My Volunteer Experience as a Camp Coach by Alexis

My Volunteer Experience as a Camp Coach by Alexis - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

Although I have not volunteered for a big organization, I consider my volunteer service to have made a huge impact. I volunteered my time to help young athletes further their athletic abilities in volleyball and softball. One clinic I volunteered at made an even bigger impact than any others I had volunteered for. This past year I volunteered at the Licking Valley Biddy League Softball Clinic. The clinic was open for Kindergarten to Second Graders. Before walking into this clinic, I knew, patience level would have to be higher than it has ever been. At this clinic, my responsibilities were to help these young softball players improve or even learn their basic fundamentals for softball, and most importantly to make sure they had fun.
Many stations we set up for the campers to improve on hitting skills, then we set up other stations to work on fielding fundamentals. I was in charge of the soft toss station with tennis balls and then the station where they threw to a target. At each station, I had to really make sure that my instructions we short and simple. The attention span of the campers was very small so I had to make sure that the stations were interesting, so they would pay attention and have fun.
I believe that fulfilled my responsibilities. At the end of the clinic, the campers knew the answers to all of the questions that we asked about the game of softball and many campers did not want to leave. There were two campers that I will remember. During the whole clinic, they kept wanting to come to my station and they were constantly hanging on me. There was a group picture taken at the end and one of them wanted me to hold them. It was really touching to know that I made an impact at this clinic.
I will always carry this volunteer experience with me. I learned that I have to patient with everything I do. Especially with my career choice. Physical Therapy is challenging and I will have to have patience with my patients. I will have to keep instructions simple and make sure that my patients will understand the instructions. I also developed new skills. I am not the type to talk in front of a lot of people, so explaining something new to young kids helped with that. Overall, this volunteer experience will always be in my heart because of who I impacted and what I learned from it.