Service Learning

In high school, I was in the JROTC program for four years. This is when I first heard the term "service learning." As a class, we had brainstorm and then vote on a place to do a service learning project. We learned that the whole purpose of it was not simply to volunteer, but to "get something out of it." I use that vague phrase because the benefits of service learning are many and varied for everyone depending on the length and type of project. Some people may just want to gain people skills, or learn how to work with children. Other people may want to learn more about the inner workings of an organization. Whatever the case, I "got something out of" the service learning project we did in this class.

My partner, Dolores, was one of the "good" partners. She always showed up to our meetings, and would call and let me know if she couldn't. At the meetings, she was prepared with questions and even practiced what we had went over the previous week. It was like she was taking a class, and I was the teacher, or at least the mentor. In all we had about 5 meetings. We had begun to develop a friendship; when she practiced her English just by talking, I began to learn more about Dolores as a person. She is a very hard working, understanding and nice person. She has been in the United States for about 20 years and is still struggling with her English because the people she is surrounded by mostly spoke Spanish. The fact that she still wanted to improve speaking English gave me hope. I often get frustrated with the language I'm taking, French. The fact that she is still willing to learn inspired my not to give up even when it gets hard. Also, I learned that the small things matter. Just by talking and listening, I am helping her in her quest to be a confident English speaker. Hopefully, she learned as much from me as I did from her and she keeps on her quest to be the English speaker she wants to be!