Service Learning Reflection

Kelly Hales

WST 3015

April 26, 2010
Nina Perez

Final Reflection Paper

Service Learning Project Summary

This semester I worked with the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council, the branch of the Girl Scouts that serves the greater Orlando area. I was very excited to work with this group because not only was I was involved with the program when I was younger, I wanted to directly work with girls/women on my project this semester. Last semester I worked with Animal Safehouse and felt that I was simply a tool used solely to raise money. While I understand that new organizations need to host fundraisers in order to successfully launch, I felt slightly unfulfilled at the end the project. I was looking for more in terms of reciprocity and didn’t necessarily see myself as a direct impact on anyone’s life. This semester I knew that I wanted to work with people directly, which is why I thought the Girl Scouts would be a perfect match for me. I ended up getting lucky because not only was I able to work with actual girls, my team mates and I were able to teach an entire Girl Scout troop several weeks in a row. I paired up with Jessica Schwendeman, Shanay Cogdell, and Sarah Jackson and began working on what is referred to as “The Penny Project” with a Brownie troop that meets every Friday in Bithlo Park. The Penny Project is a two week lesson that is taught to Brownie troops and results in their earning a patch in which they attach to their vest/sash. The lessons revolve around different types of money, ways to earn money, and most importantly, ways to save earned money. We were given the supplies and were allowed to teach the lessons whichever way we wanted. We split up the lessons so that each of us was able to teach the troop for an allotted amount of time. On the second week when we were finished teaching both lessons we let the girls paint their own piggy banks to save their own money in. I was sad that we were finished with our service learning project, but fortunately this wasn’t the last time I worked with this Girl Scout Troop. Shanay, Jessica, Sarah and I have all worked individually with the troop. They helped sell Girl Scout cookies at Wal-mart, hosted a pizza party event, and also took the troop to Magic Game. I was unable to attend these events because of my conflicting schedule, however, I was able to chaperone a field trip. Recently, I helped Marianna take the Girl Scouts to an event at the Kappa Delta house on the UCF campus. The girls made collages, sang songs, and ate root beer floats. I’ve had a great time working with the Girl Scouts. I was able to connect my course material to real life situations and analyze the “myths” of society. It is easy to shrug off course material as personal opinion; however, I was able to see firsthand that this material is genuine and true to society and especially to the young girls of America. I am positive that I can connect each individual reading with the girls that we worked with in some form.

Word Count: 531

Synthesis of Project and Course Materials

It is important that women and girls are receiving precisely what they need from their very own community. The local public (yes, even men) can benefit the women’s movement in many ways. There are so many possibilities to change the future, which include volunteering, working with shelters, participating in rallies for women’s rights, and personally taking a stand against participating in the cycle of patriarchy. I felt that I was personally helping the young girls in my community by volunteering with the Girl Scouts. I was able to connect the class texts with the experiences I had while completing my service learning. One of the main concerns I have in terms of these young girls is the impact that the general media is having on them. It is so obvious that they are zombies to the media, following orders just as they’re expected. On my first day working with Brownie Troop 7003 we played a game and asked all the girls what they want to be when they grow up. Responses were as follows: a rock star, supermodel, singer, famous, pretty. None of the girls said they wanted to go to college to become a doctor or scientist. The girls are brainwashed by the media and insist that they must be “pretty” to become successful in their lives. I also noticed that on the collages they created at the Kappa Delta house they included images of makeup, designed clothes, and models. It is stated in our text book that “most teenagers are sensitive to peer pressure and find it difficult to resist or even question the dominant cultural messages perpetuated and reinforced” (Kilbourne 231). The Girls Scouts is an organization created to benefit woman and children alike in a community. It provides positive self worth, positive images about their own mind and body, and provides positive attitudes about their personal convictions (Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana). The Girl Scouts also provide lessons to girls that perhaps their mothers do not have time to share with them. Crittenden states that “motherhood is now the single greatest obstacle left” (Crittenden 337). Mothers must ensure that they are financially supporting their children while simultaneously providing them beneficial life lessons.

