Service Learning in Fall of 2013 was with Professor Rafael Gomez. This course gives us students a chance to get involved with our local community and a chance to immerse ourselves in a local Spanish speaking community. I worked at Youth Alive, which is a program based in a workers living community in the middle of the fields outside the city of Soledad that is organized in order to help kids do their homework, create art, or just play outside. This location is not only in the middle of fields, but also right next to the local prison. This gave me the opportunity to get to know kids who live in my community and a chance to work on my language skills as well. All of these kids have migrant worker parents and aren’t always offered the opportunities that many privileged children are. We are there to build friendships, help them with their academics and their artistic abilities, and also to be mentors and help them with any issues they’re having, no matter how trivial they may seem. I wrote journal reflections for each day I went to the site and also journal reflections for the class. This was a great experience for me to get outside of the bay area and go into the valley and get to know kids that I otherwise would have never met. I hope to continue having experiences like this since I hold great value to doing community work and volunteering within my own community.
youth_alive_1espanol.docx | |
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File Type: | docx |