Lopez: Service Learning
Service Learning
My experience of service learning at CSUMB has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I was able to participate in fall of 2011 in the community of Salinas. My service was done for the Citizenship Project. This project is in charge of helping residents of the United States become citizens. I worked together with other CSUMB students and the commitment that we students had made me want to work harder.
My service with the Citizenship Project required me to help about 3 to 4 students learned the one hundred questions of the citizenship. I would group them in groups of two and had them practice with each other while I worked one on one with the other student answering the interview questions they would be ask the day of their exam. It was sometimes challenging with some students because they worked and sometimes they were unable to attend the classes. This would cause them to stay behind in their memorizing the questions. It was also hard because most of the people that attended the classes had family and made it difficult to find someone to help them with theirs kids.
Working with the Salinas community I was able to meet different people. I come from another community and to be part of another made me feel really welcomed. I would always be treated really respectfully and was greeted with something like a fruit or candy. It was those little things the students did that made me feel it was worth helping them.
One thing that I’m never going to forget is that feeling we would get when we would hear one of our students tell us that they had pass the citizenship. It was a feeling of success and accomplishment for both the student and us. I remember we has a group of about four students that didn’t know how to read or write. These students were about the ages of 65 and 75. They were doing their citizenship in Spanish. The way they learned was by memorizing everything. I would rad them the question and give them the answer after to help them practice first then I would only asked the question. It was really challenging and difficult for these students because they didn’t have a guide to look at and memorize from. They prove to me that if you really want something just work hard for it and that’s exactly what they did.
I really enjoyed doing my service learning in the community of Salinas. I felt my effort was paid off. I learned from them a lot and just feeling rewarded made the service more meaningful. In the future I want to continue to volunteer with the citizenship project just to be part of that feeling of accomplishment. I am grateful I chose to do my service with them.
My experience of service learning at CSUMB has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. I was able to participate in fall of 2011 in the community of Salinas. My service was done for the Citizenship Project. This project is in charge of helping residents of the United States become citizens. I worked together with other CSUMB students and the commitment that we students had made me want to work harder.
My service with the Citizenship Project required me to help about 3 to 4 students learned the one hundred questions of the citizenship. I would group them in groups of two and had them practice with each other while I worked one on one with the other student answering the interview questions they would be ask the day of their exam. It was sometimes challenging with some students because they worked and sometimes they were unable to attend the classes. This would cause them to stay behind in their memorizing the questions. It was also hard because most of the people that attended the classes had family and made it difficult to find someone to help them with theirs kids.
Working with the Salinas community I was able to meet different people. I come from another community and to be part of another made me feel really welcomed. I would always be treated really respectfully and was greeted with something like a fruit or candy. It was those little things the students did that made me feel it was worth helping them.
One thing that I’m never going to forget is that feeling we would get when we would hear one of our students tell us that they had pass the citizenship. It was a feeling of success and accomplishment for both the student and us. I remember we has a group of about four students that didn’t know how to read or write. These students were about the ages of 65 and 75. They were doing their citizenship in Spanish. The way they learned was by memorizing everything. I would rad them the question and give them the answer after to help them practice first then I would only asked the question. It was really challenging and difficult for these students because they didn’t have a guide to look at and memorize from. They prove to me that if you really want something just work hard for it and that’s exactly what they did.
I really enjoyed doing my service learning in the community of Salinas. I felt my effort was paid off. I learned from them a lot and just feeling rewarded made the service more meaningful. In the future I want to continue to volunteer with the citizenship project just to be part of that feeling of accomplishment. I am grateful I chose to do my service with them.