Personal Service Experience - Essay Example

Reflection On My Service Experience Reflection On My Service Experience My volunteerism work was at the Childrens Daycare FelicianCollege. It lasted a couple of days, which amounted to 20 hours. Felician College is a self-funding, co-educational Catholic College founded by the Felician Sisters to educate a diverse populace of learners within the framework of a liberal arts tradition. Its goal is so offer a full complement of learning experiences, reinforced with well-built academic and learner development programs planned to take scholars to their highest potential, as well as to prepare them to meet the hurdles of life with informed brains and understanding souls. The enduring purpose of the institution is to develop a love and fondness for God, service to others, self-knowledge and respect for all creation and these missions were overly significant in my development and also the connection I built with the students. I started on 2nd June, 2014, and my main work was to ensure that the children received their snacks and that they were doing what they were supposed to. I was also charged with taking them out to the playing ground during their play time and setting their beds up for a nap. At first, I used to feel nervous. However, Dr. Zukowski words always inspired me because I always recalled him telling me to try and get out of the box. At once, I noticed a group of children staring at me and one ran up to me and hugged me. I froze for a second then I said hi to all children. Even though, I still remained nervous the entire day, I hoped that it would change in the future. On 9th June, 2014, I learnt that children have a very good memory. When I walked into the class, all the children recalled my name and I had just told them once. It was a shock to me. From them onwards, I decided to try and know all the names of the students because this could also make them feel important. 9th June was also the graduation day for some of the students. Just seeing them getting ready to leave felt kind of sad even though I had not known them for long. I think it was more about me thinking that I am also graduating this year and it made me realize that going to miss the professors and friends I made at Felician College. But, on the other hand, I feel so proud of myself just as I felt proud of the children today. All the goals and mission stated at the beginning of this paper overly helped me in my service to the children, and I understood myself more after the work. We also had two birthday parties on that same day and we sang happy birthday songs as I helped pass out ice cream to all the children. After that, we went outside to play and I lined up a group and threw the ball to them one by one. I can actually say that that day I felt more relaxed compared to the last three days I was there. I am even thinking of putting some more time during the summer to help them out. I cannot believe I am saying this, but the day was great. Some of the class readings that were significant in this research include Paul IV (1975), Catholic Bishops (1991) and Nagle et al. (1993). The readings in, for instance, Paul IV (1975) gave great insight on the matters of global poverty, as well as the need for mankind to do all he can to enhance life. In pursing economic welfare, Paul IV (1975) explains that the dignity of all human life and pursuit of the common good are worries supposed to shape every economic policy. The Catholic Bishops, on the other hand, argue that people are supposed to take care of their environment, which are our sole responsibility. The source tells us that the prevailing environmental signs translate to the end of times. It argues that people need to make the world a better place to live in through creating environmental awareness. I learnt how to relate well with others together with the environment from the information provided by the source. The final class material was Nagle et al. (1993). This book gave me insight on a couple of problems, which people face in various regions of the world. For example, there is a shortage of clean drinking water, which is topped up by people lacking proper sanitation. Furthermore, I learnt that the world is being faced with severe pollution that appears not to care about national boundaries. Human activities like tree cutting has caused widespread deforestation, depriving the world of its self cleaning abilities. I understood the need for mankind to find new ways of restoring the natural systems so as to create harmonious living. I would like to include a quote from Paul VI (1975, p. 24) to reflect upon the various ways that my service has made tangible the principles of Catholic Social Teaching. The quote goes "An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others." During my service, I learnt that the beauty of life is through devoting yourself to teaching others on the meaning, as well as significance of conscious living and the taking care of the environment (Paul VI, 1975). This quote stresses that people should portray genuine love and concern for others by helping people not just in their spiritual journey, but in other significant areas in their life, as well. Some of the themes and concepts from Catholic Social Teaching that can be reflected in my service include life and dignity of the human person, call to family, community, and participation, solidarity, care for gods creation and option for the poor and vulnerable (Catholic Bishops, 2014). The Catholic Church proclaims that humans are sacred plus that their dignity is the foundation of every principle of their social teaching. This theme taught me that every person is precious and that people are more significant than worldly things and that the measure of each and every institution is whether it enhances or threatens the life and dignity of the persons using it (Nagle et al., 1993). Thus, it was my work to ensure that the school develops the life of the students. The call to family, community and participation helped me in taking part to enhance the lives of those children at Felician College (Nagle et al., 1993). The theme taught me that people should not only be sacred, but also social. How people organize their society directly influences human dignity together with the capacity of people to grow in community (Weigel, 2013). Another basic moral test is how people treat the most vulnerable people of the society. For my service delivery, the children were the ones who were vulnerable so it would matter how I treat them. It is vital to put the needs of the children before mine. Solidarity, on the other hand, advocates for people to live as a family whatever our ethnic, ideological differences (Catholic Bishops, 1991). The theme taught me that we are our brothers keeper whatever their views. Thus, I had to connect with the children I was looking after no matter the differences between me and them. This work was just life changing to me. I would like to conclude my paper by saying that, in many parts of the world, there are different cultures and religions that define people’s way of life, the passion for peoples traditions, culture, as well as modern approaches to different issues of life has fueled conflicts and wars. People are fighting to have power, control resources and manipulate others for their own selfish gains. I have been involved in various community-based activities to sensitize people on the need for harmonious living and care for each other; I strongly believe that with persistent dialogue, people can come to consensus about better ways of living in the community. References Catholic Bishops. (1991). Renewing the earth. Retrieved from http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/environment/renewing-the-earth.cfm Catholic Bishops. (2014). Seven themes of Catholic Social Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/seven-themes-of-catholic-social-teaching.cfm Nagle, J. et al. (1993). St. Francis and the foolishness of God. New York: Orbis Books. Paul VI. (1975). Apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of the Holy Father Francis to the bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful on the proclamation of the gospel in today’s world. Retrieved from http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium.html Weigel, G. (2013). Evangelical Catholicism: deep reform in the 21st-century church. New York: Basic Books. Read More