The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Brooke R. during the 2008-2009 League.
Mission: Take Action - Serve Your Community
The Portage Community Center is an organization that helps underprivileged children and families. It offers clothing, food, drug and alcohol recovery plans, child care, tutoring for children, and more. My sister, Cassie, had tutored there over the Winter semester and had immensely enjoyed it.
So, at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, I was driving to the Portage Community Center to volunteer my time. My brother, who had been to PCC before, accompanied me. When I walked in, a lady sitting behind a wooden desk smiled at Dustin, then asked me what I was here for. I explained I was here to help out and handed her my completed volunteer form. That done, my brother and I walked down a hall and into a conference room filled with envelopes and letters.
A harried-looking woman greeted us: "Hi Dustin, I see you brought a friend. Is she your sister? What's your name? Brooke, thank you so much for coming. We have so much to do. Dustin, show Brooke which neighborhoods we are mailing to. There are pretzels and cookies if you get hungry."
She whizzed away, and Dustin handed me a sheet filled with names and addresses. My first job was to neatly address the envelopes.
Two hours later, my help was needed elsewhere. Envelopes were being stuffed with letters and brochures in the room adjacent to mine. I spent another hour working there, and then took my leave, agreeing to return the next day at 10 a.m.
Wednesday morning came, but no family members accompanied me to the Community Center this time. The woman I had briefly met before introduced herself as Claudia, and she showed me once again to the conference room. I worked again addressing envelopes and stuffing letters, as well as alphabetizing stacks of papers and organizing clothing. By 3 p.m. I needed to leave, but not before promising another appearance tomorrow at the same time.
Over the next few weeks, my presence at PCC became normal, and I became the one to delegate and explain tasks to new volunteers. I made friends with a few of the regular volunteers, although there were few willing to come in as "early" as 10 a.m.
Most interestingly, I became friends with Claudia, the Development Director at PCC. I found out she was a lawyer, which is my career aspiration. She told me about her experiences at and after law school, explaining that few of her classmates had actually ended up practicing law.
I found out that she, too, was interested and involved in politics—in fact, she had been an elected official and also was heavily involved in campaigning during the 2008 Presidential Elections. She even recommended that I apply for the Yale Women's Campaign School summer program, a week-long intensive series of lectures and simulations designed to give top notch training to women wanting to hold office or aide others in their campaigns.
Overall, my experience volunteering at the Portage Community Center was an excellent one, and I plan to continue volunteering there over the summer. Volunteering at PCC allowed me to give back to my community, make friends, and establish contacts in my home town.
