The concepts and skills I have learned in Leadership in Community Service throughout this semester have enabled me to make a meaningful impact at my service-learning site – Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services (ETSS). The purpose of my service experience with ETSS is to promote human and civil rights specifically related to immigrant assimilation and education by helping refugees and asylum seekers to learn English as part of the ETSS Job Skills Training Program. I assisted with the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class for adult participants to teach language and job skills as well as other increasing cultural knowledge and interaction, with the primary goal of helping participants to live and work successfully in the United States. I have sincerely enjoyed my involvement with ETSS and interaction with its instructors and class participants over the past three months. In addition to providing assistance with the ESOL training classes, I have benefitted greatly through my service-learning participation at ETSS through meaningful and rewarding relationships with site workers and participants as well as knowledge and understanding that will positively influence my life and perspective in the future.
While I have previously worked with other organizations to promote community growth and unity, none of these experiences has challenged me or has been as mutually rewarding as my work at ETSS. When starting my service work, I was timid and uncertain of my ability to assist the refugees and immigrants who seek help through ETSS with their transition to living and working in our community. Many of my past volunteer experiences were working with children, and I had no experience teaching adults or teaching any form of ESOL classes. Despite my own insecurities, I began my ETSS service with an open-mind and quickly formed relationships, learned about diversity and inclusion (including ways in which others made me feel comfortable and included), and became strongly committed to the ETSS mission, purpose, and participants.
By working with individual students, I was able to form genuine relationships with them. I also learned different means of engaging as a teacher with students at the ETSS site. Through my work with ETSS, I realize the importance of engaging in different ways with each distinct student personality as the most effective means of teaching about the English language and American culture. While teaching, I often found myself in the role of both teacher and student, as I learned many things about the ETSS families and their cultures that provided valuable insight into each student and what motivates them, as well as to different cultures and perspectives and the importance of diversity and inclusion. As I developed these relationships, I became a more effective teacher by focusing on positive lessons, ideas, and thoughts to motivate each student to work harder, reach their full potential, and persevere.
I became aware of the fact that most ETSS students arrived in the United States as refugees or asylum seekers with nearly nothing to their name. I learned that the different cultures of ETSS participants are in some ways very different from our own; for example, their cultures have younger marriage and childbearing ages, and thus, many of the participants are young adults with large families of their own to care for and support. I also realized that ETSS is the reason that most of these families can acclimate in the United States and that the adults can find jobs necessary to become independent and self-sufficient. I am honored to have had the opportunity to contribute to an organization that provides so much good for their students.
The staff at the ETSS site are overwhelmingly kind and attentive while assisting students as well as helping volunteers like me to become better teachers. It is clear that everyone at ETSS is passionate about what they do and cares very much for the ETSS participants and their families. The ETSS workers are inspiring, and I admire the students’ desire and commitment to learn and better their futures. I have grown to love working with everyone at Volunteering at the ETSS site every Wednesday and Thursday has been the highlight of my semester. I have learned so much about the cultures of the students and how they differ from our own, including starting to learn some of their native languages. Through my experience at the ETSS site, I have been both a student and a teacher at the same time and realize that I have much to learn about other cultures and perspectives.
