Personal Narrative

 I post personal narrative here. However,  this post is almost same with my post about Risk I posted before. I think my post about Risk can be regarded as my personal narrative post. The following is my personal narratives. 

Personal Narrative

     In this summer, I am going to visit Surabaya, Indonesia and engage in Service Learning Program there. The program is “International Service Learning at Petra Christian University” provided by ICU. I am a member of the group that is composed with students who are coming from different states, such as the Netherlands, China, Korea, Indonesia, and Japan. Then, we go to a village in Surabaya and make a contribution to it through teaching English to children or repairing buildings.  I have not been to Indonesia, yet I am sure that I need leadership skills there. I will learn a lot of things in this program through using leadership skills.

     In this Service Learning Program, I would be faced with many risks. For instance, I would suffer from a stomachache because of bad water. In addition, I would get confused to the unknown culture in Surabaya that is totally different from a familiar culture in Japan. However, even though I am faced with these risks, I must think the risks are worth taking. As the author of Leading at The Edge says, "Understand the risks you face and evaluate them carefully", I should assess the risks accurately. 

     I think the risks in Service Learning Program are worth taking because there are benefits I can get from the risks.

     First, I can cultivate the ability to solve something that actually happened from the service learning. In the service learning, I would be involved in approaches to solve actual events with various kinds of institutions or groups in the community. This requires me to deal with the actual events by means of not the theory that I learned in textbooks but the practical skills that are related to lives in the community. Thus, I would acquire the ability to find solutions to the reality in the situation. In addition, I think that the important ability will be very useful to the work in the future. In fact, I am interested in working for international institutions such as United Nations and International NGO groups. In order to work in such institutions and contribute to the fields, especially the fields of development, the ability is essential and indispensable. 

     Second, I can develop the self-consciousness that means I am needed to the community. In the service learning, I would try to contribute to the community through unpaid activities. I think that this makes me enhance the self-awareness. For example, I joined volunteer activity in Ishinomaki, Miyagi in this summer. Although the activity was unpaid, I realized that I was developing the responsibility to be dedicated to the activity. This responsibility meant I was fully needed to the community. Moreover, the experience learning from the contribution to the community in service learning can be made use of the community in which I am living.  

 

     Third, I can experience the diversity in the community from service learning. When I go into the new community and work in it, I face with a lot of different people and the diverse culture in it. I am sure that this experience produces the awareness of diversity. For instance, I can aware the different culture of people from different states through living in Global House, an international dormitory in ICU. In the lives in Global House, I really felt the importance of respects to the different culture because, if people in my dormitory do not take care of other’s culture, it would probably cause conflicts between them. I experienced such conflicts many times, thus I know that people should put importance on respecting the different culture. However, the awareness of diversity always makes me have curiosity about the gap between different cultures. I hope that I visit new community and experience more awareness in it.

 

     Finally, I can acquire new skills by engaging in the service learning. In the activities of service leaning, I would pass through many experiences and gain new skills. And the skills would be different from the place to place. For example, I can develop the skills to educate and communicate with children in program of teaching supports. And I can also develop the skills to cooperate with people from different cultures in program of group works. It is difficult to acquire these skills in daily lives in Japan. 

      In conclusion, I think the risks in the Service Learning Program are worth taking basically for the four reasons; to develop the ability to solve something that actually happened, to aware the self-consciousness of the responsibility to the community, to experience the diversity in the community, and get new skills. I would like to dedicate myself hardly to the program and develop myself as a person who has fully responsibility to the community in which I engage in the program.