Volunteering Paper

Herb Garden
Teacher
Government
12/14/14

Service Learning Paper

         Over the last couple I have been volunteering at Thornhill library for 10 hours. I did various activities and learned lots of lessons in the 10 hours I volunteered, such as organization, direction following and patience. I chose to work at the library not only because of the convenience of being walking distance of the school, but it looked like a peaceful working environment that I could accomplish a lot of work in.
         Organization is the most important thing that I learned while volunteering because, without organization the library can't run as efficiently as it does now. One of the first jobs I was given when I walked through the doors was shelving DVD's and finding books. At first I thought shelving DVD's is the most boring thing that you could ever do but after a few hours of volunteering I could see myself becoming more organized and independent. Also I learned how to be patient, even though I wasn't officially working at the library, I was still approached by many people asking where books are and general directions. After a while some people would come up, for example one was hard of hearing or another wasn't familiar with the library so I needed to be patient with them hoping that I can help them the best that I could. Lastly, I had to be a very good direction follower because the tasks there require a couple of steps to be finished. For example when looking to make sure a book is missing, there are steps such as finding the section, then the book but most importantly making sure it has the right ID, if i didn't pay attention to detail and follow directions, the job would be incomplete.
         As a self reflection, throughout the whole 10 hours I volunteered at the library I would give myself an A- (92-94) because at the start of the volunteering I wasn't very engaged and I came about 6 minutes late one time. I believe this is a reasonable grade for me because even though the first time I did it i wasn't very engaged, I still respected my elders and did as I was supposed to do. Also as the volunteering continued I became more engaged because I began doing more and more advanced thing that helped the community more such as setting up for an adult open house and making prizes for little kids for the coming up Christmas event at the library. My engagement in this project overall was good, as I went above and beyond on the last few hours I was there.
         Overall volunteering at the library was a great joy to do and a great experience that I had, the staff there was great and they showed their flexibility when I had to switch my hours a couple of times when I became sick. Working at the library has taught me a lot and I feel like it is a great organization/service to have in society. The Saint Louis County Library and its branches are important to the society because it gives people a chance to learn without having to pay for books, it also helps less fortunate families that don't have enough money to support their kids with books to learn and help their future. Because the library's are a non-profit organization, all the help that people volunteer greatly helps the lives of people. Even if people don't volunteer at the library, the service learning project is a great for students because it helps them see that helping the community isn't just picking up trash on major streets, but even shelving DVD's can have the same type of impact. Helping at the library has helped me fill my civic responsibility as a student because in the end I could be helping dozens or maybe even hundreds of family's just my giving up 10 hours of my life. Whenever I get time I would be willing to continue volunteering on my own at the library. In conclusion, the library is a great place to help that isn't intense but can teach many lessons to help in day to day life or even in interactions with other people.