REFLECTING ON A YEAR OF SERVICE FOR WOFFORD STUDENTS—

It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting down at my internship in Princeton, N.J., where I began to develop the idea and beginning stages of this column and now, the first volume of this service column is coming to a close. With my involvement working alongside various non-profit organizations in addition to being civically engaged in several communities, both here in Spartanburg and back at home in Columbia, S.C., I learned to value the experiences that I’ve had and implement them into my everyday routine and potentially my career path of being a journalist and advocate for equal rights for minorities.

Being passionate about community service and civic engagement while combining my goal of becoming a journalist sparked the concept of this column.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet new people, share their experiences in terms of service, highlighting several organizations – both on and off campus – and finding out more about the inner Spartanburg community, all in hopes of plugging the Wofford community to become more engaged and to break out of the “Wofford bubble” to develop new experiences.

While summer break is right over the horizon (or graduation for those of you all that are seniors), this is a perfect time to become active in your community without having the hassle of classes, schoolwork, tests, projects or other assignments. As stated before, take something that you’re passionate about, find a way to utilize those passions and serve in any capacity that may interest you.

One of my greatest summer experiences that I can remember was designing a seven week GED tutorial program with a Bonner Scholar and friend, Diamond Marcano. We worked with citizens in the Spartanburg community to help them prepare for the GED exam, in hopes that they would obtain their GED and achieve dreams that they before were unable to pursue. While combining something that I was passionate about – education and equal opportunity for those to receive an education – we were able to help those in need and in the end, had four participants in the program pass the exam and continue on to community college. While this is only one example out of many, it goes to show that your impact in a community will be beneficial in ways that you would never think.

I hope that while you have the summer of your life taking full advantage of your two and half to three month break from school, that you are still giving back, to others and serving your communities to become more globally and civically engaged citizens.

In the words from the greatest childhood show ever, Out Of The Box, “So long, farewell, until we meet again.”

Have a great summer and see you in the fall, my fellow readers! If you are wondering how you can get involved in your community during the summer, feel free to reach out to me, via email, [email protected].