Senior Service Project -1

Chen !1 Coral Chen Mrs. Perez Senior Reflection Paper January 25 2019 The summer before my Junior year in high school, I volunteered in Thailand as an English teacher with a group of Chinese students who are also passionate about helping others. Since I grew up in China, community service was not something I was familiar with. However, these 68 hours totally changed my view and made me fall in love with volunteering and helping others. This experience taught me a lot and opened my eyes. I learned about the hardship of being a teacher. Every night, I stayed up until 1 a.m. to prepare for the next day’s class. However, the students would not listen to me at first. So I had to think of different strategies to catch their attention. Also, I learned of the significance of teachers through this community service, because I realized that even though the children may not remember me forever, the things I taught them would remain with them throughout their lives and would help them to become better people. In my class, most of the students had disabilities, and this made me think about this hidden group that society has mostly ignored. I realized how lucky I was as a healthy person with an education and loving parents. I used to think that everyone was like me, but certainly, I was wrong. Working with the children in Thailand made me realize that here are so many people and children living in difficult situations: with disabilities, illnesses and poverty. I realized that if those are able to help them do not do anything, then it would be very hard for their conditions to improve. From that moment on, I felt a strong desire to do what I can to uplift them.

Chen !2 Even though I was only in this school for two weeks, the knowledge I taught the children there will stay with them throughout their lives, and hopefully, they can use English or Chinese someday when talking to foreigners. In addition, I sparked their interest in language learning which paved the way for volunteers that were coming. After the volunteering experience, I started to research about children with disabilities, and I was shocked about how many there are, and how unfairly people were treating them in a certain parts of the world. Therefore, I truly feel compassion for those children, and upon returning to the United States, I found a volunteering opportunity to help disabled children learn about the Bible in my local church. After completing my community service, I realized my strength as a leader and the many ways in which I could contribute to improving society. Even these seemingly small acts can make a big difference in other people’s lives. In addition, I determined that continuing community service is one of my lifelong goals for the future and that I will help people in need no matter what.