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UW Students in Service Member
GREAT STORIES

University of Washington Students in Service Members work for a large variety of different community organizations, a few of which include:

 

Read some of their GREAT STORIES...

From June Peng, an SIS Member honored at the 2007 Spring Celebration of Service & Leadership:

My story isn’t of a concrete, single life-changing event; in fact, I’m not sure I know where my story begins and ends. I do know that by taking advantage of the various service opportunities available to me (and with free time made possible by the educational award), I have grown from a naïve, somewhat apathetic teen, to a young adult ready to fulfill my civic responsibility and change the world through intelligent action.

I began volunteering at Harborview Medical Center when I was a freshman in high school. I was an extremely introverted youngster, and valued classroom education with an almost unhealthy fervor. I recall being interviewed [by Janet Green, the volunteer coordinator at HMC] for the Summer Teen volunteer program, sitting in the cramped corner of an office, speaking far too quietly and replying that my motivation for volunteering was because my father had said it would look good for college applications. As I replay that interview in my head, I can’t help but cringe at both my demeanor and my responses, and I suppose Janet might have cringed a bit as well. In fact, years later, I inadvertently chanced across the form she filled out during our interview and she had noted that she was unsure of my potential success as a volunteer because I appeared too shy. 

Now, almost five years later, I’m glad to say that I’ve disproved that initial hunch. My specific assignment at Harborview for the last two years is at the ICU Help Desk. The Help Desk assists in the non-medical needs of patients and their families—anything from providing housing information to families who have traveled from the far corners of the WWAMI region served by HMC, providing magazines and books to patients waiting for their bodies to heal, to helping lost visitors find their way around the giant maze that is Harborview, especially with the construction that’s occurring currently.

Students in Service offered me an “excuse” to volunteer more than I could have without the justification of financial support. I volunteered more hours more frequently, and as a result, I became involved with patient families to a much greater extent than what a normal 4 hr per week shift would allow. I began being able to recognize names and faces, attaching a new level of personal-ness to individuals who had seen me previously as just another volunteer—one of the many in the robot army of volunteers.

It’s difficult to tell just one story that captures the essence of both the effect my service has had on me and the effect I have hopefully created with the various organizations I serve with. My story of growth and revelation is far from unique, but what is unique is how all the different SIS members and other volunteers achieve their growth. Please ask these individuals for their stories when you get a chance.

From a member working with the UW Medical Center:

An adolescent patient with new onset of depressive symptoms came into the ER for an assessment. Her parents did not entirely understand what was going on with their daughter and why she was engaging in self-harm behaviors. After interviewing the girl, I facilitated a discussion with her parents to explain what was going on from a mental health perspective. I then arranged for the family to meet with a mental health professional to engage the young woman (and possibly her parents) in ongoing mental health services.

From a member working with the Islandwood Program:

This week at IslandWood I taught a very unique group of students who have been through some very traumatic experiences in their short lives. These students are children who have been abused at some point in their childhood and are now living in a residential treatment center.

The group this week was also the smallest I have worked with at IslandWood, but has definitely left a big impact on me and my experience here. One of the activities this week involved the students finding their own special spot along a trail that would be their own spot for the whole week. Each day we spent time at that spot observing different things are doing different activities. On the last day of the students' stay, one boy said "I am so glad that I got to know this spot so well, I feel much more appreciative of nature and mossy trees, and I will miss my spot ever day."

From a member working with the King County Juvenile Probation Center:

The beginning of May Ii took on a new challenge at my service site, King County Juvenile Probation, of teaching rap music to the kids that attend school there. The first session, the kids were really out of control and their attention spans were very short. The second session, the kids seemed to be more interested in what i was teaching. I found a strategy that worked for keeping them involved and engaged in the material and that was to teach my material in the form of a game, Pictionary.
They learned about the origins of rap music and how it evolved. Also that not all rappers come from the streets and gang violence. I was able to show them that there are some rappers who have a message and it's positive. I really enjoyed this experience because i learned different approaches to use with the students at King County Juvenile Probation and i earned their respect even though i was pretty close to them in age. I eventually ended up with a name, "Hip-Hop lady."

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