December 2021

December: 14.5 hours

Fall Cumulative: 14.5 hours

With our final exam this past Tuesday, an eventful semester comes to a close. 

It only took me until December to finish up my community service hours, but I was able to volunteer with some amazing organizations in Second Harvest Food Bank, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans, and the Salvation Army. While all three were really meaningful experiences (with plenty of hard work), they were not what I had been expecting to work with at the start of the year. That being said, they gave me a new understanding of the systemic issues that I could best serve within the community.

Ultimately, my work at the Giving Hope Food Bank (partnering with Second Harvest) gave me some insight into the needs of the Spanish-speaking community here in New Orleans, and only reinforced my desire to pursue ESL and interpreting opportunities. I have always considered communication barriers to be one of the hardest obstacles to overcome for immigrants or refugees attempting to integrate into a community. When starting over somewhere new, it can be difficult for anybody to find resources when they need help, but an inability to communicate can prevent you from accessing resources even after you find them. I saw this first-hand at Giving Hope, as I saw several people who had made their way to the food pantry, but either did not bring qualifying paperwork (because they did not know they needed it) or were not able to take full advantage of the assistance (as they did not bring a cart for perishable dairy and meat products and could not collect them). 

After completing my training sessions with Immigration and Refugee Services and ESL at CCANO, I am looking forward to starting a long-term commitment to service work in this field while I am in New Orleans.

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