My Place to Contribute: A Reflection on First-Year Writing

As an outsider, I must respect the space that has already been created while recognizing my place to contribute.

By Akiro Duey

Service-Learning has provided me with a different view of my learning in the classroom, especially based on my own placement. During my work with Boston Scholar Athletes, I have gained a significant amount of experience working as a tutor, which made me appreciate the progress I have made as a student now enrolled in a university. I see taking classes now as contributing to the general good of my community, as I have been able to see how my efforts benefit everyone. Altogether, this has made my classroom experience much more focused and determined and provided me with a sense of added intelligence to apply throughout my portfolios and discussions.

First-Year Writing has taught me about the learning process with the readings by Freire and Rodriguez and with my own reflections on my education over the years. I have also been able to better understand what community means by reading Said and Anzaldua, along with the second portfolio when I wrote about one of the communities that I am a part of. In addition, the activities that we did in class helped to describe how communities function in real life, allowing me to be ready for the actual service-learning. Knowing how people feel about a community really helps when working in the classroom because as an outsider, I must respect the space that has already been created while recognizing my place to contribute. Finally, I think that being in a classroom as a student has provided me with a comparison to my position as a teacher, which improves my ability to convey knowledge to others in an effective manner.

Akiro is a student in Professor Bret Keeling’s First-Year Writing course. He completed his service with Boston Scholar Athletes, using his experiences to inform his writing for four portfolio assignments in the course.