Final Reflection

For my service learning project, I chose to volunteer for Ignite Norfolk which holds a food pantry.  The days I volunteered were October 31, November 14, November 19, and November 21 with a total of nine hours.  On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, they had the food pantry open where anyone could walk in and we would need to be notified the number of people in the household so they could know how much food they were able to get.  On Thursdays, we went to a school named Park Place where we would work with children grades kindergarten to eighth and set up fun activities, help with homework and give them some free time outside of the classroom.  On October 31, the first day I met the students we made Halloween themed art and they left with mini goody bags filled with candy and other treats. The other times we went to the school we did more school-based work and tutored and helped with their curriculum.  When I volunteered in the food pantry that Ignite holds it was a different experience for me. I volunteered with three other people and many people came in to donate food like peanut butter, bread, soups, and many other types of food. Not very many people came in that were there to get food but when someone did come in they would have to fill out a form that specified who they were and the number of people in their household.  While I volunteered at Ignite especially in the food pantry it really motivated me more to being active in the community and helping others.

Ignite Norfolk’s main goal is to “Ignite people’s heart to change the city” meaning they provided many services more than just the food pantry, they traveled around helping people who were in need of food.  Services the partner provides is the food pantry and going to schools in the area to give the students a break from school for fun and friendly activities. Also, Ignite holds a church and people are welcome to worship and support each other.  Ignite placed churches in areas that needed the most help, love, and hope so they would be able to fight hunger problems with their food pantry. Lots of people donate to Ignite every day.

From being able to have the opportunity to participate it changed my outlook on many things.  Growing up it was not difficult for my family to get food every week and I did not have to ask my parents if I was going to eat something that night.  Seeing many families coming in with their children and other loved ones made me feel grateful for everything that I have, and all the opportunities I have been given especially coming to college.  Many of the families that I met would talk about their lives and experiences and it opened up my heart and made me feel so much compassion. I was not active in the church at Ignite but all my prayers went to those families who had to come to the food pantry.  The hardest part of participating in Ignite would be seeing young children come in asking their families why they were at a food pantry. But now that I have experienced different aspects of life and got to see a part of others’ lives too it definitely changed me and made me want to continue volunteering at Ignite. 

  Prior health experience that I had before enrolling at ODU was volunteering at the local hospital and Women’s Health Physical Therapy.  From my previous volunteer experience and service-learning assignment, I feel that it has motivated me even more to become a nurse. While I volunteered at practices at home, although I did very little patient contact because I was not certified it still pushed me to want to do more just from watching the doctors and nurses.  Each day I volunteered I saw how much you could change someone’s day and even someone’s life over the smallest action. While I volunteered at the hospital, I would bring patients to different rooms, set them up, ask them questions and have conversations with them while waiting for the doctor or nurse.  Many of the patients that were very ill were still very positive and it made me feel so much compassion knowing that someone is fighting for their lives and still have positive motives to keep going. And also that I could be apart of their lives made it much better. During the service-learning assignment as well I felt similar feelings, many families would walk into the food pantry with their children and one afternoon I saw a single mom of four.  While she was picking out their food for the week their children(not being aware of their circumstances of where they were) were so positive and happy. Afterward, their mother thanking us and saying how her children’s positivity and us being able to provide food has made an impact. So being able to help all these people has strengthened my desire to be in the field of nursing.

 These services that I participated in relate to nursing because of the aspect of being with patients during the day and assisting in any way possible.  Even if there was not much that could be done just having a positive conversation with them still is helping the patient and giving them a boost of confidence that things will be ok.  Another degree program that relates to nursing is human services, I feel like you still have the opportunity to be active in a patient’s life and you are still able to help in any way possible.  I would not choose human services as my parallel major though because all I want to do is be a nurse so most likely the concurrent program or health services administration. I have dreamed of working in the children’s hospital and even if the nursing route did not work out, having a degree in health services administration could still work out by working on the business side of the hospital. 

  Reviewing how this semester went, I have had many successes and a couple of failures but have learned to overcome them and learn from my mistakes.  The main part of being in college is studying and doing well so that you can graduate with a good job and I feel that the amount that I studied for at the beginning of the semester versus now has changed dramatically.  Thinking back I most likely only studied about ten hours a week and I did not know how to study and study habits that I learned were very weak and I did not use them very often. So my grades soon reflected on what I was prioritizing on and what I was not.  The class I mainly focused on was chemistry because I felt that it is one of the most important courses this semester because it is one of my departmental courses. The mindset I had, in the beginning, was if I was doing well in a class it did not need reviewing which was very dumb, to say the least.  So as the semester continued my study habits definitely changed. I used to study maybe two or three times a week for chemistry, once for history and very little for the remainder of my courses and while I would study I would most likely be reviewing the powerpoint slides for two or three hours.  I basically felt as if I was just looking at my computer screen but not comprehending or understanding much of it so I began to go to my tutor sessions and get advice from my peer mentor, Jaidon. He spoke on that if I did not strengthen my study habits while I was in my gen ed courses then it was just going to get harder from there.  So, now for chemistry, I will try and get in two or three hours a day and I do not really review much for the lab since Lab and lecture go hand in hand with the curriculum and I will do past homework assignments, review powerpoint slides and make flashcards for the key terms. Next, for history, I study for five or six hours a week and mainly reviewing key terms and reading past readings for discussion boards which helps me the most.  In history, I noticed that my exam average was very low so I started to record more classes and take more in-detailed notes. English and Sociology have been my strongest courses this semester since in English we have done papers all semester and as long as I visited the writing center than I would do good on papers. And, sociology was just based on key terms and knowing the information so flashcards and taking detailed notes during lecture.  So overall from the start of the semester to now my study habits have definitely strengthened. 

Now that I am fourteen weeks into college, it has gone by very quickly and my expectations versus reality have been two very different things.  My expectation coming into college that there would be something new every day, meeting someone new every day, more positivity, professors being more open and just feeling more at home.  Now, that I am fourteen weeks in it has been been a rollercoaster of a transition for me but definitely do not regret coming here. Although it has not been that great of an experience for me, resources here have been very helpful. The resource that I have used the most this semester is the writing center because whenever I go in for an appointment they are so welcoming and they help me feel more confident with my writings.  One resource that has also been helpful this semester is chemistry tutoring, I feel like you either understand it or you do not, and I have gone to chemistry tutoring multiple times and it has helped me feel better about working on problems and going into exams. So, something I wish I knew fourteen weeks ago was that it’s way different than high school, people telling me that it is like going to thirteenth grade, it is nothing like high school. The curriculum is way harder and more rigorous, using resources is vital and professors will not help unless you go up to them and tell them your difficulties in the class. Lastly, something that I have learned this semester that will be following me into next semester is better study habits, being less shy and taking more advantage of professors’ office hours. 

I would like to thank everyone who has helped me get through my first sester of college, all of the resources ODU provides and the amazing advising team!  And thanking Ignite Norfolk for giving me the opportunity to participate in the food pantry and come along with helping in the community!