For 7 of my 10 hours of community service I worked with Taos Academy Charter School Students doing poetry & mindfulness workshops. The students were ages 11-18. I chose this as one of my community service programs because writing poetry is one of my passions, I want to share the love for writing with the youth, and I went to Taos Academy for my senior year of high school and I wanted to give back to their staff and students in a way that I successfully could. I was able to teach each class of students a mindfulness practice, a poetry prompt, then we went around the room and some students read their poems out loud. I instructed them on how to give positive feedback without criticism to encourage their creativity and make them feel accepted. There were some students that expressed an interest in further pursuing creative writing and poetry. I had some difficulties managing the classrooms on my own at first, but as time went on I was able to develop the skills to manage the classrooms. This community service project made me more interested in possibly pursuing a career in teaching at some point in time.
I also did 3 hours of community service running a booth along with a few of my co-workers from TCEDC at a non-profit fair. My role was to help explain what TCEDC is, their goal of community development, talk about their commercial kitchen, community garden and greenhouses, and the mobile slaughter unit. I also took photos for their social media pages. I had some difficulty with outreach because I’m extremely shy and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to answer all of the questions that people would ask. I was happy to be able to spread awareness about non-profits, TCEDC, and their long-standing goals of community development. It seemed that some community members were interested in the prospect of starting a food business through TCEDC or taking the food safety/food sector classes that are offered several times a year.
