How Community Service Is Changing My Life | The Odyssey Online
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How Community Service Is Changing My Life

Boys and Girls Club is one of the best places ever. No lie.

Caroline Francoeur
Dec 14, 2018
Syracuse University
48
How Community Service Is Changing My Life
Unsplash

The town that I grew up in had minimal diversity, and many residents are in similar situations financially, socially, and culturally. Coming to Syracuse, I knew that I would be exposed to a broader group of people; something that I was truly looking for when searching for colleges. Syracuse has been a great experience for me culturally.

I have met amazing people from all around the world who have different backgrounds than me. Despite these amazing encounters, the Boys and Girls Club of Syracuse truly taught me the meaning of gratefulness.

The class that brought me to the Boys and Girls Club was PAF 101. This class was one of the best I have ever taken and it taught me the importance of "Doing Good" in life rather than focusing majorly on "Doing Well." A requirement for the class was to do 5 hours of community service.

Although this isn't much, I found myself stressing about what I was going to do to fulfill this requirement. Hearing about the Boys and Girls Club, I thought to myself that this would be perfect. I did something similar to this in my hometown, but I was curious to see the differences and similarities between Syracuse and what I have done in past years.

My first time there, it was an eye-opening experience. The managers of the Boys and Girls Club were amazing, dedicated people, whose main focus is to better the education of the children in the Syracuse school districts. I ended up meeting so many incredible kids who work so hard to succeed and this was one of the most rewarding things to see during my time at the Boys and Girls Club.

The entirety of PAF 101 consisted of choosing a societal problem to then develop a policy or strategic plan in an attempt to fix it. After going to the Boys and Girls Club, I am completely positive about my major in Policy Studies and my hope to fix education systems around the world. Not only did I fulfill my 5-hour requirement at the Boys and Girls club, but I still plan to continue volunteering next semester.

I highly recommend this to anyone and I am more than grateful for the amazing experiences that I have had there.

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