About Me and Why I Chose Serve
My name is Allison Monroe and I am a freshman majoring in architecture. I am from Greene County, Virginia but have found a new home in Blacksburg. I have loved architecture ever since I was a little kid and played my first sims game. I found the game so interesting because we could create and design a house and other buildings. When I found out that there was a job similar to it, I immediately took interest. In high school I spent most of my time in my architecture class with my favorite teacher. She taught me everything I needed to know and because of her, a house I designed is actually get built next year. Also in high school I was very involved in my FCCLA chapter, which was run by my architecture teacher. FCCLA stands for Family Career Community Leaders of America and it is all about helping people in need and also helping our club members decide what they want to do in the future. I was the Executive Vice President my senior year, but I did many of the Presidents jobs. I was also heavily involved in my school’s Beta club and was historian my senior year. This club required the most amount of community service and work. Mainly because there was a required 40 hours of community service from everyone in the club and it would be checked to make sure it was real. I liked the Beta club because we required people to do four Beta sponsored events. These events where mainly from other schools. Sometimes it would be helping them with a carnival that is raising money for the school, and other times it would just be tutoring a freshman in need. This club focused more on the local community instead of trying to fix all of the world’s problems. While I wasn’t doing school work or helping my local community, I was working after school at my local Harris Teeter, but I had to quit before I came to college. In my free time I mainly read and hang out with my friends, because I do not get that much due to school. I am also quite nerdy when it comes to video games and I sometimes fan girl over television shows. I can beat guys in video games and I have to sing when a song I know comes on the radio. I am super nerdy when it comes to science and I already have my associates degree. I am known for making bad jokes and I love helping people. All of these are things that make up me and my personality. I would not change myself or let anyone change me, because I am happy with who I am.
I chose serve mainly because my brother joined when he was a freshman and he said it was one of the best choices he ever made. He made life-long friends and I knew I wanted that also, so I applied. Getting to do service and helping the community all the time was just an added bonus. I did many volunteering clubs in high school and even was the leader of two of them, so I knew this was going to be good for me. Service is a huge part of my life and I wanted that to continue in college. I also did some research about serve before I signed up and it just made sense to me. I love how this group incorporates Virginia Tech’s motto Ut Prosim into everything that they do and they also focus on personal growth as well. They want their members to grow into better versions of themselves that are happy and excited to participate in the community. I like that a group of like-minded people can get together and do what they love while having fun. I definitely do not regret joining serve because I can tell I have already made a group of friends that I will have forever. We all are already so close and spend so much time with each other and I don’t think I would have gotten that if I did not join this living learning community. My college experience is just beginning but I can already tell it will be the best experience of my life and I can thank serve for that.
I chose serve mainly because my brother joined when he was a freshman and he said it was one of the best choices he ever made. He made life-long friends and I knew I wanted that also, so I applied. Getting to do service and helping the community all the time was just an added bonus. I did many volunteering clubs in high school and even was the leader of two of them, so I knew this was going to be good for me. Service is a huge part of my life and I wanted that to continue in college. I also did some research about serve before I signed up and it just made sense to me. I love how this group incorporates Virginia Tech’s motto Ut Prosim into everything that they do and they also focus on personal growth as well. They want their members to grow into better versions of themselves that are happy and excited to participate in the community. I like that a group of like-minded people can get together and do what they love while having fun. I definitely do not regret joining serve because I can tell I have already made a group of friends that I will have forever. We all are already so close and spend so much time with each other and I don’t think I would have gotten that if I did not join this living learning community. My college experience is just beginning but I can already tell it will be the best experience of my life and I can thank serve for that.
Other Questions reflection of ReNew the New Service trip
1. How can you educate others or raise awareness about this group or social issue?
- We can educate others about this event by telling them what they do and how they are helping the community. This event happens twice a year to help preserve the environment of the New River. One way that we could possibly educate them is by explaining how much pollution the river actually gets and the results the event get and how much trash they pick up. Another way we can raise awareness for this event is by spreading the word and not just have a few people from each county show up. River pollution can effect everyone in the area, so this is a big issue.
- In this case I did not see the benefits of doing community work. There was not that much trash in the river but there was much more on the river bank when we climbed up. Also I am not sure if this was a complete benefit, because the environment has grown used to the trash and pollution and when we come and try to clean it up we are disrupting a habitat. I felt that I was hurting the environment more than I was helping it. That is where the line gets a little blurred in community service. When are you actually helping and when are you hurting?
- At this event there were many institutional structures in order to make sure that everyone was safe and that the purpose of the event was achieved. When we first got there they assigned us with a color, the color decided which part of the river we were cleaning. This affected the people we worked with because if we had another color we would have worked with a totally different set of people to make the river new again. They were also very strict about how long we stayed in a certain section and how much trash we picked up. At the end they gave everyone who participated a free t-shirt and a sandwich. This event was very well planned and it definitely did affect who we worked with.
- I think that the most effective thing that I did was clean up an entire trash bag full of glass from the bank. The glass was high up on the bank so it was not really noticeable, but we got it. I feel like I was more ineffective during this event than effective. Even though we cleaned up so much glass, there was still a lot more that we could not even comprehend. Also there were many big items that we could not pick up and put in our canoe. Also I had never canoed before so I was focusing on two things at once and it was not really working in my favor.
- I think that the most difficult part of this service event was the canoeing. As I said before I have never canoed before and it really took a lot of energy out of me. Also it was difficult to try to find that much trash. There was not much trash in the river so we really had to look hard at the banks. I think the most satisfying part of my work on the river was when we saw our giant bag of trash get lifted into the bulldozer. It was really satisfying knowing that we actually did that. We actually made some difference on this river.
- My values are really simple. They are kindness, loyalty, and hard-work. I am sure there are more, but those are the top three. When I do a service event I try to make sure that I am kind, that I am loyal to the event or the cause I am helping, and that I work as hard as I possibly can while I do it. Without have these three values what is the point of doing service events anyway.
- Because of my service-learning, I am a better person. Not just from this experience, but from all of the service events I have ever done. This service event made me a more informed human being that now knows how to canoe. This trip really taught me the importance of cleaning up after yourself and making sure others no what happens to rivers when they litter. This trip made me appreciate nature more and I am glad that I had the opportunity to participate in this trip and I definitely would be willing to do it again.
What I Bring to the Table
What I bring to the table is well described in my strengths assessment that I took. According to the test I am strategic, a maximizer, positive, a learner, and an includer. I think this sums up what I bring to the table pretty well. These strengths represent me and how I want to live my life. However, even though I have strengths, I also have weakness. My weaknesses are a part of who I am, and they define how I live my life as much as my strengths do.
