Tiara Workman

Natural Disasters
December 11, 2015
Service Learning Personal Reflection

Before having the opportunity to go to teach the seniors at the senior center I have the
assumption that seniors would not care about what we were to say to them. I had the impression
that the seniors in our community didnt have a desire to learn about what to do in case of
disaster. Disaster preparedness was never a major concern for me nor my family. We had the
assumption that we were never going to be in that kind of situation. We werent prepared for any
sort of disaster, we had no food storage, no 72 hour kit, and no evacuation plan. We were 100%
unprepared. After this taking this course my perspective on disaster preparedness and seniors
have changed.
Being prepared for a natural disaster is now a major concern to me. After being educated
about the risks that I am at has made me want to prepare. I have gained strong feelings about the
preparedness process and about understanding why disasters happen. I have learned that the
seniors in our community care about the safety of their families. While we were at the senior
center there was a man named Jerry who expressed his appreciation to us. He was grateful that
we were in school and were willing to come teach the seniors and get to know them. Seniors are
very caring and concerned about what direction of world is heading. The seniors were really
engaged and had many questions about what we were sharing. It was a wonderful experience and
I hope to have this opportunity again.