Mikayla Coyne- Blog Post #4

Two weeks of service learning at the BTU have now passed. I really enjoy volunteering at the BTU, as not only do I feel I can make an impact on the writing of young individuals, but it also gives me a different viewpoint on how everyone learns differently. I have now worked with two different students and just between these two students, I see many differences in their learning styles. One person who I was working with last week was very shy and liked to keep her thoughts to herself, while the other person I worked today liked to have my opinion on everything, even her new haircut. I find it very interesting how the personalities of kids can be so different, and this is what I love about volunteering at the BTU, no matter who the person is, there is always a sense of wanting to help them with their writing to the best of your abilities. I think that volunteering at the BTU every week will not only make a difference in the kids that I am working with, but I also think this can make a difference within myself. I think that I can learn a lot from these kids and they can also teach me valuable lessons that I can carry on throughout my learning at Northeastern and in life in general. I think that it is very important to have patience in life and I definitely think that this service learning is helping me with that. It is definitely a nice feeling to take a break in the day and know that you will have a positive influence on people. I feel like many students at Northeastern work so hard without a lot of rewards, so it is nice to feel that sense of reward every week after visiting the BTU.
I am not going to lie, at first when we were told this was a service learning first year writing class, I had no idea of that and I was not too excited. But, now I am very happy that I was placed into this first year writing class. I think that this type of volunteering is something so different than I am used to and I am very excited that I am able to try something new, that so far I am really enjoying. I think that I can now carry over this love for helping others even more to my daily activities and even try my best to carry it on for the rest of my life. After volunteering now twice at the BTU, I have really been able to enjoy my time there and I can not wait for the more time there to come.