Meadow DeZoete

Service Learning

Spring 2022

I used my project to assist Grove High School’s varsity soccer team and their math

department. I was advised my Joan Johnson, who is head of the math department and soccer’s

booster club committee chair. I wanted to help the math department become more organized

after they fell upon a wave of covid. For the soccer team, I wanted to help them succeed on and

off the field. I was able to get all my hours in before the end of March. I did not stop there

This whole project was very dear to my heart. I was able to serve under Joan Johnson at

Grove High School. She has helped me in more ways than I can count. To be able to give back to

her and the math department was more of a gift to me. The math department was caught up for

the most part, but wasn’t able to find time to organize the closet. I was able to come in and throw

out a bunch of old supplies. Most things we threw out were either from classes that aren’t offered

anymore or items from the 90’s. There ended up being about 7 trash bags full of stuff that was

thrown out or donated to other schools. After that, there was a lot more space to organize the

items that were truly needed. For the soccer team, I was able to be an assistant coach from home.

I did go visit and do some in person coaching, but it was primarily through the computer. They

have a very cool program called Hudl that allows the coaches to upload the game film and create

highlights of the game. The players can also make highlights to share to other coaches or keep

personally. I was able to watch the game film and splice the videos to show exactly what I think

should be done. I could also make little notes, so it was easier to communicate about what I

thought. Both of these programs that I helped are somewhat understaffed. With me helping, they

were able to focus on other things.

 Both of these projects were very independent projects. I am much more of a team player

then a leader, so these projects helped me expand past what I thought I was capable of. For the

math department, Ms. Johnson gave me an idea of what needed to be thrown out and what

needed to be kept. If I doubted my choice of the two, I would put it into a separate pile. At the

end she went through that pile and helped decide what to do. That is really the only issue I ran

into for that project. For the soccer team, I had to focus on my communication skills. I am very

much a physical learner and teacher. Having to teach through a screen was very difficult for me.

I did end up sending pictures with arrows on it instead of writing about it. If this were another

project, I feel that I may have been able to just focus of the writing standpoint of communication.

This project challenged a hybrid way of communication. I now know that going on that I should

utilize technology and it’s different ways of communication.

I feel most passionate about the soccer portion of my project. With soccer being something

that I really dedicated myself to in high school, I was excited to come back and help from a

coaching standpoint. Last year, we graduated 12 seniors that made up most of the team. This

year, there were 3 girls that had never played before on the starting lineup. The odds were very

much against them. I was able to talk to a lot of these girls personally and build not only their

skills, but their confidence. They made it to the second round of playoffs, which is farther than

any other girls soccer team had made it. I was so proud of these girls. I was able to contribute to

their success, which gave me a type of satisfaction I’ve never felt before. I learned that I might

enjoy the feeling of helping success more than personal success. To see the smiles on the team’s

faces was something that will stay with me forever. These girls exceeded any expectations that

anyone had.
 To serve community means to do something for someone other than yourself within the

space around you. I was honored to serve my hometown community. I served both the

educational side of our community and our athletic. The teachers are always stressed, especially

during the spring semester. Relieving any of their stress bring pleasure to me. This was a very

meaningful project to me. I was able to help people and programs that have helped me succeed in

every way. Although I will never be able to compare to how they have helped me, it brought me

a sense of content.