Do We Truly Know What Our Community Service Partners Need?

I used to think that good service meant recognizing my privilege, feeling gratitude, and helping those less fortunate. However, I’ve come to realize that good service is fundamentally about understanding others’ struggles and fostering open communication without preconceived biases. The concept of a savior complex, where one believes they are helping those in need, only served to widen the gap between myself and those I sought to assist. Instead of truly embodying good service, I mistakenly thought I was “rescuing” others from their difficult circumstances. In reality, I shouldn’t position myself above them. We are all equals, and it’s not just about them receiving help; we can also learn valuable lessons from one another. In essence, it should be a relationship of equals, a chance to gain insights from new individuals, without anyone assuming a superior position.

Raised with the notion that we were privileged compared to less fortunate individuals, my parents often used such examples to instill a sense of gratitude in me during my upbringing, a perspective that persisted through my childhood and into my high school years. However, it was only when I initiated my own non-profit organization during ninth grade that I began to reassess my approach to “charity.” I aimed to teach English to underprivileged orphans in my home country of Jakarta. Initially, we provided them with English storybooks and essential daily items, with the belief that we were helping them expose themselves to the language and providing much-needed goods. Yet, I soon recognized that this approach inadvertently widened the gap between the children and myself. I realized I didn’t know the children, whether they genuinely enjoyed the donated items, or if they could effectively use the storybooks without prior knowledge of the language. It dawned on me that the well-intentioned advice from our parents, urging us to “help these orphans by giving them toys and clothes, as they need them more than you do,” was misguided. These children, just like us, didn’t require “saviors”; such an approach might diminish their self-worth and encourage dependency. What they truly needed was genuine care and a meaningful connection — empathy, emotional understanding, and a supportive presence.

During my time as the President of my non-profit organization, I was confronted with the idea of “toxic charity”. The concept of believing that no matter what I do — as long as it is done with good intentions — it will benefit the group I put effort into. I have seen many students in the past give orphanages and institutions money, thinking that it will solve everything, because at the end of the day, having a few hundred dollars is better than having none. This type of thinking has led to the ineffectiveness and ingenuity of charity that I have learned to grow away from. This surface level charity is not a long-lasting solution. The real toxic charity is assuming that all of their problems could be solved without understanding their situation or issue. In reality, the best solution is getting to know what they truly need by forging deeper connections.

Drawing from my previous community service experience, I have gained valuable insights into effectively engaging with my community service partners. As an 826LA volunteer, I eagerly anticipate the opportunity to connect with students hailing from diverse backgrounds. By assisting them with their writing skills and college applications, I will have the privilege of forging deeper connections with these unique individuals. When I shared my involvement with 826LA with my parents, their words resonated deeply: “Understanding the challenges these students face, challenges you may not encounter, is a tremendous opportunity to cultivate gratitude for your own blessings.” In the past, I might have readily concurred, contemplating the privilege I enjoy in comparison to many of these students and realizing that my minor inconveniences hardly warrant complaint. However, my perspective has evolved. I approach my role at 826LA with a different outlook. I’m not stepping into it assuming that these students must be burdened by sorrow or that their lives are riddled with misery. They may confront a myriad of challenges beyond their studies, but this in no way diminishes their happiness or ambition compared to our own.

Many people assume that because these students have a less fortunate place in life, they lack dreams and aspirations, when in reality they too have goals they want to accomplish. In “826LA Freedom Mixtape”, Ryan Ruvalcaba, a high school student, has big dreams and aspirations of playing baseball. He mentioned that in baseball, “[he] feels free [and] feels like he’s making a name for himself.” He “doesn’t want to be a shadow of [his] siblings”. All these students from our community service partner, although coming from different backgrounds from us, have aspirations and are trying their best to break through stereotypes and obstacles to prove to people that they are able to do it. Instead of acting like I am there to “help” and “save” them, I should be encouraging them to write about these passions in their essays, and highlight their strengths to the admissions committee. I should not be treating them as underprivileged people who just need our pity, I should be highlighting their successes throughout these years which would hopefully be noticed by the colleges, increasing their chances of entering college and flourishing in college. By doing this, I realize that all these students are just like myself. Back in high school, my, and I believe most of our, primary goal was to get into college and pursue our individual dreams and ambitions. It’s important to remember that these students share the same aspirations. We’re not superior to them, and we shouldn’t use their situations as a means to enhance our own self-worth. If I were to imagine myself in their position and discovered that others believed they were “better off” by comparing themselves to my life, I would experience a significant sense of inferiority.

During my volunteering experience with 826LA, I went to Hamilton High School and was assigned to help a girl with her UC Essays. Instead of immediately diving into her essays and “interrogating” her on what she wants to write about, I introduced myself first, and made sure to share a bit of my own experiences during the college application process. The college application process has always been known to be very tedious, by letting her know that I went through what she’s going through, builds an unspoken form of bond, and would allow her to be more comfortable sharing her personal stories with me. If I approached the interaction with thoughts of her being in a much worse situation than I was, that she comes from a much more unstable financial background, she would be able to sense that I was “pitying” her, which would probably stop her from completely opening herself up to me during our conversation. People often have the misconception that “the ideal service learning student [has] [n]ever experienced the conditions or circumstances that are present in community engagement placements” (Mitchell & Donahue qtd. in Mitchell 459) this is due to the stereotype that we come from more privileged backgrounds and have our life handed to us on a silver platter which is what leads to the unceasing gap between us and our community service partners. This is why we should start treating them as “equals” and not “less” to slowly but effectively close this gap caused by these assumptions.

At my Personal Statement Training with 826LA, the person-in-charge (PIC) informed us that 826LA has helped about 1000 students coming from similar backgrounds — those who need to get a job to fend for themselves and their families, topped with their school commitments and assignments. We all fall into the trap of “feeling bad” for students who hold much more responsibility than what a high school student should be responsible for, this is because, as what Schwartzman mentioned, these students’ experiences “are exoticized, sometimes by privileged faculty, sometimes by privileged students, as a way to receive credit for transcending [our] own privilege or to bolster [our] own prejudices.” (Mitchell & Donahue qtd. in Mitchell 461) More importantly, Tuck precisely points out the issue with service learning, by mentioning that “service learning courses too frequently engage in damage-based community engagement in which the focus is on the problems, pathologies, and needs of communities, not on their resources, wisdom, and strengths.” (Mitchell & Donahue qtd. in Mitchell 461) These conventional images of community service partners is what leads us to build up a “savior complex” mindset. However, by cultivating a “we are both learning from each other” mindset, I believe that we can continue to lessen the gap between ourselves and our community service partners.

Many of the students in the 826LA Freedom Mixtape have courageously shared their personal challenges while remaining deeply committed to advancing their education and pursuing specific fields. Our role is not just to impart our own college application experiences, but to be receptive to the inspiring stories they can share with us. Their resilience in the face of home challenges should not be misconstrued as a need for us to rescue them from a perceived slump. Instead, their determination can serve as a valuable reminder for us to persevere in the face of our own minor inconveniences. We are all equals in this opportunity to connect, understand each other better, and learn from one another.

Works Cited

Mitchell, Tania and Donahue, David. “Ideal and Real in Service Learning.” Transforming The Ideal Based On The Real, pp. 459–461

Students of Manual Arts Senior High School, and John Legend. Sounds of Freedom: Beats on Concrete, 826LA, Los Angeles, California, 2019, pp. 128–131.