Marco Vespa

RPTM 236

December 8th, 2023

CLP Reflection

Introduction

I started my community leadership assignment on November 29th of this year and completed it

December 6th of 2023. I completed it through the education system at LifeLink PSU. This

agency served as an environment for people with special needs, to bring them together and give

them activities to do with mentors, who are normally students at Penn state. Some of these

activities included games like uno, Jenga, and board games. As for my job at the agency, I

produced an arts and crafts activity that allowed the students to create a snowflake out of paper.

This was a hit during my time there, finding that the students thoroughly enjoyed it.

Preparation/training

The preparation training prepared me for the program in many ways. I was able to understand

how things were run there and get to know all the students, finding out what they liked and did
not like. The resources that were needed for my assignment were all provided for me, simply a

sheet of paper and scissors and I was able to complete the assignment for the students. I have

little recommendations for the facility, it was simply running extremely fair and welcoming,

keeping me in the loop for all that I needed.

Coordination

The support that I received was extremely good. Sandy Cecco, the head of the faculty at

LifeLink, gave me all expectations and products needed to be successful in my lesson plan. She

communicated promptly, answering any questions I had quickly. The agency had multiple

helpers answering any questions I had and gave me a chance to be creative with my lesson.

Self-Evaluation

My performance was very productive for LifeLink. My biggest success was being able to

communicate with the students and getting to know them. I felt sad leaving such a good group of

people, and I am incredibly grateful for the experience that I had. One weakness I may have had

was not being able to communicate with all the students. Being in groups, I was at fault for not

being able to talk and get to know all the students there. My leadership could be improved from

this experience by being more assertive and trying to say what may be best for the group at a

certain time, rather than letting others do what they may think is best for them. This learning

experience was a lot of fun, and I am grateful that I had the chance to meet such great people.
Participants

There were a respectable number of participants who left my arts and crafts segment with smiles

on their faces and proud of their product. This is what was the best part for me, making them feel

happy they accomplished something and created something that they liked. For example, I

helped a student named joey create his paper snowflake and after the very first thing he said was

“I love it, can I write my name on it?” This made me feel good because he had felt pride in what

he created and was excited about it. One way to help their experience would be to let them learn

more, I would help them create them a bit too much at times and I would like to give them a

chance to figure it out so they can learn.

Overall Reflections

Overall, I had a fantastic experience. I would love to come back to this again because of the

warmth that everyone brought me, feeling welcomed as soon as I walked in. I would love to be

able to serve them and enjoy their time. A takeaway I have from this is that serving others is a

profound sense of satisfaction, that very few things can resemble. I am grateful for my

experience, and it inspired me to further my serving for those with special needs.