Thoughts from a First-time Homework Helper
About a month ago, we wrapped up our last session of one of JCU Golden Key’s community outreach events – the Homework Help Program, and one of my first ever experiences as a volunteer in this area of service. Never before have I undertaken such an opportunity to provide academic support to the primary schoolers; as you can imagine, (fellow undergraduates back me up here) primary school seemed like it was another era away and the added years definitely didn’t serve my recollection on elementary curriculum all too fairly. But pressing on, I believe I speak for the other volunteers when I say, we were willing to try; and looking back on this experience, I admit that I’ve learnt more about myself and (as cliché as it sounds) about life’s experiences through interacting with the kids at Sheng Hong Student Care Centre. Hindsight is, most spectacularly 50/50 in this post. So some thoughts moving forward, hopefully fellow members would resonate in one way or another through the following quick thoughts about my personal experience in the Homework Help Program.
As just a brief background on the facility, Sheng Hong Student Care Centre is an after-school hub where low- to middle-income primary school students can attend daily for extra-curricular academic help and for exposure to fun activities such as Chinese calligraphy and games. Most of the students there have been attending the program on a regular basis, and some of which have been nurtured for more than half of their primary school education. As such, being a regular student-led volunteer group, JCU Golden Key is no stranger to the centre; as evident in our first meeting where the kids were quick to approach the volunteers on hand for help in their schoolwork. You may read about the activities we conducted here.
In supplement to what we set out to do for the sessions – aiding the kids’ homework completion, it was also important to interact with them and make the session fruitful and fun. We were all there before, when that little unassuming crack in the ceiling suddenly became more of an interesting factor in comparison to our homework. Hands up if you can relate.
You have more knowledge to share than you might have realised:
Being more than 10 years their senior, the reality of age does kind of hit you in the face as the kids rattle on about what’s in and what’s out nowadays. Not that we’re particularly old, just that, in comparison to these youngins, it’s undeniable that we are. Not that it’s a terribly depressing thing; in fact, I find it refreshing to learn what they’re going through in this point of their life. A little bit of a new perspective; a sort of “been there, done that” type of situation. Evidently this really came into play when a P6 student I was designated to help for that session expressed her stresses for PSLE (a year-end national examination for 12 year olds, a.k.a. the threshold between you and your immediate future in secondary school). She asked me, “what did you get for your Prelim 1 last time?” (Footnote: Prelim 1 is one of the last serious mock-up examinations that schools schedule for the students before the actual PSLE). Take it as a milestone, failure is the mother of success; hard work will pay off. Motivational Buzzfeed articles really came full circle and now I was preaching what was absorbed/learnt through my formative years. Through one of many instances like this in the Homework Help Program I found that it pays off to take time to relay personal experiences, you have more to share than you realise.
Strength in numbers:
Every session we had about 3-4 volunteers attending the session at Sheng Hong Student Care Centre, an especially valuable resource when we faced difficulties attending to the kids’ homework. Many a times our volunteers bonded over difficult problem sums, pulling our brains together to come up with a solution. Since when did maths become this hard. But in all seriousness, it was rewarding to finally be able to solve something. There always seemed to be at least one tricky problem every session we had to pull in everyone’s help for; and this in my opinion was one of the aspects of Homework Help Program that quickly gelled all of us together. All in all, the program served well to bring all of us closer together; and was not only a respite from the stresses of uni life, but I also came away from it feeling rejuvenated and mindful of the importance of reaching out to the community.
If you’re looking for such an experience to embark on community involvement, watch this space, or our other GKS social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) on sign-ups for the next Homework Help Program commencing on 11th July!
