S.A.D.V Students Against Domestic Violence 

When I signed up for this English I didn’t even know that it would be based on community service. After the first day of class when I told that it would be a community services and heard the different organizations that we would be working with I was pumped for the class. Doing community is not only easy but it also creates a feeling of gratification within an individual. I was ready to get down to work due to previous work with community service and volunteering. I was expecting most of our work to be writing on community service and how it could impact others, but come to find out our writing would be tied in with the organization we were placed with. I really wanted to be placed with the Boys and Girls Club but instead I received The Refuge House thrift store location.
            This class has helped me improve my writing skill significantly. I can truly say that I am a better writer because of this class. The projects and the reflective essays has really opened my eyes not only to how to write essays but the process of writing the essay. The reflective essays helped me understand the problems that I had while writing the essays and how I can improve myself. The journals started off as easy short prompts that we would write to warm up our thoughts. The projects would be much harder and would make us really write using research. This is a very effective having the journals corresponding with the actual project instead of having random journals.
            As time progressed in the class we had to complete 5 hours of community service but due to communication with the advisor of our community service we could not get in the correct amount of hours. I believed that if the communication was good, we would have had a great time working for the Refuge House. The Refuge House was created to help people going through problems with domestic violence and sexual abuse. Hopefully next time communication would be better so that the students can actually get some time to help the organization which in the long run can help them understand a little bit about domestic violence.
            With all the information that I have learned about domestic violence, the way I see the community and different households are different. I really would like to help people that are in need of assistance. To see people struggle in these communities with domestic violence and do not know how to reach out for help hurts me. I want to make people aware of the assistant that they can receive and help them in any way possible. This class and the readings done in class has shown me that community service is a good thing. Helping another person with a problems that he/she may be having is how we stay alive as a species. Without community service what are have we come to.
            The project in this class that has taught me the most is project 3 which is the research paper. This project has shown me that I have a lot to improve on when writing research papers. Research papers are the hardest papers for me because of all the background information that we have to find and making sure that you are not plagiarizing someone else’s work. Putting the research paper together requires lots of work and I believe that if I continue to write them I will get better. I didn’t do so well on the research paper we completed which is why I believed I learned that most from this paper. It shows me where I need to improve and where I need to focus my efforts. Hopefully next time I am assigned a research paper I do much better on that paper.
            If I was design this class there is nothing that I would really change because everything correspond with each other. Mostly everything that we did in this class works together. Each project leads into the next which only helps understand better. The journals also help you with the project. The class was created in a way where if you fail it is only because you did not put no effort in your work. This is the reason why I really would not change anything with the class. The person who thought of the sequence placed some effort because everything worked out will with a few minor errors.
            The most important thing that I learned in this class is about community service. To be more specific domestic violence is the most important thing I learned in this class. Learning about domestic violence, the people who are effected and how to help prevent it was very important. It opened my eyes to how people in different communities are effected. This class has shown me this and has allowed me to even help the best way I could. In the future I will try my best to help those who are in need of my help that is why I plan on becoming an FBI agent. This class has changed my perspective on many things in community service and I am willing to refer many students to take this class.