Reflective Account on Volunteering Experience: Jo Richardson School

This reflective account examines a student's volunteering experience at Jo Richardson Community School, focusing on the benefits of volunteering, skill acquisition, and the impact on personal and professional growth. The student reflects on the opportunity to interact with new people, face new challenges, and explore hidden potentials. The account highlights the development of mentoring skills, improved communication, and the understanding of social capital. The student utilizes scholarly articles and models like Kolb's Experiential Learning and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to analyze their experience, demonstrating the role of reflection in learning and professional development. The author discusses the development of social capital, interpersonal skills, and management capabilities, concluding with a positive outlook toward a career in mentoring and community development.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ACCOUNT
Reflective Account on My Volunteering Experience
[Jo Richardson Community School]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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REFLECTIVE ACCOUNT
Reflecting writing on personal working experience is a good way to look back to things
that helped to learn something and also those were problem generating. Be it the good or bad
outcomes of such pieces of work, reflective writing is always helpful in identifying areas of
improvement and setting personal professional goals. According to Moon (2001), personal
development planning can and should involve various forms of reflection as well as reflective
writing. The author says that much has been written about reflective writing; however, it still is a
mysterious activity for many. Being an increasing point of discussion in recent times, reflective
writing should be given a try to see whether it is beneficial in the given context.
The purpose of this reflective writing is to reflect upon the work experience that I had
working as a volunteer for Jo Richardson. Jo Richardson is a secondary school situated in East
London. This piece of work should definitely help me to figure out the good or bad in me. This
writing should be an analysis of my professionalism on a large scale. Moreover, the findings of
this reflective account should let me believe whether I am fit for the industry I was chosen as the
volunteer for or else.
Now, I will take the help of various scholarly articles to assess my performance as a
volunteer of Jo Richardson and utilize these findings in my professional career ahead.
A general approach to reflection as opined by Moon (2005) is somehow related to the
notion of learning. We reflect on something only when we intend to know more about it and
learn something from it. The tendency to reflect upon things happened in the past or recall it over
time is a general tendency that we normally carry. However, doing reflection in an organized
way is something, which is rare. People tend to skip such practices either intentionally or else.

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However, reflective writing can be very beneficial in a personal professional career. Moon
(2005) identifies various scopes for reflection writing such as self-development, academic as
well as non-academic learning, critical review, emancipation, empowerment, considering self-
process of the mental functioning, decision making and so forth.
In the research of Moon (2005), reflection supports learning if not the direct source to
learn new things. It does so by proving the pieces of evidence for things were in the past and
generating appropriate learning conditions. Reflection helps to learn new skills in many ways.
Reflection slows down the learning process as it requires the learner to give time to reprocess
ideas. Reflection helps learners realize that they own certain knowledge as the learner has
essentially been a part of its creation. Things which learner reflects upon exist in a complicated
or an unstructured form. It challenges learners’ skills to reflect upon the experience and thus
enhance their ability to deal with the complex things (Moon 2005).
The definition and concept of experiential learning can be understood from what David
A. Kolb writes about it. Kolb says that to gain the ground in experiential learning it is important
to reflect on the experience. David A. Kolb in collaboration with Roger Fry created a famous and
widely used reflection model. The model has four distinct elements such as concrete experience,
observation and reflection, the formation of abstract concepts, and testing in new situations
(Infed.org 2020). This model has been in use time and again. David A. Kolb says that there is no
such restriction to begin only with the concrete experience. Instead, the learner can choose to
start from any one of these elements. However, to do anything one must have something to
reflect upon. It is this very point that makes sense for the way elements of the model are being
presented.

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In the research of Leigh (2016), reflective writing and reflective practices are considered
as being integral to professional programs within the United Kingdom and the other parts of the
world. However, reflective work will be fruitful only if the basis of judgments for the piece of
reflective work was to attain certain qualities and skills in professional development programs.
As far as my viewpoint is concerned, the effectiveness of reflective writing depends majorly on
the quality of data being used to reflect upon (Bladon and Bladon 2020). The person should
know the appropriate time to do such things, so that, it does not affect their daily work schedules.
Additionally, things to reflect upon should make sense. The person should have this much
understanding of reflective writing to do justice with the practice and attain its potential benefits.
Having played the role of a volunteer for Jo Richardson, I am in a good position to reflect
upon my experience of volunteering. Volunteering according to me is a good way to interact
with new people. Now, the question arises like what is so good there in interacting with new
people. The answer is it gives the opportunity to face new challenges and be able to explore the
hidden excellence in the individual. With regards to my experience of volunteering for Jo
Richardson, I could say to have learned so many things. I could add more to my human capital.
I could know how to identify the diverse behaviors of the client. Being the volunteer, I was
responsible for building the feeling of attainment and aspirations in them. I also received training
at the school on mentoring skills. All these did not just help me experience a completely different
role but also realize the challenges therein being the mentor for someone. I strongly believe that
these gains will help me to pursue a good career as the mentor of a firm. Besides, it gave me a
sense of attachment to the education service industry. Hopefully, I will be looking to pursue a
career as a mentor in this industry at least in the short-term to develop some good professional
skills.

