We should do more as a society (Community Service Learning)

For our final requirement in our LaSallian Business Leadership, Ethics and CSR subject we decided as a group to do community service for Santa Monica Elementary School in Bulacan. Before we got directly to do our community service, we started with our fundraising to provide for the materials and expenses needed in performing our service learning. We had two kinds of fundraising. The first one was selling makeup products from Rustans. We picked Rustans because my group mate Jobs works there and she has access in buying wholesale makeup products. With the short time given to do our fund raising, we thought that it was easy to sell products that are already made rather than doing a product from scratch which would require a lot of effort and would be time consuming. Our second fundraising in our group was to organize a yoga class. The intention was to promote health and wellness for our participants. It would have a mutual benefit to both parties because the proceeds of the yoga class will go directly into the Santa Monica Elementary School in improving the school’s structure.

Our service learning activity will be done as a class because the activity would be difficult if the participants are only one group which has 4 members. Our class has 6 groups which has enough members to perform the service learning activity. We divided the service learning activity into two tasks; the women in our class repainted and repaired classroom chairs and tables while the men made an elevated in the school’s entrance. The school was recently been hit by a Typhoon that is why it was necessary to elevate their walkway on the entrance so that it would be convenient for teachers and students to enter and exit the school whenever there is a heavy rain.

I have learned a lot in our fundraising activities and service learning project. At first, I thought of it as a requirement that needs to be done so I could move on and serve another community in the future if it’s necessary or if it’s required. I was wrong on that concept because when I got to experience it there, it escalated to me quickly the difference of real-world problems from theory and practice which is lectured in the classroom.

On our fundraising activity I have given the opportunity to develop my entrepreneurial skills by selling make up products and tickets to our yoga class. It was not an easy task to communicate with possible buyers and participants because I really don’t have any idea how to sustain the demand of our product and service. So I made a lot of inquiry from one person to another until I got connected with someone who was interested. It was very difficult but the pressure was somehow a great experience because I got to know myself better in terms of deciding what to prioritize and how to seek demand more efficiently.

On our actual community service, I was more involved in constructing the elevated pathway in the school. It required heavy physical work by mixing and transporting cement. It was not just the work itself that I had learned and absorbed, the main learning was within the community and the different kinds of stories from the people there. The school principal was very clear of what the school needed and how we could help to improve it. I just had a few conversations with the school principal and she was well organized with her goals and plans for the school. She knows how to address the problems and not just randomly point on things and make an activity out of it.

Being involved in the activity made me learn so much about myself, one of it is having the capability to do more in life as a private individual. It is given that public servants or politicians that are voted into a certain position must do their duty to serve the community. Of course we cannot depend on them on everything to make our communities better; we are also responsible as citizens to offer our help to the communities. I am aware that we can do a lot for the community as a private individual but it was more of a mindset rather than in real practice. Doing our community immersion gave me the opportunity to practice community service where I’ve felt it as a start to further advance my participation in the future. I have done community service in during my college days. I did not appreciate it back then as much as I have appreciated it in my current community service as a graduate school student maybe because I was more experienced this time around where I am already working as an employee. The maturity that I have gained over the years made me more aware of what is going on around the world and the importance of being involved in serving the community and the protecting the environment. It is very rare to value service for the community at a very young stage and it so much better if we appreciate it in an early stage. In fact it is an advantage if those who are serving the community are young individuals because most of them literally have the physical strength and intelligence for sustainable developments. Young individuals are capable of being producing innovative solutions to problems that could benefit the community and the environment.

My journey begins here as a graduate student to do more than just being an employee, a student, a family member or a friend. I believe that it is more fulfilling to come out of my shell as an individual who could offer service to the community and towards others. I believe that it is one thing that I am lacking as an individual. In order to determine my true purpose in life, I need to be more than what I am underneath. Most of us just look at things on the outside and complain about the discomfort that life brings us. Acting upon it gives that positive feeling that things around us could be managed and could be salvaged.

This civic responsibility engaged all of the stakeholders where there is a mutual benefit for the student, the community and the university. As students, we learned the discipline and the development of basic skills in recognising it through practice. We generally reflect upon the social, ethical or humanitarian characteristics that the community needs. These activities I believe is in line with the University’s mission to develop the student’s attributes in community service learning.

Happiness is a mutual feeling that everyone wants. We all want to be happy in our own circle of friends, family, colleagues and workplace. What better happiness it would bring if we combine our efforts altogether to serve our community. Not only we preserve and improve our surroundings, we also get the chance to meet new people who have the positivity in making our world a better place. With a common positive goal that is set, it could be easy for us to address problems and make solutions for them. The problem is most of us does not communicate is not open with one another. The truth is we all have a common world and community that we live in. We are just standing in similar grounds all around this planet. There is lack of awareness about the importance of service learning towards the community and that those individuals like me who were exposed in such activity should serve as leaders to influence others in helping the community that would mutually benefit us. Having a degree, a higher power or having wealth and possessions does not mean that someone is more fortunate than the other. We are all equal in the world that we live in, although its hard to see it on the outside, we are all equal human beings that lives in a common ground. It is not luck to learn and be involved in the activities of a graduate student, I am here because of a purpose –and that purpose is to use and share my knowledge of being a responsible individual. Somehow we could make a change, not for the feeling of being good or being happy just for self contentment, true happiness is when you give and make others happy without expecting something in return.