My experience with Angel has taught me what service itself is about. Service is not just about the number of hours on our college application or the mindless labor that volunteers are too often relegated to. Service is about us making a positive impact on the community by reaching out to other citizens and improving their lives actively. Through my tutoring, Angel now has a chance to escape the cycle of poverty that would otherwise have trapped him within his community. I have given him more than money or food donations could possibly do; my service has provided him with the knowledge and armed him with the tools he needs to confront the real world and succeed. I have opened a whole new world of opportunities for him by teaching him how to read and he is taking advantage of it by reading as much as he possibly can and learning everything he can. As I watch him learn and read now, I know that I have succeeded in making a positive impact on his life; he has the tools he needs to move up the social ladder.
Monday, March 18, 2013
What Is Service? | Vikram Sundar
I have spent two years at Reading Partners tutoring a fourth-grader, Angel, in basic reading and writing. Angel had fallen far behind grade level due to a lack of basic phonics education. In the time I have spent with him I have watched him grow from a hesitant picture-book reader to a mature and confident chapter-book reader. While he still has room for improvement, he now reads any nonfiction book he can get his hands on. I have seen him learn about the world around him, the plants, animals, planets, and stars, through his newfound capability to read. The change in his approach to books and his knowledge is remarkable, and this is a result of the hour that I spend with Angel every week, as well as the work of Angel’s teachers over the year.
My experience with Angel has taught me what service itself is about. Service is not just about the number of hours on our college application or the mindless labor that volunteers are too often relegated to. Service is about us making a positive impact on the community by reaching out to other citizens and improving their lives actively. Through my tutoring, Angel now has a chance to escape the cycle of poverty that would otherwise have trapped him within his community. I have given him more than money or food donations could possibly do; my service has provided him with the knowledge and armed him with the tools he needs to confront the real world and succeed. I have opened a whole new world of opportunities for him by teaching him how to read and he is taking advantage of it by reading as much as he possibly can and learning everything he can. As I watch him learn and read now, I know that I have succeeded in making a positive impact on his life; he has the tools he needs to move up the social ladder.
My experience with Angel has taught me what service itself is about. Service is not just about the number of hours on our college application or the mindless labor that volunteers are too often relegated to. Service is about us making a positive impact on the community by reaching out to other citizens and improving their lives actively. Through my tutoring, Angel now has a chance to escape the cycle of poverty that would otherwise have trapped him within his community. I have given him more than money or food donations could possibly do; my service has provided him with the knowledge and armed him with the tools he needs to confront the real world and succeed. I have opened a whole new world of opportunities for him by teaching him how to read and he is taking advantage of it by reading as much as he possibly can and learning everything he can. As I watch him learn and read now, I know that I have succeeded in making a positive impact on his life; he has the tools he needs to move up the social ladder.
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