Sruthi Sundaram 6/10/2013 Reflective Essay Learning from Mentoring The analyst, Gerri E.

Perreault, discusses the service learning approach to community engagement in his article, Citizen Leader: A Community Service Option for College Students,
emphasizing that this type of program helps students identify the causes that lie behind the human needs they are trying to address (Perreault). Service learning was the central purpose behind which my entire experience focused. It is easy to recognize a problem in ones community and then find mediums through which to alter or change the course of that problem. It is much more difficult, however, to recognize how that step to alter the problem changes the perpetrator. Upon beginning my experience, I realized that the latter is the most important part of community engagement, as it allows one to realize his or her individual contribution to the root of the problem, which lies not with the problem itself, but with the cause. My experience consisted of three facets. The first program I was involved with was a kindergarten tutoring initiative called Making Sense of Language Arts which used sensory learning techniques to help develop the students reading and comprehensive skills. The second program, which is more widely known, was Bearcat Buddies, in which I tutored two third graders in reading for their preparation for the Ohio Achievement Assessment (OAA). Lastly, I mentored my classmate in general chemistry several hours every week in a one-on-one, individually organized setup. In the years preceding this experience, I was involved a variety of different community engagement activities. When I first seriously considered a career in the medical field, I decided to get an inside look at the field. I volunteered at a nursing home that housed geriatric Alzheimer patients. For one month in the summer, I volunteered for seven hours every day, assisting with the residents daily activities, exercises, and games. The experience was one of the most profoundly satisfying ones in my high school years, and further supported my decision to choose medicine as a career path. I was also part of my high schools Key Club, which organized individual initiatives such as gift boxes for the troops, sustainability of wildlife, and many others. During my senior year of high school, I was a member of National Honors Society (NHS). NHS gave me the opportunity to join my classmates and help many outside service organizations in our community. One particular service event that stuck in my mind was a cancer survivorship event that we assisted with. Having lost a family member to cancer in the recent times before that event, the energy I felt among the survivors was very inspirational and affected me at a personal level. I also had extensive student mentoring experience before I began this experience, but it did not provide the kind of service learning I gained from this experience. Much of my tutoring was for pay, when I helped several students in their high school math courses. Also, as part of NHS, we were required to mentor our peers during scheduled times. However, there are two key differences between those mentoring experiences and my recently completed honors experience. First, the students I taught in the former were all close to my age, and second, the mentoring jobs were not ones I, myself, sought out, but were ones that were pushed onto me through the requirements of my superiors. After completing my first honors experience about a month ago, I realized that what I gained extensively from my work was an understanding that meaningful community engagement requires a personal initiative and search for places where ones service would be valuable. My research preceding the experience was concentrated around the goals I hoped to achieve in my proposal for the project. I had an overriding goal for using student mentoring to serve as an example for youngsters as they look toward their futures and hopefully, their collegiate goals. I also wanted to provide a healthy learning environment for my students and use teaching techniques that would best help them grasp the material in question. The broad and narrow goals were both deeply interrelated and I knew that my students personal backgrounds had a very large influence on their academic performances. Thus, I centered my research on effects that family life has on youth as well as the learning environment that should be provided for the students in the school setting. This led on to research on teaching techniques that could best promote retention. The essay, Young Children Develop in an Environment of

Relationships details the relationship between a childs home life and his or her academic performance. The essay emphasizes that high quality relationships in a childs early youth is vitally important to his or her development (Shonkoff, et al.). This concept was especially relevant to the Making Sense of Language Arts tutoring program, where I worked one-on-one with a 5 year old student. With a positive mindset, my fellow tutors and I attempted to teach our students with discipline but also with an optimistic outlook so they could feel satisfied with their progress. Both the schools I tutored in were inner city schools in Cincinnati. I knew that the family situations of the students were very different than what I grew up in, in the suburbs. While I never had any concrete information on my students lives outside of school, I was able to conclude certain aspects from their behavior and from the stories they told me about their families and friends. Researching the sensory techniques that I learned from the Making Sense of Language Arts program, I learned that teaching styles and methods have a great impact on the learning environment in the classroom setting: Music, movement, art touch etc. provide sensory links to strengthen the underdeveloped language center of the brain (Making Sense of Language Arts). The slow development of this part of the brain in my student could possibly relate to his life outside of school or to various influence in his life; while it is not in my power to influence those aspects of his life, I knew that it was in my power to counteract any negative effects they might cause through use of these sensory techniques. The last facet of my research focused on service learning. I learned much about my potential contribution my students lives from Gerri E. Perreaults article Citizen Leader: A Community Service Option for College Students. More importantly, I learned about my students contribution to my learning. The college student I mentored in general chemistry gave me the opportunity to explore my own organizational skills, as well as enhanced my own learning of the material I was teaching. Because of this experience, I learned about being a better teacher, friend, and listener. As a result of all of my research preceding the my involvement in Making Sense of Language Arts and Bearcat Buddies, I became more aware of the social issues facing urban city schools, especially regarding home life and its influence on youth. I also became aware of my own contribution to my community as well as my communitys contribution to my learning. Because my experience was multi-faceted, the different motifs in the theme of community engagement were visible in one or more of the facets. These motifs were purpose of service, need for reciprocity, understanding social issues, and the ability to see those issues from multiple perspectives. Service is a very basic concept but often hard to understand at its core level. Through my experiences I learned that service was joining with my peers and going out into the community to help those in need without expecting anything in return. I was able to exhibit service all three facets of my project, with the inner city elementary school students I helped improve toward their expected level in reading, as well as with my classmate, who I was able to assist in a subject he felt he struggled with. My understanding of the need for reciprocity is reflected in my retention of a certain modesty I feel is necessary in community engagement. Perreaults analysis on the community engagement option for college students emphasizes the idea of reciprocity through service learning; the concept of personally learning from the service one gives to another. I learned valuable skills from all of my students, such as patience, understanding, and optimism. If one realizes that his or her involvement in the community is only payback for what the community has already given, egotism will not surface. I know that in my childhood, I was fortunate to receive many benefits I took for granted, such as supportive parents, a good financial status, and healthy living environment. At a more mature stage in my life, I am now able to appreciate that these things were given to me by those around memy community. Thus, I am able to understand the need for reciprocating that same service back to the community. The social issue that my project centered around was the effects that financial status and home environment has on a childs education. Shonkoffs analysis states, The quality and stability of a childs human relationships in the early years lay the foundation for a wide range of later developmental outcomes that really matter self-confidence and sound mental health, motivation to learn, achievement in school and later in life (Shonkoff, et al.). In the Making Sense of Language Arts program, I was a part of the initiative to create the motivation to learn and self-confidence that many of the students in the program lack because of little support from home. We used a new sensory learning technique that improved retention and also developed

