Looking Back

It has now been exactly two weeks since my last time volunteering at the after-school program. Before writing this post, I looked over my first few posts on this blog and realized how far I’ve come in my volunteering experiences. When I began my project, I went into it hoping to make a difference, but assuming the nagging little voice in my head telling me my project would fail was right. Fortunately, that little voice could not have been more wrong.

I’ve already spent a lot of time discussing the impact my  service has had on the students, but now I would like to take a moment to share the influence I’ve had on people who have kept up with my story and even learned something from it.

A Final Farewell

My final day of volunteering at the after-school program was fairly relaxed; the students were taking standardized tests so they did not have homework and we were instructed to cut back on the STEM activities and reading quizzes. We allowed the students to chose the days they did one reading quiz for the week and the STEM project was scheduled for Thursday which was the last day of testing.

How to Take a Test

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the most eye opening aspects of my volunteer work has been how much personal attention many students need in order to complete their work. From a very young age I was known to handle things for myself (my mom always tells me how I taught myself to write by looking at a poster of the alphabet and asking her what letters I needed for a word) so it was very shocking for me to be around students who had trouble reading short news articles, taking little quizzes, or writing basic sentences.

Along with the required STEM projects for the after school program, students are also required to take two online reading quizzes a week. While most of the kids fly through the assignments without a hitch, some can barely make it through the first paragraph without asking for help.

Math…The Struggle is Real

While I haven’t posted every single day right after I volunteer, I still like to share my favorite stories when I get a chance and this post is no exception. I recently learned that I have the ability to teach math–even geometry.

Geometry is my absolute least favorite mathematical concept (I could never understand the way my teachers taught it in middle/high school). And, of course, many of the students in the after-school program were beginning basic geometry and needed help on homework. Considering the other volunteers at the program are civics and life skills teachers and I am a chemistry major, I handle a lot of the scientific and mathematical questions the students have.

Real Talk: Breaking Down Bullying

Rather than another story about my experiences volunteering with the after school program, I have decided to take this post as an opportunity to make others more aware about bullying and its effects– especially at the middle school age. My earlier post about Opal and her playground bullies sparked interest regarding bullying at this age group, as well as about bullying in general.

Children across the country, across the world, face the ridicule of their peers every single day. While many are working to prevent this, bullying never seems to go away despite the efforts. Most people tend to associate bullies as people compensating for having low self esteems. However, recent studies beg to differ.

Suddenly I’m Teaching…?

When I first signed up to volunteer at the after-school program, everyone was very excited to learn that I am studying chemistry, because they figured I could help implement the weekly required STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) projects. What they did not tell me, however, was that I would be leading these projects and explaining them to students.

The Playground, The Bullies, The Lonely One

My second day of volunteering at the after school program was one that hit home for me in some ways. In elementary/middle school, I was bullied and shunned by my peers for reasons I never fully understood, and I finally observed this heart breaking situation from an adult supervisor’s perspective.

When we took the students out to play on the playground for their free time, they all immediately broke off into their cliques and ran around having a blast. However, there was one young girl, Opal, who was wandering around the play area alone, nervously moving from group to group hoping to be included somewhere. Each group quickly turned their backs and told Opal to go find someone else to talk to. Finally, Opal meandered her way over to myself and one other volunteer worker and asked us to play catch with her.

An Eye Opening First Day

My first day working at the after school program turned out to be much more of a challenge than I had expected it to be. Not only were the children infinitesimally more rowdy than I remember middle schoolers to be (especially for a Monday), but they also lacked initiative to do their homework because they were so caught up in their addictive cell phones and all of the drama on social media.

Instantly, I became very nervous, because I had expected to be around kids who were eager to learn and participate in fun activities. Was this really the place for me to volunteer? Throughout school, I was always the hardworking student who looked forward to doing her homework and would get berated for reading too much. Students who scoffed at the idea of doing their homework or reading for fun were a shock to me.

The First, Uncomfortable Step

The idea of volunteering your time seems like it would be really easy; you show up, do some work, you leave feeling like a better person. However, this simply isn’t the case.

First, to volunteer somewhere, you have to make contact with the organization in order to ensure they need volunteers when you expect to come, and that you have other possible qualifications necessary to volunteer with their program. Typically, this initial contact is made via a phone call.

If you’re as shy as I am, you know how terrifying a phone call to a stranger can be, and you know how easy it can be to procrastinate this task. As you dial the number, you can feel your stomach tightening and you begin to sweat as you hear the repetitive dooooot of the phone ringing. Thousands of little worries come to your mind: What if I forget my name? Why am I calling again? What if I stutter? They’re going to think I’m an idiot….Oh no they’re not gonna answer, now I’ll have to stumble through a voicema- Oh! They’re picking up! They’re talking. That means I have to talk soon. Oh NO!

What are ‘Giving,’ ‘Kindness,’ and ‘Charity’ Anyways?

What is giving? Is it simply handing an object to someone else? Is it a commitment?

What about kindness? Is kindness just using your manners?

And what about charity? Is it a philanthropist donating large quantities of money to big name charities? Is it waking up at the crack of dawn to work in a soup kitchen?

Before I can begin my exploration of kindness in day to day life, I feel that is important to define these terms in the context I plan to use them throughout my blog. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives sixteen definitions to the word giving, ranging from giving presents to giving birth. For the word kindness, there are two definitions that are closer to the ideas I am looking for– a kind deed, or the quality of being kind– but these are still vague. Finally, for the word charity, Merriam-Webster gives four definitions and the first one is probably the best description I’ve read: “benevolent goodwill toward, or love of humanity.”