Another Year Of Excitement

One thing I have always loved about Morse JROTC is that they're always one step ahead of others.  They will always go out of their way to help out their community, and be involved. 

Ace Parking at Qualcomm Stadium is in charge of traffic within the parking lots. they ensure that every car/truck/RV that enters the stadium gets secure parking, and makes sure all cars are in their designated parking spot. This will be my second year working for Qualcomm, but this time, as a Morse Alumni.

I am this year's driver for the cadets, so we all gather at about 6:00AM, and get to Qualcomm at about 7AM, and we all wear the yellow Ace Parking shirts, which is actually new this year. After we put on our shirts, we are then assigned to our designated areas. Morse usually gets assigned the 'busiest' area, which is the entrance to the A/B for cars and RV's. This gets pretty tough because many drivers get cranky to find parking spots, and I usually get bribes from drivers "I'll give you $100 if you let me park here." But of course, I can't do that because that would go against my morals.

On most Ace Parking days we are all on our feet for about 8-10 hours almost every other week. Isn't that crazy? That's how dedicated we are to Ace Parking. Even our advisors Ed, Larry, etc say they love Morse the best because we are committed, motivated, hard workers, and we make sure that the driver's are happy.

On September 16, was the last Charger game against the Titans, and I had the honor to be assigned to the reserved parking, and I stood by myself for about 10 hours in the hot sun (I even got sunburnt because I forgot sunscreen), making sure that certain cars got to their spots. There were Charger fans that were nice enough to offer me a soda can, or even food so that I had enough energy. During my ten minute break times, I would take a visit the taco truck that gave away free tacos, and they are always delicious. That was basically our lunch; no we didn't have to buy our own food because we were able to get free tacos.

I am glad to say that I am a part of a Service Learning outside of Price, school, and other stuff, even if I don't get hours for working. I volunteer alongside Morse because it is fun to see what Charger fans do, how drunk they can get, and work hard in the hot sun for ten hours to help out my community. It's a really great feeling of achievement because I feel like I am benefiting myself as a person, and learning how to be patient with others. Working for Morse at Ace Parking is really great. I surely think it's better being out in the sun rather than working inside Qualcomm. I get to see the fans directly and see how they interact, other than working traffic. It's quite fun to feel a part of a group where ALL the advisers smile everytime we arrive at Qualcomm because they know we will do hard work and have fun at the same time. I loved every minute of working for Qualcomm last school year..

It's a really great experience, and I'm excited to work for the rest of the Charger games (:

Service Learning VS. Community Service

One of the slides I did for my Service Learning Project Powerpoint for my JROTC class.

What is community service? What is Service learning? How many people actually know the difference between the two? 

In my JROTC class in high school, we learned about the actual differences between the two. I didn't know about the possibilities, or that there were properties of the two. I just thought that community service was the same thing as service learning. Well, I didn't know there was such a thing as service learning.

But in ro, we also had to perform a Service Learning Project; where I tutored various grade levels at a near-by school: Fulton Elementary. My peers and I attended one class each week at the school and from there we wrote a reflection of what we did in the classes, and what we gained from our experiences from tutoring the younger ones.

From my service learning site, we learned that there are differences from Service Learning and Community Service.

What is Community Service? 

• It is a mandatory act of giving back to one's own community. In order to graduate from high school, each senior at my school was required to complete a certain amount of hours. So at most times, community service is expected to do so because someone, or an authority figure told one to do so.
• It is an act which ONLY benefits one's own community. There is no self benefit, may be minimal, but rare. 
• It is usually Quantity over Quality. Just like in high school in order to graduate, most students wanted to get their hours done right away, rather than taking in what they are doing to help their community and having fun with it. 

What is Service Learning?

• It is a voluntary act of giving back to one's own community. It is not because they are required to do so by their school, or by an authority figure, but because they want to help his/her community.
• It benefits both one's community, and the person. Unlike community service, service learning is where one actually reflects upon his/her actions, and what they are doing for his/her community, and why he/she is helping out. Just like when I tutored at Fulton Elementary; it was because I wanted to be there for the students, and help them raise their test scores higher. 
• It is always Quality over Quantity. I would rather volunteer for the experience, and not for the hours. At Fulton, I didn't even ask for volunteer hours just because I had fun being a role model to the students, that I didn't need it (also because I volunteered somewhere else). 

Those are the differences of Community Service, and Service Learning that I perceived in my eyes. I can honestly say that when I help out my community, I do it because I want to. I treat it as a lifestyle, because I like to reflect upon what I do for my community, and why I do it.

This subject also ties in with the question we had for Personal Growth about my community: What is one way in which you expect the community you are serving to nourish, nurture, or satisfy you? What are two ways you will take responsibility for that community? I don't expect anything from my community because I believe that I have the responsibility to serve for my own community. I think the only thing I will actually gain is the experience of giving back to my community, and having fun with it. Especially when I get to work with young children again by being at Rosa Parks; I will be able to serve as that role model I'd like to be to them. Just like how I said about how Service Learning is supposed to be about, is how I will take that responsibility: to know that working at Rosa Parks should be about Quality over Quantity. If working there for me will be all about getting my hours just so I could get a check, then I shouldn't even be there. I want to work because I want to gain from the experience, learn something for myself, and give back to my community.