My EHESHA 2157 class revolves around the ideas, theories, and implementation of service-learning in the Columbus community. This year, I was placed at a service site north of Linden at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Northern Lights Branch as a tutor. I was expecting to work with young children one on one but in reality, I worked with students of all ages in all subjects. Nothing was off limits.
For the first time, I felt overwhelmed and out of my element. I did not know how to interact with kids, and I was communicating with students who identify as islamic, new americans from Africa. I could not be more opposite. Despite having a different identity, the students embraced me. I poured my knowledge into them and adjusted my methods to each student that I was working with. But most of all, I asked them to share parts of their story with me. I wanted to know about their transition to the US. I wanted to hear the stories about how their family gave up all their assets and savings to merely step foot onto US soil. I wanted to be overcome with rage as I heard about their experiences as a minority living under system that does not deal cards in their favor. But most of all, I wanted to help them overcome the odds.
Little did I know that they were there to help me. They shaped and utterly transformed my perspective of what Africa was like. They say the nights are much colder there! They took my preconceived notions of an Islam and islamic women and showed me the kindness, peace and bravery of a nation of silenced peoples. I wanted to be their voice. I wanted to be their hands so they would learn well. I wanted to be their minds so I could give them the right answers. But that is not my place. No one asked me to give up myself for them and so, I have learned more than anything, that service is not hours stamped into a timesheet, nor is it a line on a resume, but it is a small sacrifice and a small immersion into a community that I will never have a chance of fully understanding. I am not a maunderer or a symbol for these children in contrast to the modern world, I do not carry the brunt of their weights on my shoulders. But I see them and I hear them.
My role as a Northern Lights Homework Help tutor is to share what I know to students, to ask questions and listen to their stories, and to in turn, share their voices with people whom I identify with in hopes of transforming their perspective. Self-reflection is a rather small token in exchange for heart wrenching stories but perhaps, in my day to day thoughts and experiences, I might stumble upon an opportunity to use what I have learned to connect to the islamic community and those who do not understand it. We cannot change the world with money, research, or programming. People change people. Nothing has reigned more true.
Northern Lights Library Presentation-2n5qo15