For our Interpersonal Communication service project, my partner and I will be volunteering with World Relief in Moline, IL teaching English to new refugees. Our first meeting with our World Relief family is coming up this Thursday, and I have a lot of internal anxiety going on about meeting them. I am fully expecting and hoping to be challenged by this project. I always did service back home in Des Moines and at my high school, but I don't think I have encountered a project that has presented such a challenge as this one. In high school, I tended to stick to the "safe" projects and the projects where I could see what was coming next. I always gravitated toward the typical food pantry and homeless shelter-type projects, just because that's what high schoolers my age were most comfortable doing. You go, serve some food, and go home, without having to do any sort of social involvement. And even if there was social involvement, it surely was done in English. So my hopes for this project of TEACHING English are certainly that I will be challenged in a way that I have yet to be challenged in life.
I'm assuming that World Relief provides for its refugees just what its name suggests: relief. Lord only knows what those refugees have been through in life, and it is my hope and my assumption that World Relief is there for them to provide a new opportunity to start their lives over and get back on their feet again. I don't know a whole lot about the work that World Relief does, only what Kelly explained to us when she came to talk to our class. From what I understand, World Relief provides a jumping-off point and a chance to start over for the refugees it serves. A lot of the refugees come from hostile environments in which they don't feel safe. They come to America to start their lives over in a new, safe environment. Some (if not most) come to America with nothing, so it's the job of World Relief to at least start them off with a place to live and references as to where to find a job, learn English, etc. I am so excited to be able to be a part of this process of providing a new life for someone, whether it be a single person or an entire family.
While I have never done volunteer work with World Relief specifically, I have always had a passion for volunteering and helping others. At my high school, we had a service requirement of ten hours every semester. For me, it was a lot more than just a requirement to be fulfilled. I believe that working with the various organizations that I did, I became a much more well-rounded person, and I became more compassionate as well. Technically, I am still undeclared at this point as to what my major is, but I really think I want to pursue a degree in psychology. I want to be a social worker or a counselor. I love and have a passion for helping people become the best versions of themselves possible. I really feel like teaching English to refugees with World Relief will help me accomplish this. More importantly, it will help the people I work with to accomplish much more in the working world and just in everyday life than they would be able to without knowledge of English. This is a great step for me to take in order to better myself. But that doesn't even matter when I think about how much better off so many other people will be because of me.
