One of my favorite parts of the Professional Writing course was the linking of our class with the non-profit NICE. As someone who has always been interested in non-profits, it was really unique to get to actually work with them, helping them develop a better looking website and also getting to volunteer with their programs. Getting to work hands on with refugees that NICE worked with was really influential not only with my work in the classroom, but also outside as I engage with friends and others in conversations about the refugee crisis.
Through my service learning opportunity, I have become a much more understanding person towards those in other countries in less fortuitous situations. Before taking this class, I never fully understood the extreme situations refugees were put through. Taking a deeper look into what it’s actually like being a refugee, and getting to work with refugees was very rewarding. Whenever one begins hearing the stories of the refugees and the severity of their situation, it’s almost impossible not to want to help them out. Stability and safety is something nobody should have to worry about.
Getting to learn about the refugee crisis more in depth has allowed me to have real conversations with others on how we should be dealing with it, as a nation. Before this class, I was making assumptions and forming my opinion without having really learned much on the issue. While I did worry for the refugees, I was worried that they would take too many jobs from the lower class citizens in the United States already. However, when I discovered how severe the situation was for those fleeing towards our country I immediately felt remorse. Nobody should have to go through a war tearing through their city, or have to fear death on a daily basis. In my opinion, as humans we should fight for the basic rights for all people. This includes the ability to access stability, something those being held in other countries have no access of.
If I have any critique of the service learning side of the class, it would only be that it is just something hard to fit into the schedules of some college students. Finding a night with minimal homework, or a day that you could devote a couple hours to driving out to the NICE headquarters and turning in donations can be surprisingly difficult. I found that many of my days that would be good for doing service hours had no opportunities which was frustrating as well.
Ultimately, the pros completely outweighed the cons of the service learning. Getting to see a family of five refugees come into America for the first time will be a moment hard to forget. Also, having the opportunity to educate myself more on a very important issue facing our country, and becoming more politically aware to be priceless as well.