1. For my service-learning activities, I volunteered at the Ignite pantry on 49th street twice. My first-time volunteering was on October 9th for three hours. During my three hours, I helped the church members paint the church to give the pantry a more welcoming look. My second time volunteering was October 30th for three hours as well. During my time volunteering, I was taught how to run the pantry and assist people who came into the pantry.
  2. The Ignite pantry ‘s mission is to give students, staff, and faculty from Old Dominion University an extra source of food when needed. The Ignite pantry not only gives free food to students, staff, and faculty, they also mentor children at Park Place elementary and help set a role model for the kids. The church itself offers Sunday services where everyone is welcomed as well as bible study on Wednesdays, mentoring for other local schools, and a food pantry for the community of Old Dominion.
  3. My values, opinions, and beliefs haven’t changed because I’ve helped out at different pantries before. I understand from my experiences that sometimes people just need a little bit of help to last them until they’re able to carry themselves.
  4. I do not have any health-related experience prior to the fall of 2019.
  5. The volunteer work that I did with the Ignite pantry is related to my intended major of nursing because working at the pantry requires patience. You have to be patient with the people who come into the pantry and in my field, you will have to be patient with your patients. Also, when working in the pantry there is confidentiality so if you see someone who came into the pantry outside of the pantry you aren’t allowed to speak about it or call them out. This relates to nursing because every patient you encounter has patient confidentiality so you can’t tell their business to anyone they don’t give consent to. Working in a food pantry can also relate to Public Health because in the Public Health field you are required to keep the public healthy and with these pantries, they give those who may go hungry meals. I personally wouldn’t choose public health as a major because I like to work one on one with patients while public health is mostly a bigger picture of what the community needs.
  6. When I first started college in August, I didn’t study that often maybe four to five hours per week for all of my classes because it seemed like a review. Now I study for about six to seven hours a week for each individual class. My study habits went from just reading over notes to reading over notes, going over study guides, redoing homework multiple times, and making flashcards. For sociology, I normally rewrite my notes as well as doing the study guides he provides us because I tend to retain the information more. I tend to redo my chemistry homework over and over again before a test so I understand what I’m doing. For my history class, I make flashcards to help me remember years, people, and significant events.
  7. I expected college to be harder than high school and I was right because college is like a year of high school crammed into one semester. I have found that meeting with my success coach has helped me find more information about events happening on campus and more resources that students have access to. I tried using tutor.com for my chemistry and history class because my schedule was so busy it was hard to physically go to tutoring. I tried it multiple times and I just didn’t see where it helped me. I wish I knew that classes started off easy then got harder as you go into the semester because I would’ve already made studying a habit. I learned this semester that using a planner really helps remind you of important dates and due dates so I will definitely be using my planner next semester.