Psychology of Childhood and Adolescence in an Urban Context

Since I joined my sorority Kappa Phi Alpha, I participated in many volunteering experiences from Autism Speaks, soup kitchens, etc. But I have to say so far the most rewarding volunteering experience was working with children in an elementary school. During my senior year in high school I had an interesting class which was Community Service. In this class we had the option to volunteer for any organization we wished to help out. Along with two of my other classmates, I decided to volunteer across the street from my school at an elementary school. When we arrived at our first day of volunteering, we were each given our own class to look over and help the teacher with anything they needed. I had a somewhat rowdy class of 1st graders and the teacher was very pleasant and welcoming. I volunteered at this school all semester two times a week after school for two hours. To pass the class we had a minimum amount of hours to volunteer and also a paper analyzing our experiences at the end of the semester. At first I dreaded going to volunteer because I felt like it would be boring and my time was being wasted. Then shortly after spending more time with the children, I soon began to actually look forward to volunteering. While I volunteered, not only did I look after the kids but I helped them with their reading and writing skills throughout the whole semester. I also attending there computer class, which was very interesting to see children learning how to use the computer at such a young age because when I was that age I wasn’t exposed to such technology yet. This class was very smart and although they had a few kids who went against the teacher at the end of the day they were all such remarkable young children. Throughout the semester I formed a bond with the students and it was cute how they all tried to get my attention and prove how much they were learning. I think I enjoyed this volunteering opposed to other volunteering I’ve done because I had a chance to work with kids. I always wanted to be a teacher and I just like the idea of helping others while seeing them succeed in their endeavors.