My first and most prominent strength is being strategic. I am happy with this strength because in my major it is very useful. I view most things in a strategic way because I believe that way, a person will get the best results in what they are doing. I definitely bring this trait to the table when I am in my different communities. My strategic thinking has convinced many of the people in the hall to not do stupid things and it has also helped solve some conflicts that happen every once in a while. Being strategic helps me with my major I think the most. Being an architecture major requires a certain thinking that can be difficult for others. I have to be both creative yet strategic and intelligent. It can be difficult, but by using my main strength it helps significantly with each project we do.
My second strength is being a maximizer. This means that I take each situation and opportunity, maximize it and make it the best it can be. I believe this helps the most in my community service work and helping the New River Valley. I try to make even the worst community serve events into something that will be fun and an experience for everyone. If no one is having fun or enjoying themselves, then no one will get anything from the event and all the work that was done was pointless.
My third strength is positivity. This has some connections with my second trait, maximizer. I like to be a positive person, because I like to cheer people up and keep their spirits up. I believe that if a person is positive enough they can do anything they set their minds too and they can influence the people around them in a positive way. When a person is positive then they will be happier all around, healthier and more likely to do more for the community. A happy and positive person will have more of an impact on the community and get more enjoyment from it.
My fourth strength is that I am a learner. I am never happy with just knowing the bare minimum information and then leaving. I need to be constantly learning something in order to be content with what I am doing. This also explains why I get frustrated easily when a teacher doesn’t teach us or just teaches us out of the book. This strength can also apply to real world experience. I always want to be learning something about my surroundings and about the people around me. I am never satisfied knowing the bare minimum and I will always want to know more. This also applies to our community and how I always want to learn about new ways to help people and how to get involved.
My fifth and final strength is that I am a includer. I love to include people in what I am doing no matter what. This also means that I want to be included all of the time. I never want people to feel like they don’t belong. Mainly, because I know how it feels not to be included into a certain community or event. Even though I am known for being an introvert, I will go out of my way to make someone feel like they are a part of the group or the community. I think this works great with getting to know people on campus and with my community service. I will always try to include people in my community service work and I will always try to make them feel like they belong at an event. It makes people at the events relate more to me and a lot of the time I form a bond with some of the people I meet.
Overall my strengths are what I bring to the table, but there is so much more about me that I can bring to the table. I am known for my loyalty and my honesty. People can always count on me to be there for them and tell them the truth about a situation. Loyalty is one of my most important values that I would never give up and I think that many of my strength explain why that is. These are only some of the things that I bring to the table. There are plenty more that I have not even discovered yet and I cannot wait to learn and find out.
My first and most prominent strength is being strategic. I am happy with this strength because in my major it is very useful. I view most things in a strategic way because I believe that way, a person will get the best results in what they are doing. I definitely bring this trait to the table when I am in my different communities. My strategic thinking has convinced many of the people in the hall to not do stupid things and it has also helped solve some conflicts that happen every once in a while. Being strategic helps me with my major I think the most. Being an architecture major requires a certain thinking that can be difficult for others. I have to be both creative yet strategic and intelligent. It can be difficult, but by using my main strength it helps significantly with each project we do.
My second strength is being a maximizer. This means that I take each situation and opportunity, maximize it and make it the best it can be. I believe this helps the most in my community service work and helping the New River Valley. I try to make even the worst community serve events into something that will be fun and an experience for everyone. If no one is having fun or enjoying themselves, then no one will get anything from the event and all the work that was done was pointless.
My third strength is positivity. This has some connections with my second trait, maximizer. I like to be a positive person, because I like to cheer people up and keep their spirits up. I believe that if a person is positive enough they can do anything they set their minds too and they can influence the people around them in a positive way. When a person is positive then they will be happier all around, healthier and more likely to do more for the community. A happy and positive person will have more of an impact on the community and get more enjoyment from it.
My fourth strength is that I am a learner. I am never happy with just knowing the bare minimum information and then leaving. I need to be constantly learning something in order to be content with what I am doing. This also explains why I get frustrated easily when a teacher doesn’t teach us or just teaches us out of the book. This strength can also apply to real world experience. I always want to be learning something about my surroundings and about the people around me. I am never satisfied knowing the bare minimum and I will always want to know more. This also applies to our community and how I always want to learn about new ways to help people and how to get involved.
My fifth and final strength is that I am a includer. I love to include people in what I am doing no matter what. This also means that I want to be included all of the time. I never want people to feel like they don’t belong. Mainly, because I know how it feels not to be included into a certain community or event. Even though I am known for being an introvert, I will go out of my way to make someone feel like they are a part of the group or the community. I think this works great with getting to know people on campus and with my community service. I will always try to include people in my community service work and I will always try to make them feel like they belong at an event. It makes people at the events relate more to me and a lot of the time I form a bond with some of the people I meet.
Overall my strengths are what I bring to the table, but there is so much more about me that I can bring to the table. I am known for my loyalty and my honesty. People can always count on me to be there for them and tell them the truth about a situation. Loyalty is one of my most important values that I would never give up and I think that many of my strength explain why that is. These are only some of the things that I bring to the table. There are plenty more that I have not even discovered yet and I cannot wait to learn and find out.
The Danger of a Single Story
My main community back in my home town are my best friends. My group of friends have been together since elementary school and we are still very close, even though we all went separate ways for college. We have been with each other almost our entire lives and we were not going to let the distance change us. However, back in high school my group of friends were labeled severely. We were very involved in our studies and school and that influenced how people saw us. Our peers and other friends stereotyped us as people who didn’t have any fun, and were only focused on our grades. We were slightly made fun of even though we never bothered anyone or caused trouble. We weren’t always seen in this light though. People before high school just didn’t notice, or it wasn’t seen as such a big deal.
At the beginning of freshman year my friends and I were really nervous and scared about high school We weren’t sure what it was going to be like or if the workload was going to be crazy. There was a big test coming up that was most of grade. We were all freaking out and studying like crazy. After the grades for the test came out, we all got the highest grades in the class except one of my friends. She started to cry because she failed the test and everyone was around watching. They didn’t understand why we cared so much or how some of us got really high grades. This single story is mainly what caused my friend group to get labeled in such a light. We didn’t really care about the label at first. We actually took it as a compliment, but after a while it started to get old. Whenever, we were in a group with others, they felt like they didn’t need to do any work. Mainly, because they knew we wanted to get a good grade and we weren’t going to let them stop us. People started to take advantage of us and our need to do well in school and achieve everything. Some people stopped talking to us because they did not want their reputation to get tainted. In junior year it started to be a lot, because we decided to join a program that let us graduate high school and get our associate’s degree at the same time. People started to seclude us even more and they thought we thought we were snobs just because we got better grades. Through all of the teasing we were fine, until one of my friends broke.
