Community Service Reflection

By: Alison Kienholz

I have always been an active member of my church and my community, and I love

finding ways that I can help out and give back. Vacation Bible School was the perfect

opportunity to help give back to my church and gain experience with younger kids. I knew from

a very young age that I wanted to work with children when I grew up, but I never knew how

rewarding it would feel to watch them accomplish their goals. During my experience at Vacation

Bible School, I was in charge of overseeing all of the small groups and checking in with all of

the small group leaders to make sure they had everything that they needed. I also was responsible

for leading our large group during our opening and closing activities throughout the week. I was

able to learn so much through this experience and it has helped shape me into the person that I

am today.

I grew up in my church and have volunteered many times before, but none of them gave

me the teaching experience that I gained through Vacation Bible School. Throughout the week I

was responsible for coming in early to set up for the day. I had to let all of the small group

leaders know what the plan was for the day and make sure that all of them had what they needed

to complete their tasks. My exact job during the week was to run all of Vacation Bible School

with a little bit of guidance from my Pastor, as she was very busy throughout the week. I would

come in early to set up and leave late after cleaning up and getting some things ready for the next

day. To start the day, I would make sure that everyone was checked in and accounted for and

then I would start the introduction for the day. During the introduction, I would lead the large

group and talk about our topic for the day and explain the importance of the lesson that we were

learning. There were always a lot of questions during this time and it was my responsibility to
make sure that all of them were answered to the best of my ability. After large group, everyone

would be dismissed by age into smaller groups to complete their individual activities. This was

the time that I would jump from group to group to check in with the small group leaders and see

how the kids were doing. This was my favorite part of the day because I got to experience a little

bit of everything that we offered at Vacation Bible School. I also got the privilege of learning

how kids interact with each other and learn at different ages.

Through all of this experience I have learned so much about myself and my abilities to

lead large groups. I know that working with children is very rewarding work and I am very

thankful that I was able to gain this experience. I am going to be honest; I didn’t think that

getting the chance to run our Vacation Bible School at my church was going to change my

perspective on teaching, but I could not have been more wrong. Throughout the week I realized

how much work I spent on making sure that our week went smoothly. This is just a small part of

what professional educators do every day. I am so thankful for the experience that I was able to

gain through Vacation Bible School. I always knew that I would be capable of handling large

tasks and leading group activities. Now, because of Vacation Bible School, I know that teaching

is about much more than preparing for the day and planning for the week. Teaching is a

wonderful tool that allows you to educate children and watch them grow and learn new things as

provide them with new information and opportunities to expand their knowledge. My time spent

at Vacation Bible School was not only a learning opportunity for the children, but it was a

learning opportunity for myself. I gained wonderful teaching experience and was able to learn

more about the reasons behind why I want to become a teacher. This was one of many

opportunities that I have had that helped me realize that teaching is an honor, and I would be

proud to continue to help educate the young minds of our future.