Human Service Reflection Paper

Lily Antonellis - Dr. Walls HSSJ 2177 April 18, 2024 Reflection Assignment For this semester, I worked with Little Friends For Peace to fulfill the service learning aspect of this course. I will be doing a self-focused reflection to identify and analyze the challenges, successes, and ways in which I have grown through this opportunity. Being a part of the Human Services and Social Justice major allows for a multitude of opportunities for students to work with organizations in the DMV area to enact positive change. Although I have previously done service learning in other classes, I have never worked with a team before. Through my reflection, I will examine how this unique opportunity has allowed me to grow as a student, leader, and person.

Additionally, this experience required us all to hone our communication skills. Dividing responsibilities, discussing challenges, and reaching out to our organization requires a lot of open and respectful communication. Furthermore, collaborating with other students and an organization led me to have to be on top of my time management. I had to make sure that I was getting my part of the project done, as well as making sure that I was fulfilling my twenty-four hours of service. Through this project, there were a few things that were challenging to accomplish. Firstly, our service-learning project revolved around direct service with children and young mothers in the area. However, many times that we went to volunteer, little to no participants showed up. This was very discouraging and made it very hard for us to complete our project since it revolved around us working with members of the community. Additionally, since they had low participation rates, there were few opportunities to go in and help with direct service. This made it increasingly difficult to fulfill the twenty-four hours of direct service required for the