One of my friends became tired of the treatment we were getting during junior year. This was the friend who was known for crying when she got a bad grade. She didn’t think it was fair how we were getting treated, so she rebelled in a way. She first started by getting a popular boyfriend, who quickly became her world. This made people start to see her differently causing her to act differently. She felt she had to live up to the expectation the popular people were putting on her. With her new boyfriend that she spent every moment with, she didn’t realize that she was not spending anytime with us. We quickly became more and more distance from her, not just because she had a boyfriend, but since she was becoming a different person all together. She didn’t care about her grades anymore, she wouldn’t talk to us when we tried, and she just was an overall horrible person. At the end of junior year her boyfriend broke up with her and so did all of his friends. She came to us for support and guidance and we helped her through the hard time she was in.
Overall, I do believe that a single story can affect the way people in a community live. A single story is dangerous because everything about that community is defined by that one story, and nobody can really see anything different. With my story, I almost lost one of my best friends because she was tired of being labeled as only one thing. She didn’t like that we were being labeled for being ourselves and for focusing on our schoolwork. That caused her to act like someone she wasn’t and made her unhappy. A single story does define a community, but how a person lets that story affect them is what really matters. My other friends and I stayed true to ourselves and did not let our story define us. We knew who we were and what the other were saying didn’t matter.
At the beginning of freshman year my friends and I were really nervous and scared about high school We weren’t sure what it was going to be like or if the workload was going to be crazy. There was a big test coming up that was most of grade. We were all freaking out and studying like crazy. After the grades for the test came out, we all got the highest grades in the class except one of my friends. She started to cry because she failed the test and everyone was around watching. They didn’t understand why we cared so much or how some of us got really high grades. This single story is mainly what caused my friend group to get labeled in such a light. We didn’t really care about the label at first. We actually took it as a compliment, but after a while it started to get old. Whenever, we were in a group with others, they felt like they didn’t need to do any work. Mainly, because they knew we wanted to get a good grade and we weren’t going to let them stop us. People started to take advantage of us and our need to do well in school and achieve everything. Some people stopped talking to us because they did not want their reputation to get tainted. In junior year it started to be a lot, because we decided to join a program that let us graduate high school and get our associate’s degree at the same time. People started to seclude us even more and they thought we thought we were snobs just because we got better grades. Through all of the teasing we were fine, until one of my friends broke.
One of my friends became tired of the treatment we were getting during junior year. This was the friend who was known for crying when she got a bad grade. She didn’t think it was fair how we were getting treated, so she rebelled in a way. She first started by getting a popular boyfriend, who quickly became her world. This made people start to see her differently causing her to act differently. She felt she had to live up to the expectation the popular people were putting on her. With her new boyfriend that she spent every moment with, she didn’t realize that she was not spending anytime with us. We quickly became more and more distance from her, not just because she had a boyfriend, but since she was becoming a different person all together. She didn’t care about her grades anymore, she wouldn’t talk to us when we tried, and she just was an overall horrible person. At the end of junior year her boyfriend broke up with her and so did all of his friends. She came to us for support and guidance and we helped her through the hard time she was in.
Overall, I do believe that a single story can affect the way people in a community live. A single story is dangerous because everything about that community is defined by that one story, and nobody can really see anything different. With my story, I almost lost one of my best friends because she was tired of being labeled as only one thing. She didn’t like that we were being labeled for being ourselves and for focusing on our schoolwork. That caused her to act like someone she wasn’t and made her unhappy. A single story does define a community, but how a person lets that story affect them is what really matters. My other friends and I stayed true to ourselves and did not let our story define us. We knew who we were and what the other were saying didn’t matter.
Times I Have Felt Alive
There have been many times I have felt alive in my life: when I was at the top of the highest mountain in Switzerland, or when I took a helicopter ride over Delaware, but I have only had a few opportunities during my service experiences that I have truly felt alive.
One of the few times that I felt alive during a service project, was when I was sewing dresses together for little kids in Africa. A year before this project my teacher and FCCLA advisor helped me learn how to sew. After she taught me, I loved it and I wanted to do something useful with it. Since I was the Vice President of my FCCLA group at the time, I set up a little project with my teacher to help children in countries like Africa, that cannot afford clothes. We soon set up a schedule and were teaching more people how to sew and how to make the dresses and short for the children. Sewing was and still is a passion of mine and I was having such a good time that I forgot about the time, I forgot about problems, I just focused on my task and the purpose of the project. Everything just felt right and I could tell that my fun and feeling of purpose was rubbing off on the others in the club. Everyone was having an amazing time laughing and joking around, yet they still were getting work done and helping the cause.
Another time that I have felt alive was very recently actually. On our SERVE retreat I was originally supposed to go to plenty and help there, but instead I went to the Floyd county duck race. This was a great experience for me, I could see the county traditions and I could interact with the people of Floyd. I always love service project where the server can establish some form of bond with people and see how they live their lives. The duck races were fun and the time passed quickly, because we were having fun with the kids the entire time and entertaining them. We had sword fights and ring tosses, it was just an overall good time that everyone enjoyed. Even though I did not do as much physical labor as I would have at plenty, I still feel like I got just as much or even more out of my experience. In a county with such a high level of starvation and hunger, I am glad I got to see the good out of it. I was happy to see that even through all the county’s problems, they still uphold their traditions and are still a tight knit community. That is why I felt alive and I am glad I went to such a great event.
Even though these were two different experiences, they both had many similarities in how and why they made me feel alive. In both situations, I was excited to do the main goal or purpose. There have been many times when I have done service events and was not excited at all. I believe in the fact that to feel alive you need to be having fun and enjoying what you are doing. I also believe that to do a good job, you need to be happy and passionate about what you are doing. Without it you will get nothing out of the experience, instead of taking the most you can out of it. One of the main connections between the two was that I was passionate about both projects. I am passionate about sewing and helping people and I am also passionate about helping children and small towns. I am from a small town myself, so I felt connected in that way. I felt that I could relate more with the children and the townspeople, than a person from a big city could. I think a person can only feel alive in situations they are not comfortable in. The thrill of doing something they don’t normally do will make them feel like they are making more of a difference and that it is more exciting.