I am positive that not understanding/knowing one another’s history is was hinders the impact of action in communities. It is hard for the upper class citizens to understand why the lower class ones are unable to obtain a job or feed their families. There are myths that we are all functioning under; judging and misinterpreting one another. This leads to a lack of motivation to want to participate in community service and activism. It is important that everyone understands that “community service projects create knowledge and social capital for community development" (qtd. in Women in Higher Education). Community projects and activism benefit the community as a whole – not just those who are being helped directly. Also, in terms of feminism it is an “opportunity to meet and become friends with remarkable, dedicated women” (Resources for Feminist Research). It is important to try to understand the situations that others are experiencing in order to successfully achieve community activism.

Word Count: 525

Personal Reflection/Connection

Time spent with the Girl Scouts was both fun and educational. It allowed me to experience the community directly and hopefully touch the lives of young girls. I believe that I learned equally as much from them as they (hopefully) learned from me. I was grateful that I was able to tap into what 7-9 year olds are doing in their spare time nowadays. I was able to heed firsthand what their worries and daily hardships are. Their lives are much different and more technological than mine was at their age. I feel that the media targets kids at a younger age now. When I was seven I lived in an area where cable lines didn’t reach my home. I lived on a farm and played outside for the majority of the day. These are so much more educated about things I had no idea about when I was young.

We began our service learning by working with the Girl Scouts teaching The Penny Project:

My mind was blown when the girls could tell me what a credit card was and how it works. I was also shocked that the girls were so open with the fact that their parents had to budget income because “times were tough”. I was able to connect these statements to what we read in “The Mommy Tax”, an article written about mothers’ struggles for better salaries.

The Brownie troop had a great time working together on the Penny Project:

They played a game in which they had to count and trade real money. This taught them the value of actual money and the worth of goods.

They made me feel like I was seven years old with them. It’s sometimes easy to get lost in your own head with worries. They brought me back down to earth and made me realize that life is about the small meaningful moments.

Above, the girls are showing us how to make a Girl Scout wish. These girls made it so easy to have fun.

Finally, the girls created piggy banks in attempt to help them save their spare change.

This experience not only allowed me to work within the community, but it allowed me to connect my actual class work with everyday living. On numerous occasions did I think to myself “wow, I just read about this in class”. Most of the time I was analyzing the different statements made by the girls and then creating connections with the text. One example of this is when one of the girls stated “girls can’t be mechanics, only boys do that.” I immediately thought of the article “Patriarchy, the System”, which we read early in the semester. This little girl didn’t know it, but she was feeding into the cycle of Patriarchy, while simultaneously devaluing her self worth. The Girl Scouts is an especially important program because it empowers young girls to be everything they want to be. I had a wonderful time working them and I can only hope that they gained as much from me as I did from them.

Word Count: 517

Resources:

Kilbourne, Jean. "The More You Subtract, the More You Add". Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009.

Crittenden, Ann. "The Mommy Tax". Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009.

Johnson, Allan. "Patriarchy, the System". Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009.

“Engage students creatively, thoughtfully for top impact." Women in Higher Education 17.11 (2008): Contemporary Women’s Issues. GALE 26 April 2010 < http://search.rdsinc.com.ezproxy.lib.ucf.edu/texis/rds/suite/+7cteML85wFqzdGcw9s8W_TFqnh1ccewx1qmnwwwewhanmest-dezyIwww/showdoc.html?thisTbl=CWI>.

"Feminist friendship." Resources for Feminist Research (2007): Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. GALE 26 April 2010 http://search.rdsinc.com.ezproxy.lib.ucf.edu/texis/rds/suite/+_cteML85wFqzdGcw9s8W_TFqnh1ccewx1qmDwwwewhanmbevqn5e+hwww/showdoc.html?thisTbl=CWI>.

"Membership and Benefits of the Girl Scouts". The Girl Scouts of the United States of America. 26 April 2010 .