Amos House - Lindsey Allcock

Working at Amos House over the past few days has been an eye opening experience. Amos House is an organization dedicated to “helping others help themselves.” Amos House accomplishes this through many different programs and aspects of the corporation all founded in compassion.

Amos House is an organization with many different and complex parts working together to benefit the community. During our time at Amos House we all experienced the different parts of Amos House. I worked in social services, where the 90 day program helps get people sober and off of the streets and into affordable housing. I also worked in the business offices where Amos House’s two businesses, More than a Meal Catering and its own carpentry business, are run. I also worked in the development office doing various projects looking for support from various local businesses. Through each of these different experiences I gained a unique understanding of the workings of a nonprofit business and of how each different part of Amos House works to benefit the people they help.

My favorite part of working at Amos House was getting to meet a variety of people from different backgrounds. The very first day I was in social services, I attended a group meeting entitled “Addiction Education.” This was an amazing experience and a wonderful way to really see and understand the people I was working to help. This session was a discussion of their relationship to a “higher power” and accepting that there are somethings in life beyond human control. I truly enjoyed meeting people through social services or just walking around the Amos House property. I also had an opportunity to eat at the dining hall, the soup kitchen. Here I met and shared a meal with  people from all different backgrounds, with all different looks and situations, and with different personalities just like anywhere else. The relationships I have seen and developed at Amos House has been one of the best parts of my service experience.

The relationships between “guests,” people in treatment, and the workers at Amos house have been truly eye opening. These relationships show true compassion in action. The people working at Amos House, their “guests” and the volunteers all care about each other and keep “helping others help themselves.”

Overall this has been an amazing experience where I have been able to meet a variety of different people and have been able to see true compassion in the world. Compassion shared between guests at Amos House, between volunteers and between permanent staff is what makes Amos House so successful.

Frank Spaziano - Charlotte Powning

I worked at Frank Spaziano Elementary School, and it was a great experience for me. We've helped out the teachers by stapling papers, grading quizzes, and working with the kids, and although it was unexpectedly tiring, I really appreciate the relationship I've formed with the students and the school in general. As soon as I arrived there, the teachers were very warm and friendly, and the kids were extremely polite, holding doors and getting chairs for us. I worked with two classes, a bilingual fourth grade and a bilingual third grade. Some of the children barely spoke any English at all, and I had to rely on my broken Spanish if I wanted to communicate with them. The third grade teacher, Mrs. Hernandez, knew that I was studying Spanish, and intentionally had me working with the "newcomers", the children who had arrived at the school more recently and therefore did not know as much English. It was a really fun way to learn more Spanish, and it was interesting spending time in a setting in which I was the only non-native Spanish speaker, and several people did not know any English. In the fourth grade, I would mostly help students with their math work, and since the kids I spent the most time with in that class spoke English well, I didn't need to use my Spanish as often, though sometimes they would test me for fun. One thing that surprised me was how attached I grew to the children - I found myself befriending the kids of both classes, and I was sad to leave on Friday. When I was about to leave the third grade, I got hugs from all the kids, and before I left the fourth grade later that day, they brought me a card that both classes had signed. One girl made sure to sign the card last so she could write a long note to me at the bottom of the page. I would really like to be able to visit next year and see them again.

Working at the Spazziano School

When I first signed up to volunteer at the Spazziano School for nine days I had no idea what a profound effect the experience would have on me.  On my first morning I was introduced by Ms. Celio, the calmest fifth grade teacher I have ever met, to the class I would be working with: Ms. Pazmino's second grade class.  I was very surprised to learn that I would be spending the week working with a billingual class.  At first, I was very overwhelmed.  The children never sat still and were very talkative.  Some of them spoke English fairly well but others could understand only the simplist phrases.
When Ms. Pazmino gave me a group of five students and asked me to teach them a phonics lesson I didn't really know how to begin.  The kids were so easily distracted.  I learned very quickly that if I was going to teach them, I had to be creative and match their energy level.  By the end of the week I had grown accustomed to the restlessness of the students, had learned how to stay calm and cheerful when they acted up.  I even learned some Spanish!
The aspect of the project that affected me the most was how welcoming the students were.  While their personalities varied greatly, every student was so appreciative and polite.  I remember the morning that each child received a newly sharpened pencil, they were so excited by something I took for granted.  On my second day when I walked into the classroom, one girl, Yenina, stood and pulled a chair over for me so that I could sit with them.  It was small moments like these that made the project so powerful.  There were also many funny moments, such as when Rubelly asked me if I was married and had children since I was so old.
Along with correcting quizzes and teaching small group math lessons, I spent a great amount of time on English writing projects with individual students.  After two weeks of intensive brainstorming, writing, and coloring, Yenina and Kevelyn read their finished projects aloud to their class while I watched like a proud parent.  I was amazed to see how, in just two weeks time, their proficiency in English had improved so much.
Every morning I received hugs and a cheerful "Good morning Miss Stefanie".  By my final day I could name every student in the class.  They surprised me with thank you cards, presents, and an unending amount of hugs.  I couldn't help but wonder what challenges the kids would face in the coming years, and who they would each grow to become. 
I never expected that I could gain so much from a two week long project.  I plan to continue volunteering in education during my college years.  Seeing the smiles on the students' faces when they achieved a good mark on a paper I had helped them with was definitely a highlight of my senior year. 