One of the few times that I felt alive during a service project, was when I was sewing dresses together for little kids in Africa. A year before this project my teacher and FCCLA advisor helped me learn how to sew. After she taught me, I loved it and I wanted to do something useful with it. Since I was the Vice President of my FCCLA group at the time, I set up a little project with my teacher to help children in countries like Africa, that cannot afford clothes. We soon set up a schedule and were teaching more people how to sew and how to make the dresses and short for the children. Sewing was and still is a passion of mine and I was having such a good time that I forgot about the time, I forgot about problems, I just focused on my task and the purpose of the project. Everything just felt right and I could tell that my fun and feeling of purpose was rubbing off on the others in the club. Everyone was having an amazing time laughing and joking around, yet they still were getting work done and helping the cause.
Another time that I have felt alive was very recently actually. On our SERVE retreat I was originally supposed to go to plenty and help there, but instead I went to the Floyd county duck race. This was a great experience for me, I could see the county traditions and I could interact with the people of Floyd. I always love service project where the server can establish some form of bond with people and see how they live their lives. The duck races were fun and the time passed quickly, because we were having fun with the kids the entire time and entertaining them. We had sword fights and ring tosses, it was just an overall good time that everyone enjoyed. Even though I did not do as much physical labor as I would have at plenty, I still feel like I got just as much or even more out of my experience. In a county with such a high level of starvation and hunger, I am glad I got to see the good out of it. I was happy to see that even through all the county’s problems, they still uphold their traditions and are still a tight knit community. That is why I felt alive and I am glad I went to such a great event.
Even though these were two different experiences, they both had many similarities in how and why they made me feel alive. In both situations, I was excited to do the main goal or purpose. There have been many times when I have done service events and was not excited at all. I believe in the fact that to feel alive you need to be having fun and enjoying what you are doing. I also believe that to do a good job, you need to be happy and passionate about what you are doing. Without it you will get nothing out of the experience, instead of taking the most you can out of it. One of the main connections between the two was that I was passionate about both projects. I am passionate about sewing and helping people and I am also passionate about helping children and small towns. I am from a small town myself, so I felt connected in that way. I felt that I could relate more with the children and the townspeople, than a person from a big city could. I think a person can only feel alive in situations they are not comfortable in. The thrill of doing something they don’t normally do will make them feel like they are making more of a difference and that it is more exciting.
Criticisms of Volunterism
Volunteerism is mainly a word people associate with kindness and goodness. People think that volunteering will always be helpful to a group of people or to a place no matter how little or how it is done. However, many people are uneducated with the problems with volunteerism and voluntourism. Though both have the potential to be beneficial to a community, they can also reap horrible after effects that are not wanted or needed. Also, sometimes it is just not useful at all and can hurt a community more than it can help it.
One of the first major criticisms that can be pointed out about volunteerism is knowledge. Many people are not knowledgeable about the situations they are going into or what the project or organization they are helping even does to benefit the community. When volunteers do not do research, or prepare for what they are about to do then it can hurt the people or environment more than help it. For example, a group of volunteers were going to go Brazil with the goal to teach students how to use the new technology that was recently installed. All the volunteers decided that to prepare they were going to learn Spanish so there was less of a language barrier. They all learned Spanish and when they got there they only understood some words. They then realized that the main language in Brazil was Portuguese and not Spanish like they thought. They also found out the students also knew how to use the technology because their teachers taught them. Since, the volunteers did not research before they came or do a simple google search, they learned the wrong information and were completely useless. They learned the wrong language and they did not check to see if the schools needed that kind of information they were going to provide, they assumed and did not reach out. This is a perfect example of volunteers who could have brought a true service to the school, but instead they were just a bunch of uneducated volunteers. Even though this is an extreme example, things like this happen and can give volunteering a bad name.
Another criticism that many people make with volunteerism is voluntourism. Whenever this word is spoken it is associated with selfishness and personal gain. Voluntourism is the process of going abroad and doing community service, but also adding in some sites from the location the community service activity is at. However, many people see this as a bad thing. They believe that these programs are selfish and only about the traveling and not about helping the community. In many ways, these programs are not the best way to do community service. Many of the times, the programs like to work with orphanages in other countries, which many phycologists are against. They believe that volunteers coming into an orphanage for a week and establishing a bond with a child can do more harm than never coming at all. The children are left heartbroken and the volunteers leave feeling proud that they changed a child’s life even if it wasn’t for the better. Also, the knowledge criticism comes into play here. The volunteer groups who go overseas to work with orphanages do not realize that is not the main help orphanages need. If they did more research into what the orphanages needed, they would not get criticized for breaking children’s hearts. For example, why not instead of sending a group of college kids to another country to teach orphans English, send the college kids to orphanages to improve the conditions of the orphanages overall. Instead of forming a connection with the children then leaving, they could not interact with the children at all and instead place computers in the orphanage or build a garden, so they can get fresh vegetables. This would leave more of a positive impact on the orphanage and would not affect the children’s mental health in anyway.
I think that one of the major criticism of volunteerism is something that we are all guilty of, selfishness. Even though good intentions are the main objective when volunteering, everyone who has ever volunteered has been selfish one time or another. No one can do an act that is completely unselfish, mainly because when we help someone we feel better about ourselves. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it should not be the only thing fueling a person’s need to serve the community. They should do it because they want and get the extra benefit of feeling like they did something good to change the world, even if it was something small. However, when they do community service to benefit them only or because they must fulfill a requirement, that is when it is a completely selfish act. If people are doing the community service for the wrong reasons it can lead to a poor work ethic and the person not putting a hundred percent into everything they are doing. Many people would then make the argument that they are still doing community service, so it does not matter. I do think it matters, because a person needs to put meaning and intent behind their community service or they might as well not do it. Without meaning and intent, the work will not be as good and not as meaningful. Community service is the best when both parties are getting the most out of the experience. When a college student is just doing service to get a signature for a class is the most heartbreaking, because the will to do it was never there, they were just doing it out of necessity. However, sometimes students want to do community service that is required and they must get a signature. When they ask for the signature it makes the student seem like the entire time they have been there, was only for the credit and not because they wanted to do it in the first place.
Even though there are some criticism of volunteerism, people must look at the good side of volunteerism or at least what they can do to make it better. Volunteerism has a bad rep because of criticisms that are associated with it. People feel like it is just easier to not volunteer than to deal with the bad things about volunteerism. Even though there are bad things to volunteerism, there are so much more things that outweigh the bad. The feeling when you see a job well done, the look on the people’s faces, the difference a person can make in such a small time. These are all good things that make community service worth it. Volunteers just need to plan the trips and be knowledgeable first. They also need to make sure they are doing it for the right reasons. Once those goals are achieved anything is possible and community service a change the world.
