Community Service Reflection

Tiffany Leonard
Introduction to Special Education 203
Community Service Component Requirement
October 26th, 2017
 Serving my community has always been an important component of my life. I come from

a very underprivileged background, so I know firsthand the impact that volunteer services can

have on a community. Since I moved to Las Vegas in 2014, I have been especially passionate

about giving back to my daughters’ school and the community it serves. There are three things

that I have gained from my volunteer work at the elementary school, patience, understanding and

my own personal feeling of being a stakeholder.

My first two points go hand in hand. It used to always be so easy to walk into the school

and judge. This teacher did this, or that teacher should be doing that, that office manager is slow,

I always have to wait forever before being helped. I was always quick to have an opinion about

the way things were being ran or what I thought should be different. That all changed the

moment I started volunteering. At first, I started out just helping my daughter’s teacher with

things like copies and homework packets. Then, it expanded to filling other teachers’ needs and

eventually led to me becoming an all-around volunteer that just jumps in wherever I am needed.

The progression happened that way because I slowly started to see the school through the eyes of

the teachers and support staff. I started understanding why things were being ran a certain way or

why certain policies were in place. I began to understand. Now I knew why my daughter’s

homework wasn’t graded and returned right away, or why the office staff always seemed chaotic

and busy. There was simply never enough time in the day to get to everything that needed

attention. These teachers and staff members where working around the clock just to turn around

the next day and so it all over again.

By volunteering, I gained a deeper understanding of what it was like to walk in their

shoes, at least in a small way. What I hadn’t realize before was that my impatience and constant

judgement, added to that of the other 800 plus parents, only made their days more stressful and
difficult. So, I learned to become more compassionate and patient. When I started I thought the

need was simply an extra set of hands to help complete small tasks here and there, but what I

found was that the need for patience and understanding was even greater. I continued my

volunteer hours while simultaneously spread awareness to other parents about what I was seeing.

I shared with parents about the hard work and hours and all the behind the scenes things we had

no idea even existed. The outcome has been amazing.

As the parent community begins to understand what it takes to run a school, they are

putting forth more of an effort to help the school. I have put in countless hours, recruiting more

parents to volunteer and get involved at the school alongside me and other parent volunteers. The

impact that has on the school is nothing but positive. The teachers are seeing the parents getting

involved and buying in to what they are doing, and relationships are forming. The school

community is beginning to come together and support one another. Now, this outcome is a result

of a lot of parents putting forth the effort and giving their own time, but I really like to believe

that my presence and awareness of said issues has had a great influence in the grand scheme of

things.

Overall it is easy for me to say that the experience gained from this ten hours of volunteer

work was priceless. I continue to volunteer and am always finding new needs that need to be

filled. What started as filling a small need of one teacher, turned into filling the needs of many

school members. I am now a more proactive member of this community and hope to inspire

others to become the same as well.