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.