One of the first major criticisms that can be pointed out about volunteerism is knowledge. Many people are not knowledgeable about the situations they are going into or what the project or organization they are helping even does to benefit the community. When volunteers do not do research, or prepare for what they are about to do then it can hurt the people or environment more than help it. For example, a group of volunteers were going to go Brazil with the goal to teach students how to use the new technology that was recently installed. All the volunteers decided that to prepare they were going to learn Spanish so there was less of a language barrier. They all learned Spanish and when they got there they only understood some words. They then realized that the main language in Brazil was Portuguese and not Spanish like they thought. They also found out the students also knew how to use the technology because their teachers taught them. Since, the volunteers did not research before they came or do a simple google search, they learned the wrong information and were completely useless. They learned the wrong language and they did not check to see if the schools needed that kind of information they were going to provide, they assumed and did not reach out. This is a perfect example of volunteers who could have brought a true service to the school, but instead they were just a bunch of uneducated volunteers. Even though this is an extreme example, things like this happen and can give volunteering a bad name.
Another criticism that many people make with volunteerism is voluntourism. Whenever this word is spoken it is associated with selfishness and personal gain. Voluntourism is the process of going abroad and doing community service, but also adding in some sites from the location the community service activity is at. However, many people see this as a bad thing. They believe that these programs are selfish and only about the traveling and not about helping the community. In many ways, these programs are not the best way to do community service. Many of the times, the programs like to work with orphanages in other countries, which many phycologists are against. They believe that volunteers coming into an orphanage for a week and establishing a bond with a child can do more harm than never coming at all. The children are left heartbroken and the volunteers leave feeling proud that they changed a child’s life even if it wasn’t for the better. Also, the knowledge criticism comes into play here. The volunteer groups who go overseas to work with orphanages do not realize that is not the main help orphanages need. If they did more research into what the orphanages needed, they would not get criticized for breaking children’s hearts. For example, why not instead of sending a group of college kids to another country to teach orphans English, send the college kids to orphanages to improve the conditions of the orphanages overall. Instead of forming a connection with the children then leaving, they could not interact with the children at all and instead place computers in the orphanage or build a garden, so they can get fresh vegetables. This would leave more of a positive impact on the orphanage and would not affect the children’s mental health in anyway.
I think that one of the major criticism of volunteerism is something that we are all guilty of, selfishness. Even though good intentions are the main objective when volunteering, everyone who has ever volunteered has been selfish one time or another. No one can do an act that is completely unselfish, mainly because when we help someone we feel better about ourselves. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it should not be the only thing fueling a person’s need to serve the community. They should do it because they want and get the extra benefit of feeling like they did something good to change the world, even if it was something small. However, when they do community service to benefit them only or because they must fulfill a requirement, that is when it is a completely selfish act. If people are doing the community service for the wrong reasons it can lead to a poor work ethic and the person not putting a hundred percent into everything they are doing. Many people would then make the argument that they are still doing community service, so it does not matter. I do think it matters, because a person needs to put meaning and intent behind their community service or they might as well not do it. Without meaning and intent, the work will not be as good and not as meaningful. Community service is the best when both parties are getting the most out of the experience. When a college student is just doing service to get a signature for a class is the most heartbreaking, because the will to do it was never there, they were just doing it out of necessity. However, sometimes students want to do community service that is required and they must get a signature. When they ask for the signature it makes the student seem like the entire time they have been there, was only for the credit and not because they wanted to do it in the first place.
Even though there are some criticism of volunteerism, people must look at the good side of volunteerism or at least what they can do to make it better. Volunteerism has a bad rep because of criticisms that are associated with it. People feel like it is just easier to not volunteer than to deal with the bad things about volunteerism. Even though there are bad things to volunteerism, there are so much more things that outweigh the bad. The feeling when you see a job well done, the look on the people’s faces, the difference a person can make in such a small time. These are all good things that make community service worth it. Volunteers just need to plan the trips and be knowledgeable first. They also need to make sure they are doing it for the right reasons. Once those goals are achieved anything is possible and community service a change the world.
What Does it Mean to be an Active Citizen?
Being an active citizen can be defined in many ways. It mainly depends on who is defining it and what it means to them. However, the most common way of defining an active citizen is a person who is continually active in their community. No matter how small the contribution, a person is an active citizen if they are continuously trying to work their way up the active citizen continuum. The active citizen continuum is a chart that describes where a member of a community is at. The person starts at member, which is basically a person who is a member of the community, but doesn’t really care about his/her role in society or social problems. This person is not involved in the community or they don’t really care about what they are doing. The next step on the continuum is being a volunteer. People who are in this category have better intentions than a member, but they are still not well informed with the social issues or why they are volunteering at all. After a person moves up on the continuum they are a conscientious citizen. Conscientious citizens are concerned with discovering the root of the problem and are always asking why. Soon the conscientious citizen becomes an active citizen. They achieve this because the person is now considering community in most life situations. Their service affects them deeply and their life values are influenced by the service they do (The Active Citizen Continuum). It is necessary to qualify our citizenship with the word active. This is because we need a difference between a regular citizen and a citizen who continues to go the extra mile and help the community. Many things are involved in being an active citizen. An active citizen must consider the community, volunteerism, citizenship, leadership, and causing social change.
An active citizen must establish a community. Community is important because, people need community to feel like they are a part of something. Also, a community is necessary because an active citizen needs something to help. They need a community that they are a part of, not someone else’s community. They need a community that they can connect with. They need a community where they have a personal reason to serve and not just for the sake of helping. When a citizen has a personal reason to volunteer they are more likely to enjoy the activity and get more involved. When asked his definition of what a community is, community builder Peter Block states, “Community means that you and I together can produce something, can construct a new future together. It means that we need each other, in fact. Neighborliness is not about liking each other. Neighborliness means that if I want to be safe, or raise a child, or be healthy, or make a living, I need you in order to best do that. (Shushok)” This view of community means that a person needs a community in order to stay safe and to make their future brighter. Community is based off at least two people needing each other, they do not have to like each other, but they need to coexist to survive. An active citizen needs this to benefit the community in the best way possible. Without a community, there would be no active citizens and without active citizens, there would be no change.
