Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement

For my experiential activity I did some volunteer work for a local organization.Before college, for work I was a nanny, a babysitter, and a park leader for a park and recreation program.I also loved to volunteer my time to the church in the nursery, as an alter server, and as a Sunday school teacher. However, when I came to Duluth I gave all of that up. This was mainly because I didn’t know any families that I could babysit for and I didn’t know how to go about networking to find one, and, as far as volunteering with a church, I didn’t know where to find a Catholic church in Duluth until recently. So, what I ended up doing was finding an organization called Junior Achievement.Junior Achievement is a program that dedicates its time to help educate kids in grades K-12. For the last three weeks I have been working in a kindergarten classroom here in Duluth at the Duluth Edison Charter School-Raleigh.

I chose to do this volunteer work for a couple of reasons. The first being, I love working with children. As I briefly mentioned above, I have a lot of experience working with kids. At twelve years old my mom enrolled me in a babysitters training program and I have been babysitting ever since. During the summers I also managed to work in some nanny gigs, where I would work full-time (eight hours, five days a week) for one family. Also, like I stated above, I did some volunteer work with the church in the nursery and as a Sunday school teacher.Because of my experience, I felt that it was only natural that I found more work with children. The second reason I decided to volunteer for this organization was because in my three years at the University of Minnesota Duluth, I have not worked or volunteered at all. This has left my resume looking pretty bleak, and I also get quite bored. Despite the fact that over the summers I would work for the City of St. Louis Park as a park leader for their park and recreation program, I knew that I needed to get more involved in things outside of school (and more than two months of work a year).This small series of things is what brought me to make the decision to volunteer in these last few weeks.

Coming into the Duluth school system, I didn’t know what to expect. From friends who had done some volunteer work with the Boys and Girls Club or Big Brothers, Big Sisters I had heard many things about what the schools could be like. Since the children in Duluth tend to grow up in lower income situations I prepared myself for the worst (which was to encounter kids who wouldn’t want to go home after school that day, or would tell sad stories about their home life). Luckily, this was not the case. All of the children were very upbeat and bright individuals (for the most part). And as a matter of fact, the children were far more advanced in their schooling than I remember being in kindergarten.On the first day I learned that the kids already knew how to count coins, tell time, do basic math, write sentences, and read. These kids are genius compared to what I remember myself and my peers learning at that age. What I remember from kindergarten is that we did art projects, learned how to pronounce abnormal sounds (such as “-sh” and “-th”), and have play time. Despite the difference in schooling, we still had one major similarity. The kids and I are both free-spirited and have youthful mindsets. We love to dance, sing, and tell exaggerated stories. When I come to class, the kids get excited to see me, and I get excited to see them. After I leave, we all feel a great deal of satisfaction. The kids feel satisfied because they had an hour full of fun that differs from their normal daily routine, and I feel satisfied because I know that I made their days special through my work. At the end of the day, that is what makes it all worthwhile.

As far as justice, equity, and fairness go, in the classroom everyone is treated equally for the most part.I say for the most part because it is impossible to everyone to be fair to everyone 100% of the time. Although it would be ideal for things to happen that way, unfortunately this isn’t always the case. However, this doesn’t mean my cooperative teacher and I don’t do our best to make sure that everyone’s needs are being met.We have tried very hard to see that everyone is getting the same amount of attention throughout the various activities as well as fair use of the classroom privileges.There are designated times when the children can use the bathroom and eat snacks. That way everyone gets a break at once and no one can feel as though they had a shorter break than the others. This is very similar to the way my schooling was. Everyone did things at once in order to avoid chaos and unfairness in school.

As stated above, I did have some misconceptions going into the school. I had a strong idea that I would be working with underprivileged children. These misconceptions were formed from friends who had already done work with Duluth kids.This worried me because I am a very compassionate individual. I tend to get wrapped up in other people’s issues when called upon because I hate to see others struggle. So, going into this program I knew that it was possible to be placed in a school where I would possibly have to face these troubled children. To my surprise all of the kids appeared to be happy, healthy, and from stable homes. Most children would talk about their moms, dads, siblings, and pets. Hearing these things was a huge relief for me. It was comforting to know that these children were well taken care of and leading happy and normal lives.This answers the question of whether or not I was able to learn about the kids’ background without being intrusive. Yes, I was able to achieve this. I learned that being kind and taking the time to listening to what they have to say in regards to their school work compels them to want to share their lives and life experiences with you. This alone gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

Although this experience did change how I saw the children in the Duluth school system, it did not change how I view the organization. From the beginning I simply saw this as an organization that went into schools to help facilitate learning.Before I went into the schools I was given a little bit of training. I was also given an “activity kit” which contained everything that I would do with the children. Junior Achievement gave me a pretty solid outline to work off of, and it definitely helped me know what to expect from my experience in the school. After my volunteering experience, I still find this to be a great and well established organization. I would definitely work with Junior Achievement again in the future. This is because it gave me the opportunity to do the work that I love while bettering the community. I couldn’t be more grateful to this organization for giving me this opportunity.

Over my three week experience with Junior Achievement, the old cliché that you can’t judge a book by its cover was reinforced. I learned that the school systems in America have accelerated the amount of material children learn at younger ages. This is to better prepare them for the real world when their times come. However, it was surprising to see at how well-rounded they were at such a young age. I would love to volunteer with this organization again; however I would like to try teaching a different grade just so I could get a different experience.Overall, this was a great experience and I am glad I participated in it.