What I Learned In Community Service

As I watched Frankie jumble up the letters of her name, despite spending all morning practicing the correct way to write them, I wondered if she would ever be able to write out complete sentences without help. This was just one example of the constant repetition I endured and that sometimes tested my patience that summer. My parents had suggested that I volunteer at the Extended School Year (ESY) program for special needs students that ran for the whole month of July. Although I was hesitant due to the fact that the program began early in the morning during summer vacation, I decided to sign up in order to get an idea of whether or not working with children would be something I was interested in pursuing. When I arrived on the first day, I walked into a classroom in which the students and teachers were all familiar with one another and felt extremely out of place. However, after only spending a few days in my assigned classroom, I began …show more content…
It was then that I knew I wanted to continue working with kids. It was such a great feeling to watch both Frankie and the other students progress over the summer and improve on classroom skills or understand a lesson that they struggled with in the start of the program. That fall, I signed up to volunteer at other activities that I thought would give me more experience in working with all types of students and help me learn how to be of better help in the classroom.
When summertime came around again, I went out of my way to look for the forms to sign up for the ESY program and looked forward to attending every day. It was then that I knew I wanted to become a special education teacher. Now, as a senior, I intern in a kindergarten classroom for two and a half hours a day and love every minute of it. I have finally found something that I am truly passionate about and can imagine myself doing every