As a service scholar, I volunteer periodically at the Beverly J. Elementary school where I tutor fourth and fifth graders on their homework. As part of my commitment to being a service scholar, I was to complete a mandatory orientation session that would prepare me to work with these young students. However, my orientation session was unexpectedly canceled. Luckily, I was a member of REACH in the past, a club that also is dedicated to volunteering at the local Ithaca schools. I also had to take a training session for this club, and Jeff was kind enough to let me blog about that experience.

For REACH, my training was all about how to deal with kids and the course specified rules around the volunteer work that we would be doing. For instance, it discussed how we aren’t to be alone with a student while volunteering, and that we are to report to school faculty if we are unable to manage any poor behavior or if we think a child is acting dangerously. Of course, as I’ve been already volunteering at the elementary school, such behavior has not become an issue for me and all of the students have been delightful to tutor. Much of the information offered by the orientation session seemed much like common sense, but it was good to get some insight into the type of work I’d be doing at the schools before beginning volunteer work.