Forming Mountains: My Experience With Community service

My name is Jhori Hodges, I am an honors student at UNCC and this is my Citizenship and Service portfolio for Spring 2016 semester. For this portfolio I chose the theme of mountains because of how mountains are formed; mountains are formed through plate tectonics shifting over time(see video starting at 2:45). Two plates move towards each other at a slow rate over time and eventually they meet. One plate shifts under the other and as they continue to move, the plate underneath pushes the top plate up and forms a mountain that grows higher over time. The plate underneath is always there and aids in the formation of the mountain. The bottom plate represents my ideas of community service when I started this course, they’re still there, and they haven’t changed much but a new plate has made contact with my original ideas. Knowledge about community service and the experiences I’ve had this semester have caused a mountain to form, helping me become better equipped to serve my community. I came in believing that community service should strengthen the community it is serving, instead of leaving it dependent on an outside source. Our readings such as Why Servanthood is Bad and discussions about meritocracy have helped me understand and justify my original beliefs. As these concepts from class met with my original ideas, I felt myself growing and feeling more passionate about community service. I’m hoping by the end of the semester, my mountain will be very high with gained knowledge and my peak will represent the product of my previous knowledge and knowledge from this class joining and aiding one another. I hope at my peak, I will have a well-rounded mindset about community service, the passion to do it, and some service hours and resources to help me continue doing it outside of this course.