Head Start

If I was to try and persuade a fellow college student to volunteer at Head Start Inc., I would explain to them that it’s always a fun and comfortable atmosphere. If you’re not used to working with young children all day, this might not be the job for you but if you’re looking for somewhere that the people are extremely nice and very helpful I would highly suggest it. I am always excited to wake up and get ready to go and volunteer. The job is so entertaining with something new happening every second that you could never get bored. Children have such an imagination that it makes me want to be as young as them again. It’s always nice to know that you can be such an influence to someone else’s life in a positive way, especially when it comes to children because after all, they are our future. They look up to me so much that when I do something as simple as painting my nails a different color then they want their nails a different color. Watching the children learn and grow with you is such an achievement. Another argument that I would explain is that I don’t have to worry about dressing up or looking nice as long as it’s appropriate for the kids because you need to be flexible in your clothes so you can play and spark imagination with them. It’s so laid back that even the teachers wear sweatpants to work sometimes. I would definitely go with the appeal to pathos because you have so much emotion running through you with this service-learning location. The emotion can be anywhere from joyous that these children are learning to frustrated that they aren’t listening and even heartbreaking to hear the background stories of where these kids are growing up. Head Start would be a great volunteer work for anyone looking into working with children as their career.

Relaxing Atmosphere

When communicating with people at my service learning location I have never felt like I didn’t belong or I was out of place. Everyone that I work with treat me like I deserve to be there just as much as they do, whether it’s actual teachers or other volunteers, and I actually like how they talk to me like a regular person. Most of the teachers and volunteers are younger adults so I imagine that has a lot to do with it. The only time where they might communicate with me different is when we’re actually around the children and they can hear what we’re talking about. But other than that they’ve included me on almost everything that goes on. I also communicate with them the same way I would with any other adult. When I first arrived at Head Start, I presented myself in a mannered way but once I realized that this volunteer location is much more laid back then I started communicating on a more relaxed level. I don’t use many appeals to the situation when it comes to the adults that I work with but with the kids, for sure! I try to be calm when they’re too excited about something or if they’re mad I try to talk it out with them. I have many different emotions around the kids because they need to see that you care. But again, when I’m communicating with the adults they have shown me that they would like me to talk to them like a regular person and not as their manager or boss of the situation. It’s almost like I’m on the same level as they are. When I’m trying to present or establish my ideas I just bring up my topics when the time is right and the other workers have never brought down my ideas or told me not to say anything. Most of the time we talk about our lives to each other to get to know one another. I like this laid back style of teaching and working because it puts a lot less pressure on my shoulders and I can be myself.
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