An upcoming junior at Atherton High School, Diamond started volunteering at the Family Success Center this past school year and has continued to give her time and assistance during the summer activities.
Because Diamond lives in the same area where St. Vincent de Paul is located, she chose to help her own community by volunteering at the Family Success Center. She wanted to give back to her own community while mentoring the children in her own neighborhood, she explains.
“I love laughing and having fun with the kiddos,” Diamond says. “Being around them makes my day better.”
Diamond helps prepare and serve the meals Dare to Care delivers to our Kids Café each day, and then helps clean up after lunch. She also helps monitor the children as they participate in various programming and activities. However, Diamond’s main goal as a volunteer is simply to help instructors/teachers make a positive impact on kids’ lives.
“My favorite part about giving back and doing this type of community service is knowing that the kids will learn something from what I am doing,” Diamond says, with pride – “and that I can be a role model for them.”
In addition to helping out at St. Vincent de Paul, Diamond is active as a member of the Whitney M. Young Scholars and an organization called Aspire Higher.
Whitney M. Young Scholars is a scholarship program that recruits academically talented, economically disadvantaged 7th-grade students in the Louisville Metro area and over a six-year period prepares them for high school graduation and college. Aspire Higher is Atherton’s college and career readiness program.
After high school, Diamond plans on attending college to become an art teacher or an actor.
An upcoming senior at J. Graham Brown High School, Jennifer loves giving back to the community.
As a participant in the Mayor’s Louisville Summer Works Program, Jennifer is dedicating her summer to volunteering and helping out at the Family Success Center’s Summer Program.
Jennifer originally began volunteering at the Family Success Center two years ago with the Beta Club at her school, in order to complete community service hours. As her passion for helping at-risk youth grew, she continued to volunteer at the FSC even after meeting her requirements for community service hours.
“I love coming to work with the kids,” says Jennifer. “I think my favorite part about volunteering is being able to teach the kids something and then seeing the look on their faces when they understand what I was teaching them. It is a look of pure joy!”
Jennifer’s role and tasks as a volunteer are very widespread. Some days she helps with the set-up of classrooms and assists in signing the kids in and out of the summer program. Other days she helps prepare lunch in the Kids Café and takes part in helping the instructors in the classroom.
“Community service is very rewarding,” she explains, “and I think it helps keep me grounded as a person. By doing service for others I realize now that life is not about the material things, but it’s about the people you get to share time with.”
Community service is not the only thing that helps keep Jennifer grounded. She is very involved in extracurricular activities and academic organizations as well.
Jennifer is currently President of the Beta Club and a member of the National Honor Society as well as the National Society of High School Scholars.
Upon graduation Jennifer would like to attend an in-state college to pursue a career in teaching or counseling.
Note: This story appears in the August issue of the Good Samaritan, SVDP’s free, monthly newsletter. To subscribe to home delivery, go here.
Leave a Reply