Final Reflection - ICT for Disadvantaged Youth

Throughout my experience from the ICT from Disadvantaged Youth, many of my perspectives have changes. When I first started the project, I expected myself to be in charge of the most parts of the project. I thought that nobody in the group is capable of understanding and doing the tasks that I have assigned to the other people. However, naïve and self-centered thoughts have changed through my experience.

Since I was a leader of the group, I realized that I had to sacrifice a lot of my time to understand and prepare for many situations, which I cannot be foreseen. Also I had to prepare certain courses for the children. I had to care and to be reminded to come up with a feasible and educational course, which should catch interests, and attention from the children who participated the course. I also learned that the volunteer works should not be a spoon-feeding process. Most of the participants are not expected to be knowledgeable about the topics, and may not be adept in English. I learned to respect those children in a certain perspective, and I learned to get along with different people in a certain situation.

Also from this experience, I have learned to become a leader, who takes account and becomes responsible for the action of the peers. In the project, sometimes the activity did not carry out as it had been planned. Also I had to delegate jobs to different people, and had to manage the whole process to work as a whole. Although the project did not prolong for the second semester, I have dedicated much of my effort to set a grounds for future actions, and possible future plans. I have learned so much about organizing a volunteer project, and through my experience from this project, I was able to connect to the ISU volunteer managers, who also faced similar problems, as a start-up volunteer project.

Ultimately, I do not think many of the things did not carry out as I have planned. However, the whole process was enlightening and a good experience for me. I am glad that I was able to take part in such a service project over the semester, and it was an awakening experience for me.