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Volunteers, as found by Onyx, Leonard and Hayward-Brown (2004), plays an important
role in the development of social capital. Many would say that volunteering is an important
concept that contributes to the development of social capital. However, it goes through various
micro-processes before it can make an impact on community development. Volunteers are like
the community builders who support the formation and development of new organizations as
well as services. Volunteers form a social link with their clients. Volunteers act as the mediating
link between the professional and the lay community networks.
Being the volunteer I could learn things like how to be good friends with new people. I
asked a few questions to my client like what challenges they face in pursuing their academic
studies, whether their parents are cooperative and so forth. Within just a few days of me into
volunteering I could develop an emotional connection with the client. I did not just get to know
the life outside my life but also being blessed to develop a social connection with the new
people.
It helped me improve my ability to handle the unexpected questions of the client. I could
at least understand the number of questions to face while working on a project as such this. I did
not have answers to all the questions that were being asked to me during my volunteering period.
However, I could manage those situations when I was clueless. I did so by reaching to the
concerned department and raising my concerns to them. I feel that this was one step towards
developing management skills in me.
The reason why I volunteer can be explained by 'Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’. One of
the levels in Maslow’s hierarchy is ‘Self-actualization’, which says that few people want to give
them the opportunity to learn new skills (Soni and Soni 2016). I being one of those people
wanted to acquire new skills at my primary stage of a professional career. Since it is easy to get

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the opportunity to work as a volunteer for a community-based organization, I opted to go for it. I
am happy to have some delightful experience of volunteering a secondary. It helped me learn a
few skills as well like interpersonal communication, problem handling, etc.
The role of the volunteer proved beneficial to me for many reasons. It did not just help
me gain some new skills but also help to grasp a broader knowledge of how community
development works affect the national economy. One of the skills that I was being blessed with
is effective communication. My communication efficiency was observable in a few instances. I
was not the only one who took this change into me to my concern but I also received words of
acknowledgment from the others. One of those few people was my supervisor under whom I
worked as a volunteer. My supervisor was delighted to see me applying things learned during the
session. Indeed, such feeling in my supervisor is understandable as it also shows his capability to
lead someone effectively. The evidence of the words of acknowledgment will be supplied in the
appendix section.
When I decided to step into the role of a volunteer, I was really nervous and confused
about thinking of the chances of a possible failure. This negative attitude in me lived no longer
once I started working as a volunteer. It is the people whom I interacted with let me judge a
situation, help me identify new problems and encouraged me to look for the solution. When I
started working as a volunteer for 'Jo Richardson', the feeling of nervousness started to disappear
quickly. The task that once looked difficult to me became easier. Now, I am more confident
working as a volunteer and waiting to grab more such opportunities in the future. Volunteering
gives some good opportunities to work independently and develop advancement into human
capital (Arena and Uhl-Bien 2016).

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According to Burt (2017), when there is increasing trust between society and the network
engaged in community development works, it benefits many. The individuals, organizations,
society and the national economy are all benefitted. Volunteering helped me know more about
social capital. Social capital can shape society into good forms, eliminate its badness, and help
keep the society and environment clean. Social capital can reduce the rate of crime. It can
dramatically improve their living conditions by cleaning the roads, letting people understand
their responsibility towards society and the environment. Social capital can discourage the
harmful effects of socioeconomic disadvantages (Diedrich et al. 2017). I could say that within
just a few days into volunteering, I got to learn about many things. I being a common person had
a very limited thought process towards social wellbeing and its impact on the stakeholders. Now,
after completing my volunteering, I could consider myself a changed person who knows more
about social capital.
In the research of Onyx, Leonard and Hayward-Brown (2004), formal volunteering can
be a good source of social capital. Volunteering can lead to mutual benefits if the volunteer has
the motivation to work. My motivation was due to many reasons. First, I had needed to cover my
hours of participation in this role. Second, I had self-motivation for this role. It is that feeling in
me that kept me motivated throughout my volunteering participation. Herzberg’s Motivational
theory relates to my feeling and situation. The theory talks about two factors such as the
motivator and hygiene factors. Motivator talks about the factors that boost up employee
motivation. On the other hand, hygiene factors if not fulfilled can lead to serious business losses
such as employee attrition, reduced employee and organizational productivity, declining team
performance and so forth (Chiat and Panatik 2019). I had self-motivation towards volunteering
as it provides me reasons to be happy, satisfied and enjoying each bit of my life. I love

