It’s true what they say about helping and teaching others it gives you joy. I participated in the community service organized by FS for over a six week period. Every weekend we used to come to school and teach the less privileged something new. We were provided with a choice for which activity we wanted to teach like art and craft, frisbee, football, cooking, etc. I personally chose to teach cooking. Every day we had a set of items decided to teach which were fun to make. These few days taught me numerous things and most importantly it helped me do something I have always been enthusiastic to do, give away to the community. Since a very young age, I wanted to be a part of something big, something that changes and helps society. I feel that little opportunities like this are going to help me achieve this aim.

The learning outcomes I ultimately achieved were LO1, LO2, LO4, LO5.

Learning outcome 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth. I got to explore my strengths and weaknesses in cooking. I improved my chopping skills while teaching kids, also I saw how some kids were better at chopping than I was, so in a way even they taught me.

Learning outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills.My first challenge was communicating with them because these kids understood Gujarati the best, and I am not really good at speaking Gujarati. Not each of them understood Hindi well, so I was patient with them and explained them multiple times if they didn’t understand. I could understand what they were saying, but by the end of the service sessions, I got better at communicating and putting forward instructions clearly.

Learning outcome 4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences. While many people cribbed about coming to school on a Saturday and finding excuses to miss community service, I made sure I was present in each session as I was committed to learn and explore more things. There were times I wanted to make other plans and bunk the sessions but I pushed myself and did what was best for me. I don’t regret it, I think this experience provided a lot of learning to me as interacting with those kids was like a breath of fresh air. 

Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively. In each session, we were divided into groups to teach a single dish. We picked out each other strengths and taught the kids what every individual knew best. For example, chopping is not my strong suit so I let my teammate handle that part and I taught what I was good at.