Giving Back to the Community

To me, the Big Event was an incredible opportunity to help an elderly woman in need. Living alone in a somewhat impoverished situation, her home required significant tidying and maintenance. With fellow students participating, I cleaned windows and doors, organized her belongings, and undertook substantial yard work, including removing overgrown bushes.

This effort, part of Texas A&M's biggest service project, aimed to keep the residents of the College Station community thriving. Ultimately, witnessing her gratitude and the significant improvement in her life was immensely rewarding to me, leaving me inspired to contribute to similar initiatives in the future.

At Sigel Elementary, an impoverished and understaffed school, I worked as a teacher's assistant with other students during our senior year. Over the course of a month, we dedicated over 200 hours helping educators lighten their workload. I primarily assisted in preschool classrooms, bringing joy and focus to the children while guiding them in learning foundational skills for their future success.

This experience deeply impacted me, fostering maturity and a deeper appreciation for the patience and perseverance that teachers emit. Knowing our support reduced the teachers' burden and uplifted many of these children was truly fulfilling.

Brightside Garden in downtown St. Louis is an inspiring effort to preserve Missouri's native plants, and I found joy in partaking in the cause. Volunteering at this understaffed garden, I contributed by carefully weeding, something that was challenging work given the subtlety of the weeds, and watering plants in need. I also terraformed rocks to enhance the garden's natural beauty.

Being surrounded by vibrant flora, working alongside kind-hearted volunteers, and letting the sun rays hit my face made the experience truly enjoyable. This project not only deepened my connection to nature but also fueled my desire to return and continue supporting the garden's mission of showcasing Missouri's ecological beauty.

Street Cleanup is a project run through my Texas A&M organization: Freshmen Reaching Excellence in Engineering. As an organization, we adopt a street, and once every four weeks we take to grabbing trashbags so that we can go collect litter, debris, and unappealing material from the side of the road.

Surrounded by a group of energetic and kind people, there is no greater way to spend my morning than to be making jokes and cleaning the streets, overall enhancing our community to be a more friendly place to live for all. Ever since I started this routine, I have grown to appreciate those who clean up our world so much more, as it is a time-consuming and meticulous job to undertake.