https://create.piktochart.com/output/45354898-untitled-infographic
As you know, Professor Pisano allowed the athletes to do different projects for our service-learning hours because of our busy schedules. The most recent project we worked on was preparing infographics for specific topics. For example, I created infographics on Mass Communication and Political Science and talked about writing in these specific majors. The part of this project that stood out the most was how different each major is from one another. Writing is thought of in a totally different way because political science is much more based on facts than mass communication is. Learning this has drastically influenced my understanding of writing. To be honest with you, I thought everyone wrote the same and nothing influenced it not even there major. I also thought everyone had a similar writing process but since learning that Political science looks to find facts first I realized people can have very different ways of writing. Since, we have been told we will not return to campus for the rest of the semester this means we will not be able to do anymore service-learning. My goal since service learning is over will be to volunteer and help kids practice soccer. I also will try to go to my old elementary and help tutor there. I’m willing to do this because I believe service learning has really influenced my personal growth. I know understand that helping people is one of the best ways you can give back to your community. Just taking the time out of your day could mean the world to someone and you don’t realize it till you actually do it. I think this really has to do with the Ashville area, the people are so kind and thoughtful and you can tell it really makes these days when people go out of their way to help them. I’m very happy to have participated in this service-learning part of the class.
Over the past few weeks of volunteering at Asheville High school, I’ve gotten to work with a few different students and help them with many assignments. I really enjoy the first few minutes of working with a student, when we introduce ourselves and discuss what they want to work on. This part is enjoyable to me because our conversation is more relaxed than when we are actually working on their assignment, so I try to come off as approachable as possible so that they will be more comfortable asking for my help. Because I’ve gotten to help multiple students, I’ve worked with people at all stages in the writing process. The first student I tutored hadn’t started writing their paper, so we worked on figuring out the stance they wanted to take in the paper, as well as their thesis statement. This was challenging for me because I usually struggle to start my papers, but at the end of the session we were both happy with what had been accomplished. Despite it being a little harder than I had expected, the first session was really enjoyable, and it made me excited to go back. The next student I helped had already finished her paper, and just wanted someone else to read it for anything she might have missed. During this session, I was reminded that reading aloud is not one of my strengths, as I kept stumbling over words and losing my place. However, we laughed it off and I think it helped her to see me as more of a person trying to help her than a scary college student. This session was very different from my last one in that it was more detail oriented, but I still really enjoyed it. Working with these high school students has helped to widen my view of Asheville and the people living in it, because I have a completely different perspective on the city than the students I’ve been tutoring do, which has enhanced this experience even further.
Audrey Johnson
In my tutoring, I have had the opportunity to meet with a handful of students. At first, each session felt a bit hectic as I tried to understand my purpose in the writing center and provide adequate support to the students. Now that I’ve better adjusted to them, each session has felt smoother and honestly more fun, which is not how I thought I would describe the process when I first started. I’ve gained a lot from the experience, not only I the form of personal confidence, but also as resources and perspectives I didn’t know about. being a tutor forces me to view assignments in a way I wouldn’t have as a student, and this perspective is really useful when applied to my own assignments outside of tutoring sessions. I don’t think my existing goals as a tutor changed much, but I added a new goal. I still want to improve the writing of students in my tutoring sessions, while also hopefully improving my own writing, but I also want to encourage the students, who are forced to go to the writing center, to feel more comfortable with the process and gain a better understanding of what the writing center has to offer. I want the students, who were not using the writing center, to choose to come back.