3 Reasons You Should Take AASL by Deokhee Lee

I have been San Diego for 8 months and I have taken 3 quarters in UCSD Extension. Even though I was taking another program, I wondered about the AASL program because I wanted to improve my English skills through volunteering and communicating with native speakers.

Now, after 8 weeks of taking to the program, I realized that AASL program is not only for learning English. The AASL program is the most fantastic program in UCSD Extension for 3 reasons.

First of all, you can learn how to feel happiness from volunteering. Actually, I was not into volunteering, so I did volunteer in Korea (except for school grades). However, this is changed. When I realized an ordinary person like me could help others, I found the reason why people do voluntary work. The reason is happiness. It is very hard to explain, but if you see the other people happy through your volunteering, you will know what I’m talking about now.

Secondly, you can get opportunities to improve your English skills. If you go to a volunteer location, usually you can volunteer with Americans. As you know, communicating with native speakers is the best way to learn English. In my case, I can speak English much better than before because of this reason. I endeavored to communicate with them. If you put in an effort, you can be successful like me.

Last of all, you can make friends who are nice and kind. I heard that “Bad people don’t volunteer” from Dr. Lindsay, one of our AASL guest speakers. I don’t know what others will think of this sentence, but I agree entirely. Everyone I met during my volunteer work was all kind and nice. For instance, my classmates. I think my service learning family are the nicest people in our school. For these reasons, if you take the AASL program in the future, you can get great opportunities, and have meaningful time with volunteering.

The Real Meaning of Volunteering by Emerson Ferrandini

I was mistaken about the meaning of volunteerism. At first, I started volunteering expecting that I would help either people or communities by donating my skills and my knowledge; however, at the end of the 40 hours of getting new experiences in different areas, I realized that I learned not only much more than I was expecting but also I could understand the real meaning of volunteering.

For 8 weeks, I had different experiences such as doing food distribution to poor families, beach cleaning, and getting together with seniors with memory loss and Alzheimer’s. Every activity taught me at least one valuable lesson. People can always amaze us, especially if we are able to break the habit of stereotyping others before we really know them.

One of the main lessons I have learned from volunteering is that the most valuable benefit we can donate is not our skills or our knowledge, but it is our time. Therefore, at the end of this unique experience, I have learned that by donating our time to the others we can understand that the real meaning of volunteering is to learn and understand more about ourselves as humans.

What I Want to Tell Future Students by Hiromasa Aramaki

Through AASL volunteering, I could experience a lot of things. I think the experiences are going to become assets. I engaged in volunteering which is focused on tutoring refugee children in math, grammar or science. 

When I went to class for the first time, I absolutely remember that I was so upset and nervous because I did not have confidence to teach something in English. But a little bit later I recognized that it did not matter. Almost all of the kids were so talkative, positive, and tried to listen to me carefully. I was so impressed by their motivation, attitude and curiosity. I can again recognize the importance of attitude, positive thinking, curiosity, and challenge through this volunteer experience.

Fortunately, some kids remembered me after my first time there, and they began to talk to me more freely. I could make good relationships with kids and talk about many things with them. It was a good experience for me!

In AASL we can get information about prickly topics and learn a lot. For instance, I learned about race in class. Actually in Japan I did not think about race. So it was so stimulating. In addition to this, I could learn about stereotypes. Through this class, I could break my lens and avoid stereotyping.

Finally what I want to tell future AASL students is that if you take AASL, you can experience wonderful things and break a lot of negative things through volunteering and classes. I think the experience greatly serves our future.

What I learned in AASL by Yanbing Liu

“Some volunteer jobs may be boring.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Maybe, you will feel uncomfortable during volunteering.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So do you want to choose Academic Advancement Through Service Learning?”

“Absolutely.”

That’s the first time I saw Christina. And I told her I really want to join the AASL family.

I joined the AASL not only for improving my English skills and adding some experience to my resume, but also to enrich my life in the US and make connections with Americans.

Certainly, I learnt a lot from being a volunteer. When I told Michael (who is the leader of Home Start Thrift Boutique where I volunteered each week) that the next week would be our last week to volunteer, we all are so sad. It’s like I was losing a good friend.

No matter which community partner you work with, you will meet many kind people. Because bad people just don’t volunteer. I also chose to volunteer at ActivCare where we work with some older people who have memory loss. Even though they can’t remember me, every time I went there, they would get happy. I remember an old lady called Jesse, she is like my grandmother, but she is not easygoing, sometimes, she speaks loudly, sometimes she doesn’t allow others speak. But when we finished our volunteer work and were going to leaving, she pulled up my hand and kissed it. 

And I can’t forget a conversation between Jesse and me. During dinner time, I sat with her, she looked at me, reaching for my hair she said, “My son has the same hair like you, black and straight….but I can’t remember other things about him.”

Besides volunteer jobs, the knowledge and opinions which we learnt in class are fantastic. Those are not only related to English but also making me understand myself deeply. The knowledge are from history to leadership, from race to festivals, covering many different aspects.

At last, I am going to thank my teacher and friends in the same class, without you, I cannot feel such happiness.