Volunteerism and the criticisms that are involved with it are something that active citizen or potential active citizens need to be aware of. Volunteerism is mostly a good act. However, there are times when people’s hearts are not in the right place and the good act of volunteerism turns selfish. There are types of service which are good, but can make the person they are serving feel bad. For example, if a person is volunteering at a food bank dishing out food to those who need it, they could feel good about themselves and the service that they are doing, but the person they are serving is mostly likely feeling embarrassed at the fact that someone else is serving them. This is something that is rarely discussed concerning service, because volunteers do not want to believe they are actually hurting more than helping. In the article “What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Service” Adam Davis says, “we rarely discuss service. (Davis)” He then goes on to talk about how we do not talk about things that seem to be related to unsavory character. He says, “If it is bad: we don’t discuss it. (Davis)” This is very true and it is related to service also. “To talk of service, to really look at it, would require us to look closely at inequality. This is a difficult and uncomfortable place to look at. (Davis)” People who do service, serve because they want to, while the people they serve accept the things they serve because they have too. The person doing the service has the freedom to serve, while the person receiving the service does not have the opportunity. Some receivers of the service are grateful, while other feel like charity cases, which is not the case. A good active citizen needs to realize the inequality and they need to try to make it easier on the receiver of the service. An active citizen needs to find and establish a balance of respect with the receivers of the service. If they can achieve that, then that is the greatest service they can do.
Leadership is an important characteristic that an active citizen must learn and achieve. An active citizen needs to develop this skill in order to lead groups of people in activities and service opportunities. Also, most organization will not take a person seriously if they do not display confidence and leadership. However, many people believe that leadership is born and cannot be learned. “We are all born. What we do with what we have before we die is up to us. (Kouzes)” Anybody can choose to be a leader, they just have to want to become one and they will most likely succeed. “It’s just pure myth that only a lucky few can ever understand the intricacies of leadership. (Kouzes)” Leadership is an observable set of skills and abilities that one can use in any life situation. Anybody can use these skills and anybody can learn them. Being a leader does not have to be a quality of just a few select people. “Leadership is not about being a CEO, president, general, or prime minister. And it’s definitely not about being a hero. Leadership is about relationships, about credibility, and about what you do. (Kouzes)” An effective leader does everything in their power to do more. No matter what has already been accomplished, they will go the extra mile. Also, relationship play a big part in being a leader. Without relationships, a leader can get nowhere. Leaders need to establish relationships with each and every person they are leading, and they also need to establish connection. A group is only as strong as their leader and the connections he/she has. As an active citizen and a leader, they need to make a difference. They need to influence their team or group in some way that has them leaving the project with a positive experience and feeling like they actually make a difference. However, to become a leader an active citizen must develop their selves first, because leadership development is self-development.
“Without getting lost in definition, citizenship is our agreement to receive rights and privileges from the community and, in so doing, to pay for them through our willingness to live within certain boundaries and actin the interest of the whole. At the core of citizenship is the desire to care for the well-being of the larger institution, be it an organization, a neighborhood, or a country. (Block)” Citizenship in basic terms is what we put into our community we will get out of it. The more we do to benefit our society the more our society and community will do to benefit us. According to Block we spend too much of our time focusing on leadership and how to increase it. However, by focusing more on citizenship we might be able to accomplish more. “A benefit of shifting from Leadership to Citizenship is to create the capacity for many more people to achieve what we have traditionally expected our leaders to accomplish. Servant-leadership may provide a gateway for this transition. (Block)”
Social change is the main goal of any active citizen. Social change is when an active citizen tries to make a difference in the community. However, there are many things that are involved in the process of social change. Mainly social change involves looking at three different perspectives in order to develop leadership and make a difference. The three different perspectives are the individual, the group, and the community/society. In each different perspective, they focus on the different qualities they have and what they emphasize. In the individual perspective, they mainly look at the development of personal qualities. The group perspective focuses on an emphasis on collaboration and interaction between the group and the individual. Society/community focuses on bringing a change for the common good. Each perspective interacts with each other and effects the other in some way. The goal of this model is to promote positive social change. An active citizen can use this model to their advantage by figuring out where on the model they land and how it can help them develop as a leader. They can also let the 7 C’s of Leadership help them figure out where they need to improve and how to improve that area. The 7 C’s include consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, and citizenship (Social Change Model of Leadership Development).
I do not believe that Virginia Tech as a whole actively encourages students to be active citizens. Virginia Tech preaches one of their main sayings Ut Prosim, however in my opinion they do not do much with it. They say that it is one of the bases the school was built on, but I think it is more of a motto than a way of life, like it should be. Ut Prosim means that I may serve, but it seems that Virginia Tech does let people make it a bigger part of their life. Since its one of our big mottos, I believe that more people should focus on it. In order to do this, I think that the university should promote more of the service opportunities that we have. Most students do not even know that VT Engage exists and if they do, it’s mainly because they have to do service for a class or some other requirement. To make Ut Prosim more of a way of life instead of a motto, I believe that we should encourage more programs like SERVE and VT engage. SERVE is a great way to encourage service, because that is the point of the living learning community. Students with similar interests in service come together and live together to embrace the motto of Ut Prosim. I have the belief that many people on campus and within the community want to and are willing to serve and become active citizen, they just do not have the resources or the knowledge to accomplish it. I think that personally I can make a change by holding seminars or interest meetings around campus. These seminars will help inform people of the many opportunities that we have on campus and can help them choose an organization that they are interested in. Helping them find an organization or service project that they are interested in, is the critical goal of my plan. If the students find something they want to do, it will give them more of a reason to do it again and to spread the word. I would lead this program because I think it is beneficial in a way that does not force the idea on the students. Only student who are truly interested will serve and I think that is the audience we need to target. I also believe in order to accomplish task I need to continue on the continuum myself and try to become an active citizen. This would provide the best result and a sense of accomplishment for myself.
In August, I believe that I started out as just a volunteer. However, as I have been at college and had the chance to grow and change I believe that I have moved up the continuum and am now a conscientious citizen. It took me awhile to achieve this though. My service experience started in high school. In high school my service was mainly just requirements for clubs that I was in. I didn’t really care about the social issues or why I was doing what I was doing. There were many events that I did because I had to. After the events, I would not reflect at all or think about the event at all after I finished my task. This is the one thing that really bothers me about service and I used to do the exact same thing. Of course, there were some events that I enjoyed, but nothing that really made me question why I was helping the at the event. I was the definition of just a volunteer. I had good intentions, but I really did not care enough to go the extra mile. However, there was one event that made me realize, I really was not making a difference like I thought. It was one of the many events that we had to do for the Beta club. I had to help at a festival for our local elementary school. At the festival, I oversaw the making of the cotton candy and occasionally collected money and gave food to people. As I was working, I realized that this community service that was required for Beta was not really helping anyone or anything. This is when I started questioning things. I was in the process of switching from a volunteer to a conscientious citizen.