Maxie Formal- Greenlock Therapeutic Riding Center

Over the past couple days I have been volunteering at Greenlock Therapeutic Riding Center. Both the therapists and clients I have worked with have been great.  The majority of the clients I worked with were ones with physical, developmental, and emotional differences. Mainly they have been having me lead their horses during both hippotherapy and therapeutic sessions. Therapeutic riding uses the magnetic bond  between people and horses to teach such skills as listening, balance, gross and fine motor control, as well as a variety of other skills that help people promote independence and  self-confidence.  Hippotherapy relies on the sensorimotor input  provided by the horse’s rhythmic and repetitive gaits to prompt a neuromuscular response in the rider: a  response that  mimics the  movement a child’s body would ordinarily make while walking. They also have me side walking during sessions in order to make sure the clients are secure on the horses.  My primary responsibilities were more with the horses rather then the clients however I did work with numerous clients through out my time at Greenlock. Finally over the course of the two weeks they had me school numerous of their ponies and hope for me to do so in the future. Today I had a client that I worked with who from the second she gets on to the second she gets off has a smile ear to ear. I swear I could work with her all day, whenever she does a trick or does something the therapist asks she exclaims, tada! I also worked with students from The Wolf School twice a week. At the moment, Greenlock is trying to raise money to put a new roof on their indoor so I decided to organize a bake sale to help fund raise. Currently Greenlock is "Raising the Roof" and their goal is $80,000. Less than half of the cost of services provided is covered by fees. The support of generous donors is vital toward making up the difference and ensuing that Greenlock can continue to provide the care needed by its clients. Overall I had a blast working at Greenlock and plan to do so this summer one to two times a week.

Amos House- Megan Morrow

     I have spent my senior project time at the Amos House.  What was interesting to me right off the bat was how many aspects of life Amos House touches upon.  I was under the impression that they were mainly a soup kitchen but they also have social services, a 90-day program to get people back on their feet, a mother/child reunification program, a carpentry training course and company, a culinary training course and company, a catering business, and even a cafe.  The Amos House occupies almost a whole block. 
    A small portion of my project was in the form of direct service.  I worked the lunch shift in the soup kitchen one day and this was really fun because I got to put some cooking skills to use and I got to interact with the people that benefit from the Amos House.  I also gardened one day which made the staff and patrons of Amos House very happy to see some new growth. 
     However, most of my time was spent doing indirect service.  I did many, many things ranging from printing out available jobs to display in a job binder to looking up phone numbers of Amos House donors.  I went around to local businesses asking for silent auction donations, I began the planning of shopping days for people to utilize clothing donations, and I even organized the Amos House's photo library. 
     My favorite experience at the Amos House was going to a meeting with the vice president about advocacy for the homeless in Providence.  This was a meeting of different people from many different organizations that all aim to help the homeless.  They discussed problems with the lack of affordable housing and how budget cuts could affect the homeless.  This was very interesting and it exposed me to something I had not learned much about before.
     All in all, this has been a very good experience and I am glad that I spent my time trying out all the different aspects of a non-profit organization.

Hayley Kirman - Children's Friend and Service

For my senior project, I worked at the Vincent A. Cianci Head Start Center run by Children's Friend and Service. I worked in a room with seventeen children ages three to five during the morning shift, which starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 12:00 noon. Each morning, the children have breakfast and brush their teeth at school. I found this interesting because it does not seem like something that is normally done at school. They then get time to look at books. Many of them asked me to read them books. By doing this, I found out that they do not have many books and the ones they do have are in bad condition. The children also get to go outside and play for somewhere between a half hour and an hour. They then go inside and have free play time, when they can choose to do art, science, or other activities for another hour until lunch.

The children eligible for this program are all in at-risk situations, so their families might have been involved in drug abuse or gangs, for example. Studies have shown that these programs actually help these children on their track to higher education, so although the kids are young, the program definitely has an effect on their lives.

I have noticed that the children enjoy us spending time with them and are excited to see us each day. I was unsure of how this was going to be, because I did not like the idea of being with almost twenty young children, but I actually ended up liking it. Some of the kids were better than others, but all of them seemed to usually have good intentions and wanted to learn.

The teachers also appreciated our help, as they are often overbooked and forced to do more work than they should. They must do home visits and three parent-teacher conferences for each child per year, along with teaching the children each day in class. One teacher described her job as teacher/social worker. I thought it was nice to help give the teachers a bit of a break because they work so hard but hardly ever get recognized for it.

Overall, this has been an eye-opening and rewarding experience.

Ana and I have been working at Wellesley College. We have been interviewing many people like: Director of Disabilities, Associate dean of students, Dean of first-year students, head athletic trainer, and much more. We have been interviewing these people about what incoming students should be aware of and what they want students to take away after completing there four years in college. All the information we have received is very important. Also we have been helping out at the health services with end of the year filing. So far we have had a great time!