Saturday, October 5, 2013
Blog One: Before being introduced to the family
As a component of my Interpersonal Communications course the class is to volunteer some of their time within two different locations; World Relief or the Rock Island High School EEL program. I chose to complete the service learning component of this course with a family through World Relief of Moline. I have not yet met with the family that I will be spending time with. I am anxiously awaiting my introduction later today.
I do not have knowledge about World Relief, other than what was told to us during class time through the volunteer coordinator. I have seen different adds on television for the organization and understand that they help people from across the world, providing them with different types of services.
Within my service learning project I am hoping to get a better feel for the organization and learn the different opportunities that there are to volunteer and to give to those in need. Although, I am unaware of the different services that this population is in need of, while the volunteer coordinator spoke with us it seems like almost any interest anyone had could be used to help the people. This makes me believe that they are in need of a tremendous amount of help. While volunteering I will be looking for different types of volunteering options so that I can possibly continue to help the family after the twelve hours of service learning is completed. I find it slightly odd that my classmates and I would only help for twelve hours (6 visits), building a relationship with this family in need, and then no longer see them. I cannot imagine coming into a country not knowing the language and being expected to be self sufficient in such a short amount of time.
My psychology major allows an avenue for the interest of the family. I am looking forward to meeting someone from a different culture and area of the world than I am from. I strongly believe that everyone has something to teach and am even more excited to learn whatever it is that they have to teach me while I am volunteering my time with them. I hope to help them in whatever way that I can.
Here's to new experiences!
