Why SERVE and About Me

My experience in community service started back in elementary school with various projects with Cub Scouts. Some of the strong memories from my days in elementary school are from Cub Scout led service projects. Some of the ones that stand out the most in my mind are the annual scouting for food drive around Thanksgiving and an annual clean up day around the community to celebrate Earth Day. I think that from a young age I realized that service was something that I wanted to make part of my life. Another experience with service that I think will always stand out in my mind was when my second grade reading class visited a nursing home around Halloween to hang out and spend time with the residents. At the time I definitely didn’t have a full understanding of where I was or what I was doing but I do remember making connections with these people and being able to brighten their day as they also brightened mine. I think one lesson that I apparently learned very early about service is that is a two way street where we often can gain just as much if not more than the people we are serving.

As I have grown older I think I have realized how my parents have influenced my life and my desire to help those around me. I greatly like to think of my parents as civil servants. Workers for U.S. Customs and Border Protection for close to 30 years now I like to see them as two people who have always been willing to go the extra mile to help their country even if it is something that can be done while sitting behind a desk in D.C. My parents have had a major impact on my life simply by the way they act. I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up in a small neighborhood called the Kentlands where the architect of the community intended to build a close knit community where everyone knows their neighbors and the roads are very narrow so you can’t speed. As I grew up in this community I watched my parents and neighbors help each other out I think this helped instill strong values around the idea of helping out those around you when they are down. Another big thing I learned from my parents comes from the time that my Dad spent serving in the U.S. Air Force in the 80’s. He was only an active duty member for about 2 years and never served in any wars but it always amazes me that at a certain part of his life where he found himself at a bit of a crossroads he decided he wanted to go and serve his country in one of the most rigorous ways possible. I am greatly appreciative of the service oriented house that my parents built for me and I had the opportunity to be raised in.

When I was making my college decision I came down to the wire deciding between Purdue and Virginia Tech. At the time I hadn’t been accepted to VT’s engineering program while I had been accepted to Purdue’s. At that point I believed that going to Purdue would make more logical sense but I kept finding myself with a strong desire to call Blacksburg home. I had first stepped on campus my freshman year of high school when I was on a tour with my older brother who was a junior in high school at the time and is currently a junior here at Tech. Despite the cold dry weather that day I instantly fell in love with the surrounding area, the campus, and the community feel that was so apparent on campus. After finally accepting my decision to Tech I looked over the LLC’s and was immediately drawn to SERVE. However, after being very nervous about my workload my first semester and not wanting to be overloaded with activities I decided it was too late to apply for SERVE and that I could always join a service fraternity as my older brother had. Then when I came to orientation and learned that SERVE was still accepting applications I decided that I needed to jump on the opportunity. I think in the end I realized that a big part of the reason I was drawn to Tech was the community and more importantly the community that centered around service that was so inspirational to me when I first visited. To me SERVE was an opportunity to join that community from the first day and work throughout my four years not only to spread that community around campus but also around my new home in Blacksburg, Virginia.