I think I have grown in many ways since the beginning of the semester. I have grown in my volunteering and I have grown in my want to do volunteering. As I said before, volunteering experiences always felt like a chore. Now I am excited to experience the different organization around Virginia Tech and I feel like I am getting more out of the experiences themselves. I even went back to many organizations because I enjoyed them so much. Feeding America was one of my personal favorites. I went to Feeding America twice, this was because I felt like I was making difference. Also, I felt like the organization could be improved on, so that it could be more of a long-term solution instead of a short-term solution. When I had that thought I finally progressed up the continuum to a conscientious citizen. That was the transition point for me. After that I continued to do service, but the difference was that I was reflecting on my experience and wondering if I could do more.
Class this semester has changed my views on volunteering. I did not know there was such a thing as the active citizen continuum and I expect myself to be much farther along on it than I was. Before I learned about the continuum I thought that I was fairly involved in the community and it helped me realize that I could do so much more. Also, I did not know that there were any criticisms of volunteerism. I thought every volunteer experience was beneficial. This realization did make some service trips less enjoyable, since I realized I was not making as much of an impact as I thought I was. However, we also learned how to make these kinds of service trips more beneficial and how to get more out of them. I also did not think of the consequences of voluntourism until this class. I did not even know voluntourism was a thing before this class. Now, I know how to spot this type of service and how to avoid it. My goal after this class is to continue my path up the active citizen continuum. I want to get involved in more organization and learn how to help them in different types of ways then just normal volunteering. I want to start making volunteering a way of life instead of just part of my life. I want my volunteering experience to start effecting my life in ways I cannot even understand. My plan on how to achieve these goals is to start enjoying my volunteering experience. Also, I want to start making connections with the people I volunteer with. This will help me with my future goals of expanding projects and on how to get more involved with a group. In my opinion the transition from conscientious citizen to active citizen is one of the most difficult on the continuum. The citizen has to figure out how they want to fit volunteering into their and they have to figure out how to make it more of a lifestyle. I feel like this transition will take me longer than one semester like the other did. I think that this transition is something a person works on from the beginning of college to the end. It is an ongoing effort that I need to figure how to achieve.
An active citizen must establish a community. Community is important because, people need community to feel like they are a part of something. Also, a community is necessary because an active citizen needs something to help. They need a community that they are a part of, not someone else’s community. They need a community that they can connect with. They need a community where they have a personal reason to serve and not just for the sake of helping. When a citizen has a personal reason to volunteer they are more likely to enjoy the activity and get more involved. When asked his definition of what a community is, community builder Peter Block states, “Community means that you and I together can produce something, can construct a new future together. It means that we need each other, in fact. Neighborliness is not about liking each other. Neighborliness means that if I want to be safe, or raise a child, or be healthy, or make a living, I need you in order to best do that. (Shushok)” This view of community means that a person needs a community in order to stay safe and to make their future brighter. Community is based off at least two people needing each other, they do not have to like each other, but they need to coexist to survive. An active citizen needs this to benefit the community in the best way possible. Without a community, there would be no active citizens and without active citizens, there would be no change.
Volunteerism and the criticisms that are involved with it are something that active citizen or potential active citizens need to be aware of. Volunteerism is mostly a good act. However, there are times when people’s hearts are not in the right place and the good act of volunteerism turns selfish. There are types of service which are good, but can make the person they are serving feel bad. For example, if a person is volunteering at a food bank dishing out food to those who need it, they could feel good about themselves and the service that they are doing, but the person they are serving is mostly likely feeling embarrassed at the fact that someone else is serving them. This is something that is rarely discussed concerning service, because volunteers do not want to believe they are actually hurting more than helping. In the article “What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Service” Adam Davis says, “we rarely discuss service. (Davis)” He then goes on to talk about how we do not talk about things that seem to be related to unsavory character. He says, “If it is bad: we don’t discuss it. (Davis)” This is very true and it is related to service also. “To talk of service, to really look at it, would require us to look closely at inequality. This is a difficult and uncomfortable place to look at. (Davis)” People who do service, serve because they want to, while the people they serve accept the things they serve because they have too. The person doing the service has the freedom to serve, while the person receiving the service does not have the opportunity. Some receivers of the service are grateful, while other feel like charity cases, which is not the case. A good active citizen needs to realize the inequality and they need to try to make it easier on the receiver of the service. An active citizen needs to find and establish a balance of respect with the receivers of the service. If they can achieve that, then that is the greatest service they can do.
Leadership is an important characteristic that an active citizen must learn and achieve. An active citizen needs to develop this skill in order to lead groups of people in activities and service opportunities. Also, most organization will not take a person seriously if they do not display confidence and leadership. However, many people believe that leadership is born and cannot be learned. “We are all born. What we do with what we have before we die is up to us. (Kouzes)” Anybody can choose to be a leader, they just have to want to become one and they will most likely succeed. “It’s just pure myth that only a lucky few can ever understand the intricacies of leadership. (Kouzes)” Leadership is an observable set of skills and abilities that one can use in any life situation. Anybody can use these skills and anybody can learn them. Being a leader does not have to be a quality of just a few select people. “Leadership is not about being a CEO, president, general, or prime minister. And it’s definitely not about being a hero. Leadership is about relationships, about credibility, and about what you do. (Kouzes)” An effective leader does everything in their power to do more. No matter what has already been accomplished, they will go the extra mile. Also, relationship play a big part in being a leader. Without relationships, a leader can get nowhere. Leaders need to establish relationships with each and every person they are leading, and they also need to establish connection. A group is only as strong as their leader and the connections he/she has. As an active citizen and a leader, they need to make a difference. They need to influence their team or group in some way that has them leaving the project with a positive experience and feeling like they actually make a difference. However, to become a leader an active citizen must develop their selves first, because leadership development is self-development.
