The strengths I have developed as a result of my service learning experience at Volunteer Services have directly influenced the ways in which I approach my coursework in public health. Instead of completing an assignment for a grade, they are now a result of real world experience and a more passionate thought process. This, in turn, will carry over into my future in the public health sector. Through acknowledging and attempting to understand the barriers faced by other populations aside from my own, I have discovered what I believe to be the meaning behind serving others rather than helping them. Before this experience, I would’ve defined serving as helping others. In addition, by recognizing the need for self-improvement in the realm of communication and appreciation rather than criticism of daily challenges I have become a more selfless individual.
The tasks I accomplished were...
Researched the role, structure and function of and the population served by a community based agency and summarized findings
Analyzed the impact of a public health problem on a population
Mapped community resources, assessed needs and synthesized community strengths and gaps
Developed an approach and created materials to address a public health problem and articulated recommendations
Systematically applied public health knowledge to personal experiences within a service placement
Evaluated personal attitudes and approaches to working with diverse communities and examined the impact of service on learning and communities
One of the most prominent turning points in my college career occurred when I began service learning for my public health capstone class. The site that I chose to work for is called Volunteer Services and is one of the many branches through the more wide-scale Catholic Community Services of Western Washington. The aim of Volunteer Services is to improve the overall quality of life and ability to live independently for the elderly and disabled community in the Greater King County area. Following my first meeting with my adviser, I was matched with a client based on my personality type and what I was looking to gain from this experience along with the services I was willing to offer.
My weekly meetings with my client, a 76-year-old woman named Phyllis, never once felt like a chore even though chores were exactly what I was there to do. Throughout my service learning experience, I have discovered what exactly it means to serve others rather than simply volunteering my time in return for new resume material. Providing service to those in need should never be categorized as helping people, because by helping we are insinuating that these people are of lower status in comparison to our own. Instead, I have learned that we should serve out of the kindness of our hearts, acknowledging the barriers faced by others and our inability to ever fully understand what life is like living with them firsthand. By doing so, our actions are viewed as more genuine rather than solely sympathetic.
Competencies...
Creating Change: My time spent on service learning has greatly impacted the way that I view my public health studies. The field of public health is extremely broad; ranging from public policy, to occupational health, to health promotion and various other focuses. Although I had the general idea that I wanted to help people through creating change, I didn’t exactly know what that meant until I was given the chance to apply real world experiences to the classroom. In order to begin to understand what creating change meant, I had to figure out how to address issues that are actually relevant. It became apparent to me that one cannot fully understand the magnitude of an issue until it becomes a part of your daily life as well. Working with Phyllis has given me the context that I needed to feel passionate about advocacy work in the field of public health. The main issues that I’ve encountered are food insecurity, inaccessibility to medication and medical treatment, and an inadequate social life all due to the lack of transportation services. From this, I am currently applying the knowledge I have gained in the classroom towards implementing a better system to improve this issue. I have an in depth understanding of how to create meaningful change.
Listening: I have always thought of myself as a better listener than a talker, but in talking to the elderly community I came to the realization that the extent of my listening ability was only relevant when something was of interest to me. Due to the generational gap, this defect in my listening ability became increasingly apparent as the substance of my conversations with Phyllis felt forced. There were multiple times I even caught my mind trailing off into a different set of thoughts entirely. For example, she loved to talk about her hobbies as a proof-reader but because I found this to be a foreign concept I was unable to engage. Through the progression of my time with her, I began to work on my skills as an attentive listener by remembering key points in our conversations and exploring new topics to discuss as I found my mind wandering elsewhere instead of just keeping eye contact and nodding in agreement as she shared her stories with me. By focusing on this learning competency, my relationship with Phyllis has strengthened and we have found that we have a lot in common despite the generational gap that I once used as an excuse to not remain engaged in her stories.
Self-development: As most college students would agree, our schedules are jam packed between classes, jobs, and volunteer work all while trying to balance a social life. What we often don’t consider is how fortunate we are to have such healthy, fulfilling lives full of successes and failures. For many, daily living presents mainly challenges with little opportunity for success. Over these past few years, the first thought I had upon waking up each morning was how much I was dreading the long day ahead or how much I wasn’t looking forward to working in between classes. For my client, her first thought was whether her atrial fibrillation would allow her to leave her recliner to make a meal for herself or if she would be able to leave her one-bedroom apartment to have a moment outside. Despite these circumstances, I have never once heard her complain about these barriers. If there is one word I would use to describe my service learning experience, it would be humbling. The first step in self-development is recognizing the importance of not only the blessings we receive in life but also the beauty in the challenges—because when we compare what we believe to be a challenge to others circumstances, we become more aware that they are often not as challenging as we may think.