In approximately 250 words, tell us about the most personally significant contribution you have made to a community through your participation in one of the activities you listed under on this application. This personal statement is required. Since you are applying online, you must submit your statement with this application in the space provided.
I make beds. I escort elderly patients to the lobby where their guardians await. I restock shelves of absent supplies. I systematically do what I am told to do, what everyone else at the hospital does; volunteer. We all wear the same coral blue uniforms. We all wear the same black pants and sneakers. To the medical staff, I'm just another volunteer in uniforms, someone just as replaceable as the next.
Quite frankly, volunteering at such a large facility makes me feel insignificant, especially when nurses have trouble distinguishing which volunteer is which, and can't remember our names. But I feel just the opposite when assisting at church. Every lock-in, retreat, conference, and other various church gatherings, I have volunteered to be a forum leader, a role my peers take on reluctantly if not by force.
As a forum leader, what I do is pretty self explanatory; I lead forum for a younger group of kids. I listen to my group talk about their problems, or a realization they had from the sermon, and each and every one of them looks up at me at the end of their speech, expectantly, as if I might have the answers to their problems. Usually I don't have the answer. I try to put myself in their shoes, and think of times when I was in a similar situation, so I could respond to them in something that at least resembles an answer. I would try to assure them regardless, and I feel a little worthless as I repeat to remind them what the pastor has said during the sermon, but surprisingly, my reminder gives them assurance. That precise moment is the reason why I volunteer to be a forum leader, year after year. To know that a bit of effort on my part could bring about growing faith in other people makes being a forum leader the greatest contribution I could give.
I make beds. I escort elderly patients to the lobby where their guardians await. I restock shelves of absent supplies. I systematically do what I am told to do, what everyone else at the hospital does; volunteer. We all wear the same coral blue uniforms. We all wear the same black pants and sneakers. To the medical staff, I'm just another volunteer in uniforms, someone just as replaceable as the next.
Quite frankly, volunteering at such a large facility makes me feel insignificant, especially when nurses have trouble distinguishing which volunteer is which, and can't remember our names. But I feel just the opposite when assisting at church. Every lock-in, retreat, conference, and other various church gatherings, I have volunteered to be a forum leader, a role my peers take on reluctantly if not by force.
As a forum leader, what I do is pretty self explanatory; I lead forum for a younger group of kids. I listen to my group talk about their problems, or a realization they had from the sermon, and each and every one of them looks up at me at the end of their speech, expectantly, as if I might have the answers to their problems. Usually I don't have the answer. I try to put myself in their shoes, and think of times when I was in a similar situation, so I could respond to them in something that at least resembles an answer. I would try to assure them regardless, and I feel a little worthless as I repeat to remind them what the pastor has said during the sermon, but surprisingly, my reminder gives them assurance. That precise moment is the reason why I volunteer to be a forum leader, year after year. To know that a bit of effort on my part could bring about growing faith in other people makes being a forum leader the greatest contribution I could give.
