How can you educate others or raise awareness about this group or social issue?
I can educate others and raise awareness about the Renew the New event by sharing my experience with them and letting people know about how they can get involved. This is easy to do, especially today, because of all of the different types of social medias. So, to share about my renew the new experience I could post pictures or information about how I was involved. To let others know about any upcoming renew the new opportunities, I could post about them on social medias or just throughout the community. Overall, the key to educating others and raising awareness about any group or social change is communication with those around you.
Do you see benefits of doing community work? Why or why not?
I definitely see benefits of doing community work. To me, community work is a way to get involved and meet new people while giving back. Also, there is something about serving in your community that gives you a sense of satisfaction or accomplishment. This feeling exists as you are doing something good for the people and the area where you live. While doing community work you get to work with others to solve problems, strengthen communities, improve the lives of those around you, connect to others, and transform your own life, all at the same time. Therefore, community service is beneficial because you get to give back to the community and improve yourself at the same time.
What institutional structures are in place at your site or in the community? How do they affect the people you work with?
In the community at Virginia Tech there are many institutional structures in place. Some of these are things such as churches, student government, and other student organizations. Churches affect the people that I work with because, they give them an opportunity to get involved in other things besides community service, or even some service through the church organization. The student government affects the people I work with in the same way. Student government organizations also hold events for people to get involved in and meet new people. Overall, the institutional structures are good for the community because they give every one lots of opportunities to get more involved in both social and service events.
What did you do that seemed to be effective or ineffective in the community?
During the Renew the New event, we were able to have a positive impact on the environment and join many other service organizations while cleaning the new river. The service that we did seemed to be very effective in the community. This is because we were able to pick up lots of trash that looked as if it had been there for a while, which means that there isn’t a large amount of litter that occurs there. Most of the items that we picked up seemed to be pretty buried, as if they had been there for a while. In conclusion, our service was effective because we were able to give back to the community by restoring the environment.
What are the most difficult and satisfying parts of your work? Why?
The most difficult part of the Renew the New event was not being able to pick up all of the old trash, or find all of the old trash that was in the river. We weren’t able to get all of the trash for multiple reasons. Those reasons include, the fact that there was so much old trash buried in the river, we only had canoes, which couldn’t fit all of the trash, and there were only so many people to help pick up the trash. I found this difficult because I don’t like seeing the environment polluted, and some of it we had to leave there anyway. However, even though this was difficult, the trip was overall pretty satisfying as we were able to make a positive impact on the environment by picking up a large amount of the trash.
How are your values expressed through your community work?
My values are expressed through the Renew the New event because I believe in helping others, giving back to the community and the environment. This event expressed those values because, I was able to work with others to help clean up the community and the environment. Most of the community work that I do expresses my values because I am able to help others and give back to the community, which I enjoy doing. These things are important to me because they make me feel like a better person and make me feel as if I have accomplished something, which is very satisfying.
Complete this sentence: Because of my service-learning...
Because of my service-learning, I am more aware of my community and the things that are going on around me. Service-learning has helped me become more aware of my community because it gives me the opportunity to become more involved and meet more of the people in my community. It has also helped me become more aware of the things going on in the community because it has made me become involved and meet new people. Overall, my service-learning has made me a better person in my community and has helped me become more interested in getting involved and meeting other people who share the same passion that I do for community work.