In the summer I volunteered at The Columbus Refugee and Immigration Services. The Columbus Refugee and Immigration Services is an organization where refugees and immigrants come to achieve successful integration into their new American communities. Refugees come here from places all around the world, such as Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Nepal, and Burma. They go through an immense amount of culture shock, but The Columbus Refugee and Immigration Services persistently helps relieve the struggles they may go through. As a volunteer, I helped in teaching the refugees how to speak, read, and write English, and I taught them basic tools they could use in the workforce, such as counting money, behavioral norms in the workplace, and computer skills.
I developed a new summer program at Gleaners to support the children of low-income families. I faced several problems while planning this program from funding to introducing this program to the community. However, I managed this program with success. Through this experience, I developed my interpersonal skills by being able to communicate effectively and when faced with a problem I can manage to solve it. My service to these communities helped me learn, once again, about the health and economic disparities.
I’m Ines Calvete. I recently graduated from Lakewood High school where I had a very successful career. I was a part of a prestigious program called Colorado University Pre-Health Scholars for three years. I was a part of the National Honor Society for three years. I also won the Dottie Lamm Leadership Award.
If I went to court and pleaded guilty to being a serial killer, but exclaimed that it was all on accident do you think the court would believe me? Would you believe me? Would anyone believe that it was actually an amazing learning experience? Well let me try and convince you because to me it was. I love to garden, but I don’t have a green thumb or a brown thumb.
Growing up in a public housing development, I longed to one day help individuals from an underserved community obtain care. At this soup kitchen, my responsibilities included welcoming guests, serving food, waiting tables, and cleaning trays. I empathized with their excitement when watching them receive a hot cup of tea on a sub-freezing day or a book bag with a built-in trench coat on a stormy day. Having an opportunity to spend time with and learn from the diversity of the population that we served was invaluable. Each person had a unique story to tell and just wanted someone to hear it.
The place that I decided to do my volunteer experience was at Big Brother Big Sister. I choose this place because I was involved in the Big Brother Big Sister program when I was a kid. My experience that I had at the program was great, the people who ran the company were very inviting and very enthused that I had come in to volunteer for their program. The experience was very exciting because I was able to see how much the organization had grown.
My stomach was uneasy when I walked into my local community bank. I desperately needed a new car, but only being seventeen years old, I was dubious on the chance of acquiring the loan that was so essential to putting some wheels back in my driveway. I sat down with the loan officer and my father. He asked my dad if he had faith that I could make the moderately pricey payments. My dad looked at me, and asked me, “Can you afford this car?”
Volunteering and being active in my community has been a passion in my family and within my circle for a couple of years now. One of the biggest interests that I look forward to every year is the Hunger Task Force “Stamp out Hunger food drive”. The food drive is every 2nd Saturday in May at an assigned post office site. I always felt like everyone should have food to eat no matter what the circumstances are. The Hunger Task Force mission statement summed it all up for me when my family and I decided on the community issue we have in Milwaukee.
This year I signed up to go to Feed My Starving Children thinking i’ll get more volunteer hours for the senior Medallion thingy whatever it was called. When I went to the place for Feed My Starving Children, I also went with most of my AVID class. When we got there and walked into the place we had to put on hair nets that were so irritating and most of the girls laughing and complaining about their hair. We also had to take off all the jewelry which i had on, i laughed and said to myself hecky no, all these earring in my ear were staying on. I’m not about to take them out just to loose them later so i hid my ears under the hair net.
Heather French Henry states, “Volunteering is at the very core of being a human. No one has made it through without someone else’s help.” Volunteering is essential in communities. We need each other to rely on; we need a community to fall back on. Those who can give should provide to those who are in need, and the Northeast Iowa Food Bank does just that.
I have had the unforgettable opportunity to personally raise $1,400 for kids to go to summer camp, whose families could not afford it otherwise. I have worked at food drives, homeless shelters, and kid’s programs in my town, in hopes to make someone’s day a little bit better and ultimately make my community stronger. These experiences shaped who I am today. While I cherish the experience I had making a difference in my own town, I am ready to grow and leave a positive impact somewhere else in the country.
My first week proved to be very challenging. My favorite uncle was a veteran and I often visited him at the Missouri Veterans Home nursing center. He died several years ago, however, I remembered seeing many older veterans who did not have anyone to visit them. Many were very lonely and longed-for visitors. I had decided volunteering with the Veterans Administration Medical Center Jefferson Barracks Division would be something that I would really enjoy.
Volunteering at a hospice company was a turning point in my life. I find the United States is still segregated by age. I never truly understood that ageism existed, I assumed it was a thing of the past or only happened in extremely rare cases. This is my second year volunteering to help talk to patients, and my first year writing someone’s life story, her legacy. Most young people never get a chance to interact with the elderly, and are separated because of the fast paced society we have built around those 18-30 years olds.
……….?????? I was smashing everything into my suitcase. To get everything I need into the car. When my mom started pulling out of the driveway I rushed outside with my suitcase and finally threw everything I needed into the car. And we were off.
What is life’s most extraordinary pleasure? For many, money, power, and/or fame come to mind, and the idea of helping others does not register. It seems for every person eager to help, there are millions ready to hurt or disregard those in need. Nevertheless, the world is not beyond salvation; there are numerous individuals willing to give their time and labor to transform the world into a better place for all. These devoted people are volunteers, and they believe life’s most extraordinary pleasure is the joy of helping others.