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interacting with people as I am passionate about social life as well as I believe there cannot be
anything better than these.
My motivation to work and the satisfaction level went high the moment I started to work
with the children. It gives me satisfaction if I could be a reason for joy for someone. I feel myself
being blessed to find such an opportunity as I spend some good time with the children. I got to
know more about their habits, their likes and dislikes. The volunteering experience was a true
gain for my social skills. It helped me improve my interpersonal communication skills. They
were comfortable with me and enjoyed every bit of us being together. The children felt secure
while being with me. Together we developed a great bonding of working together.
Another thing that I could remember and will bear long into my mind was a great
working relationship with the staff. Since it was a new job experience for me I was feeling
nervous on the first day. However, since other staffs were very cooperative I could overcome my
nervousness state. I enjoyed each moment of my volunteering with children. The staff helped me
gain ground in special education needs (SEN). I also learned how to build relationships with
people from different cultural backgrounds. Volunteering was a learning opportunity for me as I
could know and learn more about the different cultures and religions that exist in the world. The
research of Wilson, Mantovan and Sauer (2020) says that volunteering helps to strengthen skills
on social cohesion as it gives the opportunity to interact with people belonging to different
communities and cultures.
It was short; however, quite a knowledge gaining experience to be working for Jo
Richardson. This was the first time ever I got the opportunity to work and acquire professional
job experience. It was not something that I wanted to pursue in the long-term; however, my
views of it changed completely. It is because of the diverse experience that I had working with

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the children needing special care. It helped me realize the significance of social capital in
eliminating all the badness from a given society. It repairs the society, the individual, the
organizations and the nation (Lin 2017). Before being into the role of volunteering, I did not
have any serious realization for community development works. However, after having served
for Jo Richardson my view of professional career has changed. I have gained an interest in
pursuing a career in the same sector I volunteered for. I want to spend time with people to know
the problems faced by them and to help them in the best possible ways. My vision of the career
was very limited as I wanted to serve a public sector such as in the field of education or
elsewhere. However, this has now changed drastically. Now, I am the person who wants to help
more people with their problems, contribute to the betterment of society and become a good
corporate citizen for my country.
The experience of volunteering was full of a new and exciting experience for me.
Having been a volunteer for a community school, I could see a few areas of improvement. First,
adequate funding is needed to support community development activities at scale. New and
creative programs can be performed effectively only if the management team has an adequate
fund to spend. Second, investments should be made in the right areas. The best way to take care
of the investment is to have a good assessment of the community needs. Identify the needs that
can be best served with the existing resource capabilities. Doing the feasibility, suitability and
acceptability check for the needs should follow next. Third, prioritize these needs based on their
level of impact on the community.
Fourth, a leadership approach will be needed to conduct these programs in an organized
way. From funding, to hiring volunteers everything should be well assessed. Budget forecasting
requires some very good sense of the business needs as well as people who could be potential

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sponsors. The effort should be on not losing any existing donors and funders. Besides, there
should be continuous efforts to maintain good cash flow (McCleskey 2018). All these initiatives
as I feel are important to support any activity financially.
Fifth, those who are hired as volunteers should be given skills-based training, so that,
their accuracy of documenting a case gets increased. Skills enhancement training is also needed
for a good relationship build-up with the client. Until and unless volunteers have the action
guidelines and self-creativity to think outside of the subject, they might not understand the client
issue. Hiring such volunteers would not just affect the productivity of charity functions but the
volunteers as well. Volunteering is a good way to enhance employability (Student Volunteering
2001). It gives employers the opportunity to hire new people as a temporary resource gap
solution. On the other hand, it is also beneficial for volunteers. They get an easy opportunity to
work on diverse projects and to boost their skills-base. The skills thus gained could be helpful in
pursuing a career in a similar industry.
Overall, the volunteering experience was excellent for me. The learning from the
participants would not just help me fetch good scores but also help me do well in professional
fields. Few skills and qualities are of great significance for a good professional career. These are
the ability to behave professionally, interact effectively with different people from different
cultures and religious backgrounds, effective communication skills and so forth. I would say
with greater confidence that now I am equipped with these skills. Apart from gaining these skills
it also helped me figure out my desired career choice. Now, I am very much determined to work
with the children those infected with learning disabilities as well as requiring special needs. I
believe this should be a great career option for me. A job cannot be considered satisfactory if it
does not offer personal satisfaction. I have realized my job satisfaction in working with the

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children as it gives me personal satisfaction, the reason to enjoy each bit of my professional
career. I feel blessed for getting such an opportunity that helped me identify my professional
career. Moreover, I am very much confident about doing extremely well for the people who need
love, care and affection from people around them.

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