“Without getting lost in definition, citizenship is our agreement to receive rights and privileges from the community and, in so doing, to pay for them through our willingness to live within certain boundaries and actin the interest of the whole. At the core of citizenship is the desire to care for the well-being of the larger institution, be it an organization, a neighborhood, or a country. (Block)” Citizenship in basic terms is what we put into our community we will get out of it. The more we do to benefit our society the more our society and community will do to benefit us. According to Block we spend too much of our time focusing on leadership and how to increase it. However, by focusing more on citizenship we might be able to accomplish more. “A benefit of shifting from Leadership to Citizenship is to create the capacity for many more people to achieve what we have traditionally expected our leaders to accomplish. Servant-leadership may provide a gateway for this transition. (Block)”
Social change is the main goal of any active citizen. Social change is when an active citizen tries to make a difference in the community. However, there are many things that are involved in the process of social change. Mainly social change involves looking at three different perspectives in order to develop leadership and make a difference. The three different perspectives are the individual, the group, and the community/society. In each different perspective, they focus on the different qualities they have and what they emphasize. In the individual perspective, they mainly look at the development of personal qualities. The group perspective focuses on an emphasis on collaboration and interaction between the group and the individual. Society/community focuses on bringing a change for the common good. Each perspective interacts with each other and effects the other in some way. The goal of this model is to promote positive social change. An active citizen can use this model to their advantage by figuring out where on the model they land and how it can help them develop as a leader. They can also let the 7 C’s of Leadership help them figure out where they need to improve and how to improve that area. The 7 C’s include consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, and citizenship (Social Change Model of Leadership Development).
I do not believe that Virginia Tech as a whole actively encourages students to be active citizens. Virginia Tech preaches one of their main sayings Ut Prosim, however in my opinion they do not do much with it. They say that it is one of the bases the school was built on, but I think it is more of a motto than a way of life, like it should be. Ut Prosim means that I may serve, but it seems that Virginia Tech does let people make it a bigger part of their life. Since its one of our big mottos, I believe that more people should focus on it. In order to do this, I think that the university should promote more of the service opportunities that we have. Most students do not even know that VT Engage exists and if they do, it’s mainly because they have to do service for a class or some other requirement. To make Ut Prosim more of a way of life instead of a motto, I believe that we should encourage more programs like SERVE and VT engage. SERVE is a great way to encourage service, because that is the point of the living learning community. Students with similar interests in service come together and live together to embrace the motto of Ut Prosim. I have the belief that many people on campus and within the community want to and are willing to serve and become active citizen, they just do not have the resources or the knowledge to accomplish it. I think that personally I can make a change by holding seminars or interest meetings around campus. These seminars will help inform people of the many opportunities that we have on campus and can help them choose an organization that they are interested in. Helping them find an organization or service project that they are interested in, is the critical goal of my plan. If the students find something they want to do, it will give them more of a reason to do it again and to spread the word. I would lead this program because I think it is beneficial in a way that does not force the idea on the students. Only student who are truly interested will serve and I think that is the audience we need to target. I also believe in order to accomplish task I need to continue on the continuum myself and try to become an active citizen. This would provide the best result and a sense of accomplishment for myself.
In August, I believe that I started out as just a volunteer. However, as I have been at college and had the chance to grow and change I believe that I have moved up the continuum and am now a conscientious citizen. It took me awhile to achieve this though. My service experience started in high school. In high school my service was mainly just requirements for clubs that I was in. I didn’t really care about the social issues or why I was doing what I was doing. There were many events that I did because I had to. After the events, I would not reflect at all or think about the event at all after I finished my task. This is the one thing that really bothers me about service and I used to do the exact same thing. Of course, there were some events that I enjoyed, but nothing that really made me question why I was helping the at the event. I was the definition of just a volunteer. I had good intentions, but I really did not care enough to go the extra mile. However, there was one event that made me realize, I really was not making a difference like I thought. It was one of the many events that we had to do for the Beta club. I had to help at a festival for our local elementary school. At the festival, I oversaw the making of the cotton candy and occasionally collected money and gave food to people. As I was working, I realized that this community service that was required for Beta was not really helping anyone or anything. This is when I started questioning things. I was in the process of switching from a volunteer to a conscientious citizen.
I think I have grown in many ways since the beginning of the semester. I have grown in my volunteering and I have grown in my want to do volunteering. As I said before, volunteering experiences always felt like a chore. Now I am excited to experience the different organization around Virginia Tech and I feel like I am getting more out of the experiences themselves. I even went back to many organizations because I enjoyed them so much. Feeding America was one of my personal favorites. I went to Feeding America twice, this was because I felt like I was making difference. Also, I felt like the organization could be improved on, so that it could be more of a long-term solution instead of a short-term solution. When I had that thought I finally progressed up the continuum to a conscientious citizen. That was the transition point for me. After that I continued to do service, but the difference was that I was reflecting on my experience and wondering if I could do more.
Class this semester has changed my views on volunteering. I did not know there was such a thing as the active citizen continuum and I expect myself to be much farther along on it than I was. Before I learned about the continuum I thought that I was fairly involved in the community and it helped me realize that I could do so much more. Also, I did not know that there were any criticisms of volunteerism. I thought every volunteer experience was beneficial. This realization did make some service trips less enjoyable, since I realized I was not making as much of an impact as I thought I was. However, we also learned how to make these kinds of service trips more beneficial and how to get more out of them. I also did not think of the consequences of voluntourism until this class. I did not even know voluntourism was a thing before this class. Now, I know how to spot this type of service and how to avoid it. My goal after this class is to continue my path up the active citizen continuum. I want to get involved in more organization and learn how to help them in different types of ways then just normal volunteering. I want to start making volunteering a way of life instead of just part of my life. I want my volunteering experience to start effecting my life in ways I cannot even understand. My plan on how to achieve these goals is to start enjoying my volunteering experience. Also, I want to start making connections with the people I volunteer with. This will help me with my future goals of expanding projects and on how to get more involved with a group. In my opinion the transition from conscientious citizen to active citizen is one of the most difficult on the continuum. The citizen has to figure out how they want to fit volunteering into their and they have to figure out how to make it more of a lifestyle. I feel like this transition will take me longer than one semester like the other did. I think that this transition is something a person works on from the beginning of college to the end. It is an ongoing effort that I need to figure how to achieve.
Work Cited
Block, Peter. “From Leadership to Citizenship”. Web. 14 Dec. 2016
https://canvas.vt.edu/courses/35166/files/folder/Readings?preview=1191919
Shushok, Frank Jr. “Community Builder Peter Block Talks With Frank Shushok Jr. About The Real Meaning of Community” Web. 14 Dec. 2016.
https://canvas.vt.edu/courses/35166/files/folder/Readings?preview=1770033
Astin, Helen S. and Astin, Alexander W. “A Social Change Model of Leadership Development Guidebook”. The national Clearinghouse of Leadership Program. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.
https://canvas.vt.edu/courses/35166/files/folder/Readings?preview=1191922
Davis, Adam. “What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Service”. Web. 14 Dec. 2016. https://canvas.vt.edu/courses/35166/files/folder/Readings?preview=1191910
Kouzes. “Leadership is Everyone’s Business”. Web. 14 Dec. 2016.
https://canvas.vt.edu/courses/35166/files/folder/Readings?preview=1191918