Volunteer Experience by Esmeralda

Volunteer Experience by Esmeralda - May 2018 Scholarship Essay

As a senior I had many goals/rules to meet to graduate, one of them was the Senior Service Learning Project. At first I had no clue where to do my service hours but after a friend invited me to do hours with a staff member on campus I took the opportunity. Of all the service hours I did this school year working with this school staff, Mrs. Bertucci, I hold this as one of my best experiences in high school. I assisted Mrs. Bertucci with various things, some of those being; monitor textbook inventory, maintain and update textbook computer database, receive and fulfill book requests, and ensure district procedures are followed. I mainly did this Service hours after school from 3:00pm to 4:00pm and did it in various days through the months of August and September of 2017.

But it was not exactly the work I did that made this experience great it was the woman I worked with. Mrs. Bertucci is known as the Textbook Clerk at my school. And I T.A.’d for her, for nearly the entire school year. And in that time I not only witnessed a very hard working woman but a person who goes out of there way for students and learns from them too. I clearly remember coming to volunteer after school feeling down due to family problems in school, involving my sister(who also went to the same school). Mrs. Bertucci was quick to tell something was off. She talked to me and helped me overcome this hardship in my life. What I learned from her is that things can be hard especially being a student with various tasks on hand. Therefore we have to learn how to work with what we got and keep going, don’t let things bring you down. Instead let them encourage you to overcome them and do better in our lives. She didn’t have to say this herself, she clearly showed this unintentally. She made time to come to school even when she was sick or hurt her arm. She helped me outside of my volunteer work and always checked up on me. And even though her hard work went unnoticed for a majority of the time, I think she knows it's about doing it for herself and those around her, than being praised for it.

Although this was meant to be a volunteer work. And I did in fact gain computer skills and communicating skills when assisting fellow students. I gained a much more better lesson about people and community. Especially about Mrs. Bertucci and others like her who are known for one title but hold much more broader and stronger titles in heart. In conclusion that is the most important thing that stuck with me throughout this volunteer experience. It doesn't matter if people don’t notice your hard work because it’s more about being selfless and doing it for a good cause. Eventually someone will notice you and thank you, if Mrs. Bertucci read this I would tell her “I noticed you, thank you”.