One service project I did this semester was Read Across America. This project was run by an upperclassman who is on the Honors executive board. She has been volunteering at AtlantiCare for eight years! This is why she set up an awesome service project at AtlantiCare Kids. The project was reading Dr. Seuss books to young children on Dr. Seuss day. The kids’ ages ranged from 0 to about 5.
I was partners with two other honors freshmen. They are both speech pathology majors, so Dr. Seuss’s rhyming schemes were no trouble for them. The book we had was titled Oh Say Can You Say? written by none other than Dr. Seuss. We read a few pages a at a time, then handed the book to the next person.
At first, I admit that I was a little nervous on how these hyped up four-year-olds would react to college students coming in to the classroom. To my surprise, many of the children made a circle around us and put on their listening ears. Of course there were the troublemakers in the back of the classroom, but the majority were focused on the three unfamiliar faces reading a rhyming, colorful book. The children loved the book and they even were hugging us. It was nice to see kids so inclined about a book. This was beneficial in the sense that kids got to spend time with and interact intelligently with college students. But I believe that we gained more from the experience. We learned how to interact with the children and teach them. I would love to visit these children again.