CR1: [Give an original title]

A moment that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of others was when I took my first service-learning class my freshman year. My community partner at the time, Venetia Valley Elementary School, involved middle school children and the thought of working with that age group intimidated me. My middle school experience was not the best one and I was afraid I would not be able to connect with the students. However, all assumptions I had were wrong and I left the last day of class and service-learning with a different mindset. When serving at Venetia Valley it allowed me to become aware of the academic achievement gap that is present within schools, and it enabled me to utilize what I have learned in the classroom of service-learning to become empathetic about the problems students may face. Service-learning encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and explore the community around me. Through interviews, research, and observations, I began to understand the root causes of the many problems that create the academic achievement gap within schools and understand the students within the community. Therefore, through my experiences at the school I was able to learn I took things for granted growing up in comparison to some of the students I worked with and every student has a story to tell no matter what age. In addition, service-learning has made me more open-minded about the world around me and influenced me to push myself to become more involved in my community. Furthermore, the service-learning program has inspired me to volunteer my time in other communities such as Laurel Dell Elementary School, and now Young Moms Marin.

Young Moms Marin, a support and resource group for teens and young moms and their families, is a new community partner I am excited to work with. They meet once a week with a goal to create opportunities for young moms and parents to move towards creating a stable and safe lifestyle for themselves and their children. Many of the moms who enter into the safe space deal with numerous struggles and find solitude and support upon meeting other moms who may be going through the same adversities. The program also provides child care for the mothers, which enables them to spend some time away from their children while the meetings take place. Furthermore, my role as a service-learner in this community is to become a caregiver and community storyteller. As a caregiver, I want to be able to create an environment that is filled with nourishment, love, and care for the parents and children. I want them to trust me in not only hearing what they are saying, but also taking care of their children as well. As a community storyteller, I look forward to listening to all the stories everyone has to say because everyone has a reason for why they are there and why they return to the group. Their stories must be heard and brought to light in order for everyone in the conversation to hear their struggles and triumphs. Therefore, my goal for this community is to practice better critical thinking to enable me to fulfill my role as a caregiver and community storyteller. For example, as stated in, Is Everyone Really Equal, “Thinking critically involves more than just acquiring new knowledge to determine which facts are true… it involves determining the social, hierarchical, and political meaning given to those facts (p. 23).” This demonstrates that when listening to others, I must not only examine the facts, but look towards other possible constraints such as social or political meaning to fully digest what the person is feeling and expressing. I want to be able to look beyond the facts and challenge myself to understand the historical and cultural context in which knowledge is produced to me. In practicing critical thinking it will allow me to understand the scholarly concept of critical service learning, which is recognizing that society is stratified or unequal in significant and far-reaching ways along social group lines that include race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability (p. xx). In addition, critical thinking will help me practice the scholarly approach of critical theory to help me examine social conditions within their historical, cultural, and ideological contexts (p.23). In conclusion, through my service learning class and my time at Young Moms Marin I hope to lift the voices of the unheard and question power imbalances.