comprehensive skills so that almost all of the students who were below grade level that joined the program, were at grade level or even above, by the end of one school year (Making Sense of Language Arts). One of my 3rd graders in the Bearcat Buddies program was able to understand various story comprehension strategies much better by the end of the semester, than when I started with her. From my experience, I felt as though my involvement in my students education had a positive impact on them. My honors experience does not have a direct relation to my career path, but somehow as I look to my past, I notice that student mentoring has been a big part of my extracurricular endeavors, even before I began college. I think that subconsciously, I had already recognized the similarities between the skills needed to make an effective physician and the skills needed to make a good teacher. The Teach to Learn initiative at Drexel University College of Medicine paired medical students with 5th grade students in a mentor-student relationship similar to what Bearcat Buddies offers (CEE Community Outreach Projects). The program found that tutoring the 5th graders taught the medical students interpersonal skills that are vital for a physician. Through mentoring my students in all three programs, I have learned how to communicate effectively and clearly, think optimistically, be patient with those I am interacting with, and many other such skills. All of these skills will be useful for a physician. The self-planned mentoring I arranged with my classmate in general chemistry helped me extensively, as the more I taught him, the better I learned the material myself. As a result of this experience, my view of the community has become more personal. The line between the person serving and the person receiving blurred in my eyes as I spent more time with my students. My honors experience also gave me a variety of life skills that I will cherish for the rest of my life. However, there were some aspects of each facet that I would like to see changed in the future. In the Making Sense of Language Arts program, Id like to see its reach travel further, hopefully getting to the kind of widespread influence that Bearcat Buddies. This past semester, I tutored along with four other students in the program, and I would like to double the amount. In Bearcat Buddies, I would look to make adjustments in their mentee selection process as well as their curriculum. The sensory learning technique employed by the Making Sense of Language Arts program helps immensely with comprehension, which both of my 3rd graders struggled with. Lastly, with my own personal tutoring initiative, I hope that this fall, at the organic chemistry level, my student will come back me for help, as the help that I gave him really helped me just as equally. I am extremely honored to have been a part of this experience. All the people I worked with were the epitome of support and taught me so much about service through student mentoring. Student life is a big part of my service learning experience, and it saddened me deeply to read about the horrors that many of the inner city students face in their childhood. As an individual, I was able to make a small difference for one day each week in three inner city elementary school students. With involvement from the general community, we can make a real change. There are so many initiatives that are aimed at improving education in the community. In one semester, I was able to find two established programs that led me to helping different students of different age and grade levels. If every college student at University of Cincinnati were to take up the same challenge in improving his or her communitys education, imagine the extents to which the college students arm could reach. Only through service learning, does one truly realize that as an individual, one makes not only a defined change in the life of whoever he or she helps, but also serves as a moving force toward a greater social change.

Links to Cited Materials: -------http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQF jAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdevelopingchild.harvard.edu%2Findex.php%2Fdownload_fi le%2F%2Fview%2F587%2F&ei=GfmNUPj1PImoyAHLvYCICA&usg=AFQjCNGpsAAmgD RcmOjG2rQTbkx7K9F_XA&sig2=fG7SQrq-8uyP4L4fH2lF-A

http://www.uc.edu/content/dam/uc/honors/docs/communityengagement/Citizen%20Lead er%20-%20NASPA%20journal.pdf http://webcampus.drexelmed.edu/CommunityExperience/ceeprojects.html

http://www.makingsenseoflanguagearts.com/index.html .