My Changing Notion of Service

Over the past four years, I've had some of the most amazing opportunities to give back to communities both domestic and abroad. Before I came to William and Mary, I never even thought that I would come this far, in terms of my relationship to service and engaged scholarship.   Back in middle school, we were required to volunteer a certain number of hours per month. Now although this idea of service was on a very miniscule level, this small seed grew into a greater love for service that I have today. I love the fact that I have the capacity to develop a relationship with another human seeded by love and justice.

For my international service group, we have weekly classes examining literature focused on sustainable development, globalization, politics and unintended consequences of service. Our advisor facilitates these conversations and urges us to think critically about our methods and purpose in the Dominican Republic, asking questions like why are we there? What conclusions would we like to see? How do we reach these final goals? How are our methods sustainable? How do we continue to build on these methods so that the community will eventually be able to stand on its own feet? These types of dialogues not only helped to develop the purpose of our group, but they caused us to think critically about our own personal initiatives which I believe helped me to become the greater person that I am today.

I'm beginning to understand how important my actions and intentions are not only for myself but for those who I intend to serve. In the Dominican Republic, I always ask myself...why am I here? Do I have the right to come here to just DO this? Am I basically manipulating some sort of project simply to play with human lives? Then I realize through the thank yous and the smiles and continuous shown forms of gratitude that I can indeed make a change. Everyone can. And so can you.