For my community service, I was given the opportunity to volunteer at the Swisher County Picnic Celebration in Tulia, Texas and help with the new student orientations at West Texas A&M.
I found out about the Tulia festival from my supervisor, Laura Seals, who set me up with being able to become a volunteer. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to experience an event out of Amarillo and learn more about what was happening in local communities around mine. This event was like a block party, where there were games, food, and music happening. I was assigned to assist in running the games and give out prizes, but one of the more challenging parts was trying to stay cool in the hot sun while running around. It didn’t take away from the experience though, I got to meet the other volunteers and hear about how they got involved in the activity. Once the games shut down, I got to stay and enjoy the festival for a little while. It was very interesting to see this big event in a smaller town compared to Amarillo. I learned the most from this part of my community service as I became aware of some similar events in other towns where I could offer my time to assist other leisure/cultural activities such as the one I did in Tulia.
The final amount of my time was spent at West Texas A&M where I helped new students and parents learn about the campus and the resources available. I wanted to give my time with this because I remember when I first started college and was unaware of a lot of resources that could have benefited me. At first, I was a little timid because I generally am not used to talking to a new person every couple of minutes, but I overcame that and was able to give some great run downs to the students and parents, while also having some great conversations with them. I learned that a lot of new students were like me when I first started, not knowing a lot about what could help them, and it allowed me to feel great being able to give them my experiences and knowledge that would be able to assist them, and while also aiding their journey to start an education.
