Hello, CC! So, I’m having a tiny dilemma. I’ve done a lot of service work, but it isn’t neatly grouped under an organization, program or even a centralized goal. However, I find all of it deeply personal and I am passionate about everything. I’d love to include this information in essays, but am having difficulty formulating it into a smooth, coherent concept.
Here’s a rough timeline of all the significant “projects” I’ve undertaken:
- February-May 2013: Sendai, Japan. I helped repairing and reconstructing the ancestral homeland, etc. However, I also enjoyed the attention (aka request of work) of many neighbors that extended my stay. Proceeded to start an online advertisement and peddling of relief goods that were released into an international community, and I hoped it helped people get involved in what they loved and a good cause!
- 2012-2016: Volunteer with an official program that assists disabled children and servicemen and women to surf and swim. I began doing this for my nephew, but joined officially. My unique experiences have made what would be a twice-a-month half-day commitment into a weekly visitation.
Throughout high school, I took care of several family members before their passing: My great-aunt and father both died of cancer, and my grandfather who died of cancer also had dementia and PTSD (Holocaust survivor). Well, maybe by extension, this has made me very capable of helping similar individuals at the site. Families take a liking to me, and so I visit on a personal basis at their requests. They like to hear me play the cello or piano, or just talk. I’ve occasionally been thanked by families for doing this, because it brightened their day before their passing.
- December 2015-Present: I currently work under an individual who has his own charity organization. Whilst the charity mainly provides for organizations with monetary grants to assist in their projects, I am the one who receives and files away all of the update letters and keeps in contact with them. The work that is done is amazing, and in particular I am always caught crying over letters from Syria. I usually write an update on the circumstances for these organizations for the next meeting to determine funds allocation.
It’s a patchwork of efforts, and I help my nephew after-school for tutoring, but they’re all personal and have helped me grow as a person. Sendai has translated into me organizing my own business and my current work is definitely related to my family background (the displacement narrative and witnessed trauma is particularly poignant from my grandfather’s passing). I wanted to know how best to organize these experiences into essays that ask to “elaborate on an extracurricular activity or work experience.”
I can talk about running a retail business, bookkeeping, training as a pastry chef, debate team, conference research papers or even that one semester I spent doing peoples taxes. However, I think these have had so much more significant impacts on my life. Help? Advice, thoughts, perspectives and opinions–I’d love the feedback on how to approach these topics. They’re so simple, but I honestly find myself falling in love doing so much I can’t even begin…