Bentley Jones- Saint James Church

• Where did I volunteer?
•  I volunteered at my home church, Saint James Church, with the middle school and high school youth groups. This church is located in Charleston, SC.

• How did the service activity reflect concepts learned in the HDFS curriculum?
•  As a chaperone and volunteer with youth and young adults you also have to act as a mentor to them. In doing this, you can refer them to resources that can help them. You can also be that resource that they may need in order to get their life back on track. This can kind of connect with the FLE portion of the HDFS  curriculum though while I may not be educating them on things, I am able to give them the resources they will need. 

• How did I network with other professionals while participating in the activity? What did I gain from that networking?
• Networking with other professionals while participating in the activity was relatively easy because I was forced to. When I say forced, I mean I was placed in groups with other adults and chaperones from other churches in the area. I was able to learn different activities they do with their youth groups and also get to learn about the other resources that were in the area that I didn't know about, that could be very useful to my students. From that networking, I not only learned about other resources available my my students, but I was also able to learn about resources that I could use personally. Lastly, since I was the youngest person in the adult groups, I was able to gain insight from the other chaperones that have been doing what they're doing for a while now, but I was also able to provide insight to the older adults because I had different views than they did as well. 

• What is the potential effect the service organization can have (or does have) on the community?
• This organization provides teenagers and young adults with the opportunity to learn more about God and allows them to find a safe place to worship Him. It also provides students with a safe and nurturing environment for them to go and get help if they need it. Not only that, but it also provides students with a mentor, whether it be the youth leader, chaperons, volunteers, or even older students in the youth group, there is always someone there to help if you need it. 

• Assignment Reflection
• This assignment allowed for me to carry out my beliefs, it also allowed for me to see that maybe I would like to work with teenagers, even though I have a concentration in early childhood studies and not adolescent studies. It was very interesting to see how when taking students out to a place where cell phone service is scarce, and they actually get their phones taken away, how much they pay attention and appreciate that quality time with their friends and other people around them. I would really like to possibly continue down this path to help students stay on the right path to carry out their full potential.