can be achieved through several means. First, is the classwork which instil knowledge needed in helping learners to understand how to work with other people. Secondly, the means comes as outside class activities which expose a person to communities. Volunteering falls under the second means. There are many benefits for volunteering, these cut across the community being assisted as well as the person offering their services and time. Benefits that are basic through volunteer work include; making new networking contacts, development of ones skill, passing skills to others, enhancing resume, work experience, development of confidence and esteem, health benefits of being active and an opportunity to meet new people.
This paper is my experience from volunteering work. To make the paper factual, the paper will combine my experiences throughout the work and also secondary sources to capture what I have learnt from the experience. The paper will also address all requirements provided as well as creativity to enhance coherence and to capture interest of the reader.
A community can be described as a social unit which is linked by shared values. At a local level, a community is a unit which shares same values. For example a village is community which shares wellbeing, security, resources and peaceful coexistence. Globally, countries are a community which aspire peace, coexistence, trade among others.
Stuart wood school
I offered 24 hours of my time in Stuart wood school as a volunteer. Before exploring what went on, it is crucial to present the school as a community. The school is a community which shares the value of transforming student’s life through the instilling of knowledge to the students. Though there are many activities which take place the central role is to equip students with knowledge. The school is located in Thompsons/Kamloops in the 245 St. Paul St, Kamloops, V2C 2J2 and is assigned the school district number seventy three. The school is under stewardship of Mrs Sydney Griffith who is the principal; she is assisted by Mrs Judy Deschamps who serves as the administrative assistant.
The school was started in the year 1907 with a mission of “Working Together for Quality Public Education” the school goal is to be a provider of quality education to it learners. In line with this is the school is the value which is and I quote ‘We believe that positive relationships are the key to a strong support team and we encourage parents and students to be involved in the decision-making process and educational planning’ unfortunately the main building faces closure in 2016.
Learning experiences which will impact on my community
As undertook my work there are several things which I learnt and know that they will enable me positively impact my community now and in the future. First my work involved working with students for fifth and sixth grade. My main role was to help them in handling their homework. I also stent a lot of time helping them read and even read for them. In particular I was helping one student from Korea and I was teaching him vocabulary and grammar.
The first thing I learnt through this experience is patience. Working with students in this age bracket was tough. To help students one need patience and also understands that different students take varied time to understand things. In a community, this is also the case one needs to be patient as people understanding and perceptions are varied. To help or work in a community this is a quality that cannot be overemphasized.
Another important quality that I learnt and will continue to improve is working with teams. I realized during the encounter that every community be it school or not, people need to work as teams with shared goals and objectives. In this regard I interacted with teachers to agree on how I would conduct my work without inconveniencing other be it time or resources. This is important for me as I prepare to work with different communities. The spirit of teamwork need to be natured to have healthy communities.
Through the program, I improved on my time keeping skills as well. This is because one has to be ready when call of duty comes. School having strict timelines, I learnt to prepare in advance, keep time and avoid distractions in the line of work. This experience served as an eye opener and I am sure this is important factor for someone working to achieve a community set goals.
Future employment
Being a volunteer will impact my life in many ways. To my future prospective employers, the time spent will give me an added benefit. This is in regard to experience as I worked with people in the school. It is a challenge to get in a community and work with them if you do not have team work spirit. During my volunteering, I learnt a lot in regard to working as a group. This is a strength that I think will make my resume and me be their choice.
Secondly, through the experience exposed me to improve my confidence which is a great thing. As most employers look for confident people who can express themselves well, the experience taught me a lot. These include being audible, expressing positive body language and looking at people when you are talking to them.
Another strength that will make my future employer impressed is the fact that the goodwill associated with volunteering. For example it shows one as being socially responsible and thus not shy of giving back to the community. In addition to this volunteering is considered as work experience if one can prove that they did actual work. As I can be able to provide evidence for this, I think this is a plus for me.
Self-evaluation
As I took the program, I had goals. These covered the several area and things I needed to learn by the end of the period. Evaluating myself I would say that I did very well in covering the areas that I targeted. In that case, I give myself a distinction on planning. This is because I put down what I wanted to learn, what I would cover and managed through with the plan as a guideline.
I would also score highly on time management. This is because the time I gave did not interfere with school program since I was not late any day. This is a trend that I would like to build and perfect since I have always aspired to be the best time keeper. In addition, fitting in an already existing program was a show that I can be flexible and at the same time achieve the organisational goals as well as personal ones.
On sacrifice, as I mentioned earlier I was able to set time a side to help a new student who had a lot of issues with English since he was from Korea. I helped the student in learning English words and how to use them. If I would have more time I would also identified other areas that called for a person to go an extra mile for the general good of the community.
In the networking and being able to work with different people, I feel I did extremely well. This is because; I left the school with a good number of friends from both ends of students and teachers alike. Were it not for the short time, I would have even made more. For that I feel that was satisfactory.
General overview of the experience
Throughout the program, there were things that I observed that went well. For the part of school they were welcoming and that is why I was able to pick easily. The students are also disciplined and I would often find them cleaning after themselves without pressure. This was a good experience and observation that the administration is doing well. For me, the experience was disguised as work. This is because I learnt a lot. The planning and teachers assigning me work was very good.
On the other hand, there are some areas which would do with a little improvement. First is the time, in this case if it would be possible to have more time that would be very beneficial. The school should also develop some program for volunteers. This would give volunteers time without having to make makeshift programs to suit them. However, I understand the limitation of this as the school may plan for it but volunteers fail to turn up. However, I still believe there should be such program.
Vote of thanks
I would like to thank the following people for making the session be a learning experience for me.
- Wendy ( my instructor who gave me the chance to volunteer )
- Sydney ( the principle for the elementary school)
- Morgan ( the teacher that I worked with her and helped her student to do their homework)
- All other teachers for their cooperation and warm welcome
References
Georgeou, N. (2012). Neoliberalism, Development, and Aid Volunteering. New York: Routledge.
Stuart Wood Elementary School. (2014, Jan 11). Welcome to Stuart Wood Elementary School 245 St. Paul St, Kamloops, V2C 2J2. Retrieved Nov 26, 2014, from Stuart Wood Elementary School: http://stuart-wood.sd73.bc.ca/
