My relationship with community service is an interesting one. If you read my first blog post you might come away with the idea that I value large social change over small acts of service to the point where I might not even be able to see the benefit of something like community service. And at one point or another in my life, that may have even been the way I thought. However, over the course of my educational career, I have grown to see the extreme value of service learning both in and outside of the educational pretext. I have learned that volunteering and community service keeps me grounded and, however much I value social justice advocacy on a systemic level, I have to have those values grounded in something. Serving the community at the ground level can provide a motivation for anyone to continue that trajectory of community serving.
In an educational environment, service learning and community service becomes almost necessary to foster a well-rounded individual. Service learning creates a learning space that benefits everyone regardless of their strengths and interests. Not only does it improve a student’s ability to solve problems and think “outside of the box” in real world issues, but also helps students to work with one another in such a way where everyone’s on essentially the same level. Whether a student is “STEM” oriented or “humanities” oriented, whether they are more focused on technical and scientific problem solving or on more team-based and communication-based problem solving, community service has a place where they can practice a balance of skills that appeal to both their strengths whilst also challenging them on their weaknesses. Service learning obviously benefits the community, but it also benefits the students who are serving the community by creating a well-rounded person who is able to more readily confront different types of challenges and tasks.
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I love the points you made! I also think that while small change might not be great enough to dismantle a whole system, it can certainly connect people and open spaces for conversation. I think the most amazing thing about community service/service learning is connecting with the community and creating bonds with complete strangers. Working with the DREAAM kids was so fun. Watching their engagement in the activities which we designed was heartwarming. Connection and coming together is totally worth community service and small change/social efforts.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post and I think you make a lot of excellent points. I think this is something I also struggle with, because it feels like individuals can't really change much without systemic support, but community service really is very important. I liked your point about how systemic change might be necessary to shift the way things work but that community service is important to ground you in your beliefs and advocacy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you're saying. I also found a lot of value in community service. At the start of my service learning for this class, it was all remote and I found it hard to connect with what I was doing. When I got the opportunity to volunteer at Randolph St. Garden, however, that all changed. Being able to see my work and how it would affect the community was incredibly rewarding and I am so grateful for the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI like how you include that anyone can participate in community service. It isn't all about your interests in life, it is about helping others with theirs. This is a great blog post!
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