Yuyang Wei
I decided to write an individual blog to talk about what I learned from the service work.
My development through volunteer works
I haven’t thought about that I would volunteer in an organization tutoring children age from 6-12, to be honest, at first I was afraid of talking to or teaching children who are from young ages, however, through the whole service work this semester, I became more patient, developed my negotiation skills, and also more comprehensive.
First, before I started the volunteer work, I always couldn’t focus on my homework for a long time, I always get distracted every 10 minutes hard working, and that’s really bad for my study, because of that, sometimes I couldn’t finish my homework on time and my grade just became low, what’s more, if I finish my homework, I always sleep late, and sometimes that make me miss my morning courses which a student should never do in his college life. But since I start doing service work, I need to tutor very small kids, some of them were really naughty and they just couldn’t focus on their own homework, there’s no doubt that I couldn’t slap them or say something which would hurt them, thus, I need to bring out the facts and reasons to try to let them understand the importance of finishing homework and also the importance of study. And some kids would not even listen to me while I’m trying my best to let them study. During this process, I became more patient, not only to those children, but also for everything that I met in my daily life, and now I could sit behind my desk and study for at least one hour before getting some rest. That skill is also helpful for my future lives, for example, if I face some difficulties in the future, it’s always better to be patient and stay calm, anxiety would have no help. That’s why I feel happy to do my volunteer job every week.
Second, I always feel shy to talk with others because I’m afraid if I couldn’t respond correctly to them. Thus, I’m not good at communicating with others and also making friends. But after doing service work in boys and girls club, every week I would met different and new kids included different races and ages. And they were all strangers to me, also, since I’m an tutor there, I must say something to help them or let them tell me if they need helps. Thus, it forces me to talk with others though they are young kids, and during the communication with those kids, I found that I shouldn’t worry too much if I couldn’t respond to them. What I need to do is to show my sincerity to show them that I’m trying my best to understand what they are saying, besides, I found that negotiation was not a tough task, it’s not that difficult to do in our daily lives. above all, after several months working together with those lovely kids, I’m now brave enough to talk to strangers and find some common topics. That helps me a lot since if I don’t say, who will understand what I want?
Last but not least, the experience in boys and girls club helps me to become a more comprehensive person, as I have mentioned above, those kids come from different families or races, and while talking with them, I don’t agree with some of their opinions, however, I would try to stand at their perspectives to think about it, and sometimes after doing that, I found that I could accept their opinions. This experience helps me to be a person who could respect others. What’s more, since I come from China, the way our teachers teach us is different from the way American teachers teach those kids, thus, I need to firstly try to understand their teachers’ teaching method, though sometimes I thought that methods to solve math problems were too complicated, I would accept it and try to teach those kids in the way their teachers teach them. That helps me become a more comprehensive person.
Overall, I was thankful that I could have such a precious experience tutoring kids in boys and girls club in Boston, it helps me to become a better person who would behave better in the society.