Service Learning Log #1

Activism:
Last Saturday, Abi, myself, Jacqui, Erica and Candace went to Safehouse of Seminole and tie-dyed shirts with two of the girl scouts from our troop and most of the children who are at Safehouse. All in all I think our first small event was a good one, even though we only had two of the Girl Scouts show up, we involved all of the children and it was a lot of fun. Our only pitfall this week was not a lot of Girl Scouts showing up but hopefully with our next big event more will be attending. I think we just need to make sure we keep in touch with the troop leader so we can make sure we have more girls in attendance, I know if must be hard to organize that many young girls together when everyone has very different schedule, hopefully we can though.

Reflection:
The activism we have done this week relates to what we are discussing in class because we were discussing The Girl Scouts’ leadership programs and we got to see it firsthand when we worked with the girls. The Girl Scouts believe highly in adult involvement with group leadership and to a certain extent it makes a lot of sense when working with girls that are ages 8-13. Van Linden and Fertman say that adults can help focus adolescents attention on group dynamics among their peers during classes and activities, adults can play a major role in helping adolescents set priorities and manage stress (Van Linden and Fertman 90). In working with the Girl Scouts on Saturday we got to see their leadership skills come out, the girls pretty much took over and we’re helping to explain how to tie-dye to the other children and helping them put on gloves and the little trash bag outfits they made for them so no one got messy. We “the adults” were still there to help facilitate and kind of guide the experience but the girls did an amazing job with those children and I’m looking forward to working more with them.

Reciprocity:
It was really an amazing experience working with the Girl Scouts and children at the shelter, it’s wonderful to see these young girls getting out in their community and getting involved, I know when I was that age all I wanted to do on a Saturday was sleep in and play with my friends, I think the Girl Scouts are a great organization and girls can really do a lot for their community by being a part of it.

Works Cited
Fertman, Josephine A. van Linden and Carl I. Youth Leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1998.