Jonathan Ramirez

Service Learning Reflection

Volunteering as a Writing Mentor for the Salt Lake Community Writing Center has
yielded many benefits to me. I learned to have patience and to be adaptable; but what learned
that I value most in my service learning is that I have much to learn. Prior to beginning my
service, I was nervousas Im sure any other volunteer would beand felt unprepared. I wasnt
confident in my ability to work with people. I was scheduled to volunteer at the Day-Riverside
Library from 4:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m. every Thursday.
For my first two sessions: nobody came in. I waited and waited, and began to grow
discouraged. I would sit in an open area, and wait for anyone to approach me. I thought of
scenarios in my head to help me better prepare, but at the time, they were of little use. I had the
privilege to work with many writers, but I will write about the one whom I work with the most.
Out of the blue, which seemed appropriate, an older Polynesian man with gentle eyes
approached me. He handed me his flash drive and said to me, I need help. His name: Sateki
Kinikini. Kini was working on a letter to the senator addressing the issue of gay marriage; he
didnt support it. It was a challenge for me to write a formal letter because I didnt have any
experience with them. He asked me if he wrote it correctly, and I told him I didnt know. So, we
looked it up together. After researching the topic, I understood the format of the letter. I helped
him write his introduction, his concern, and what he would like the senator to do. This took up
the entire two hours. I finally understood how it felt to be burnt-out from a writing session!
Kini and I continued to work on the letter, and after we finished, he showed me another
of his pieces- a book he had been working on for a year. The book is about the crime he has seen

in his life, in a fictional narrative. I panicked; I didnt know how the format of a book or let alone
what to look for! I had to adapt quickly and switch to research mode. I recalled a lot of the
concepts I learned in class: organization, the main point, the rhetorical aspects of a document,
and letting the writer be in control of the writing. He said he wanted to change the crime rate, so
his audience was the general adult public.
Kini is an ESL learner, and he taught himself how to write, so it was difficult to read and
understand his book, this is when I learned to be patient. The story was everywhere: it lacked
sentence coherence and it was almost impossible to find the point of the story. At times, I
became frustrated because I could not understand his writing, but I learned to see from his
perspective. His writing may be clear to him in his mind, but to a reader, its not the same. I
explained to Kini that considering the audience is as important as writing the story itself and that
organization is key to a good flowing book. When I explained the concepts to Kini, I relearned them. We were both benefitting.
At the beginning of our work, he would want me to focus on grammar, so I also had to
explain LOCs and HOCs to him and I had him write examples of both; and by doing that, he
understood. I learned that Kini is a kinesthetic learner. He learns most effectively by doing. At
this point, in class I learned about teaching students how to self-edit. So I went back to the basics
with Kini. Because his writing had subject-verb disagreement, errors in pronoun use, verb use,
and he struggled with conjugating the to be verb, I explained each to him. We began from
square one, and then practiced applying it to his writing.
Soon enough, after reading a passage out loud, he caught a mistake. He couldnt correct
it, but he at least noticed it, which I consider a significant improvement. I would ask him if

certain passages strayed from the main plot: if so, he wanted to delete it, if not, he wanted to
make sure it was written how he imagined in his head. The purpose of teaching him to self edit
was to help him help himself. In one of our sessions, he said hes glad theres people like me
because he cant do this himself. Immediately, I restored to self-editing because I want to
empower him. I want him to know that he has control of his writing and voice. I want the
learning to be life-long.
I have learned that I have much to learn. There are times where I think I have learned a
concept well, but this notion is usually thwarted when I to apply it, which reinforces my learning.
There are a variety of writers with whom I have yet to work and scenarios I have yet to
experience: plagiarism and an adamant writer. I am expecting to fail and fail again, and also
succeed, but I know I will pursue this service learning for as long as I can.