As I walked into the Santa Monica Boys And Girls Club (SMBGC) for the first time, it was lunch hour. I noticed many kids, roughly between the ages of six to sixteen, jumping around, laughing, eating, and talking to Charnelle Ruff, the education coordinator. I tried to approach Charnelle to greet her and ask for my volunteer shirt through the diversely populated crowd of children that I would be interacting with for the next few weeks. However, getting ahold of Charnelle was not as easy as I thought it would be. Children kept coming up to her constantly, some with complaints about their mates, some who wanted her to open their lunch and some who just wanted a hug. This is when I noticed something very crucial about the environment of the SMBGC.
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SMBGC attracted me because of its vibrant location and its nurturing goal. Charnelle spoke a little about the SMBGC during our class time. I felt inspired and did some further research on my own about the ideology and environment of this organization. I found out that SMBGC worked not only to nurture young kids but it also provided them with support. The previous Thanksgiving the SMBGC served up to 1200 dinners to young students (Mirror). Reading this reminded me of the non-profit I was part of back home in Karachi, Pakistan. The organization was called “The Citizens Foundation” and as a part of the team, I participated in providing food to the underprivileged on Eid, a Muslim traditional holiday. (Lifestyle) As I had previously worked with students back in the slums of Pakistan in helping them with homework as well as reading and writing, I thought volunteering at the SMBGC would give me a different perspective on this about how it would be like to work with students from all diverse backgrounds in one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world. The SMBGC has many different spaces that promote a holistic learning experience. The largest area consists of the learning center, where the children do their homework and other school work. Sometimes when they are done with their work, they are allowed to play …show more content…
“She can get away with these lies usually, she knows it too because she’s cute,” Charnelle said to me. I smirked as the thought reminded me of my childhood days when I would just do anything to get away from afternoon homework time with my mother to go play outside. Little white lies such as these were part of being a child. While my interactions with Lyza positively contributed to community building, to several situations, my interactions ended up quite negatively. In my quest to find Lyza the time she snuck out to play basketball, I interacted with two little girls that made me see a rather different environment than the one SMBGC hopes to foster. I walked into the playing center, really frazzled as to where Lyza went. Two eight year old girls were standing by the Dance Dance Revolution machine. I walked up to them and introduced myself in an effort to build friendly bonds with all the children. They told me their names were Amy and Kate. I asked them if they were friends with Lyza and to my surprise, they both made rather displeasing faces. I asked them why they were making that face and Amy responded, “because we
SMBGC attracted me because of its vibrant location and its nurturing goal. Charnelle spoke a little about the SMBGC during our class time. I felt inspired and did some further research on my own about the ideology and environment of this organization. I found out that SMBGC worked not only to nurture young kids but it also provided them with support. The previous Thanksgiving the SMBGC served up to 1200 dinners to young students (Mirror). Reading this reminded me of the non-profit I was part of back home in Karachi, Pakistan. The organization was called “The Citizens Foundation” and as a part of the team, I participated in providing food to the underprivileged on Eid, a Muslim traditional holiday. (Lifestyle) As I had previously worked with students back in the slums of Pakistan in helping them with homework as well as reading and writing, I thought volunteering at the SMBGC would give me a different perspective on this about how it would be like to work with students from all diverse backgrounds in one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the world. The SMBGC has many different spaces that promote a holistic learning experience. The largest area consists of the learning center, where the children do their homework and other school work. Sometimes when they are done with their work, they are allowed to play …show more content…
“She can get away with these lies usually, she knows it too because she’s cute,” Charnelle said to me. I smirked as the thought reminded me of my childhood days when I would just do anything to get away from afternoon homework time with my mother to go play outside. Little white lies such as these were part of being a child. While my interactions with Lyza positively contributed to community building, to several situations, my interactions ended up quite negatively. In my quest to find Lyza the time she snuck out to play basketball, I interacted with two little girls that made me see a rather different environment than the one SMBGC hopes to foster. I walked into the playing center, really frazzled as to where Lyza went. Two eight year old girls were standing by the Dance Dance Revolution machine. I walked up to them and introduced myself in an effort to build friendly bonds with all the children. They told me their names were Amy and Kate. I asked them if they were friends with Lyza and to my surprise, they both made rather displeasing faces. I asked them why they were making that face and Amy responded, “because we