Part One: Preview
     My experience with community service has not been a good one.  Up until my senior year of high school, which was also my freshman year of college due to a program called Running Start, I did not view helping out my community as an opportunity to gain knowledge or skill.  I simply thought of it as a completion of a set amount of hours required to graduate.  That is all it was portrayed to be.  In high school I was required to complete seventy-five hours of community service on top of the hours I already had to do for my college classes.  It was just one big headache.  Also, because there was a time restriction on when those hours of community service were to be completed, I had very few options to choose from.  Most of the opportunities available were of no interest to me. 
     I volunteered for the Everett Jaycees, an organization that coordinates many different events that are free to the public.  I helped out with their annual haunted house at Forest Park in Everett, Washington, decorating and spooking the passersby.  If more than one hundred people would have showed up, I am sure I would have had a better time.  I helped an office whose mission was to raise funds to assist people with multiple sclerosis.  There, I put together packets to hand out during a benefit, advertising awareness for such victims.  Lets just say that paperwork is not my idea of fun.  I have also volunteered at other benefits, such as, drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy, and abstinence awareness fairs. 
It would seem that I could have gained a lot from these experiences, but in fact I did not.  Although these were all very interesting, I just could not see why I had to help out my community by volunteering for things I did not even care for, nor how putting in so many hours could do anything but hinder my education.  When I enrolled in a sociology class at Everett Community College, I caught a glimpse of how beneficial community service could be, but not enough to drown out my distaste for the initiative altogether.
     For lack of more sensitive wording, I feel that community service is a waste of my (already dwindling) time, and when I heard about this project I thought my head was going to explode.  I realize that I must get out of it what I can so I made the decision that whatever I was going to do, it was going to be something worthwhile.  Thanks to Erin setting up an activity with the residents at Chestnut Lane, I might be able to experience something that directly relates to my field of work.  I am looking forward to finally doing something I am interested in.  For this project I am going to go to Chestnut Lane in Gresham, Oregon.  Chestnut Lane is a retirement home for the Deaf and Deaf-Blind.  I hope that I will be able to learn some new signs, meet some very interesting people, and above all, strengthen my skills as a future interpreter by responding appropriately to the demands of any given situation.  I am also very excited to see the different signing styles of some of the elderly-deaf here in Oregon.
     Because I have not interacted with Deaf people in quite a while, I anticipate a few obstacles that I will have to overcome, such as adequate communication on my part.  Also, because Chestnut Lane is a retirement center I can only predict mobility, inactivity, or paralinguistic issues.  Other than that I have only one thing to confess: I have somewhat of an old-people phobia.  I am unsure why, maybe something from my childhood is to blame, but I am afraid of the elderly.  I hope that I will be able to overcome my fear of them, since it would be very counterproductive not to in a situation like this.
     Another event that I will be participating in is “Make A Difference Day,” a national volunteer holiday on the 27th of October.  I don’t exactly know what to expect from this national holiday, but I am guessing a whole plethora of volunteer work.  If the weather permits I would love to do yard work, or something else that involves being outside in the sunshine, and I also hear that a group from the interpreting program will be needed at a deaf man’s house.  That should be very interesting.  I hope the experiences here at Western Oregon University will help me better understand the profits of service learning, and change my opinion about it for the better.

Part Two: Reaction
     The first activity I went to was a BINGO game at Chestnut Lane.  When I arrived at the retirement center I could feel my hands getting clammy.  I started to get a little nervous.  As I said before, I have somewhat of an old people phobia, and that, in itself, caused some apprehension.  Also, because I have never worked with Deaf elders before, or any Deaf people with disabilities, I was unsure of the challenges ahead.    I walked in and introduced myself.  The residents who were in the general vicinity introduced themselves as well.  I found that some of them were hard to understand.  Some had physical limitations, including tremor in the hands, and limited mobility.  Others used a loud, indistinct voice that clouded my focus, which resulted in me asking them to repeat his or her name over and over again.  Sometimes I still didn’t understand, but decided not to ask again because I had asked so many times before that I didn’t think I would ever get it.
     After the somewhat awkward introductions I, and the other interpreting students who were present that day, got a tour of Chestnut Lane.  We got to see the kitchen, the dining room, the bedroom halls, the library, the TV room, the lobby, and the game room.  The game room is where we were going to be for most of the day, so we settled there.  We all set up the seating arrangements.  Unlike most times where a circle would work best for communicating in ASL, since we were playing BINGO we decided to use more of a “hearing-classroom” approach.  The typical hearing classroom has desks that all face the front in order to keep the attention on the speaker.  In order to keep the focus on the game, we replicated that setting of long tables, all in rows, facing forward. This was highly effective.
     When the room was finally set up and ready we asked the residents to join us.  Some of the students stood near to the residents who had limiting visual abilities, while others kept a look out for those in need of help.  Two students stood at the front of the game room: one to call out the letter-number combinations for BINGO, and the other to flip the numbers on the board for even more clarity.  I sat by one of the residents who had limited sight abilities, and repeated what each combination was.  Near the end of the first game she decided that she no longer wanted to play, and insisted that I take over.  I thought this was funny, and I did not quite know how to react.  Should I refuse and make her angry?  Or should I keep going with the game because she asked me to?  I had a hard time deciding, at first, but then decided that since I was an actual entity that day (i.e. not an interpreter) it would be fine to help her with the game.  While I watched intently, I still repeated the combinations and insisted that she play the game herself.
     A total of three games were played, each one becoming harder and harder to win.  The winner of each game got a set amount of money.  The woman I was sitting next to won two out of three games; a total of about thirty dollars!  I was very excited for her.  She was so happy, she couldn’t stop laughing and smiling.  Afterwards she told me that if she married a King and she were a Queen, she’d hire me and have me live with her in her castle.  It was very cute.  When the games were over we all helped serve in the kitchen and dining rooms, then left for the day.  It was a really fun experience, and I plan on doing it again.  Almost everyone who showed up decided to play, and I feel that I really got to know those who did play a little better.
     The second activity I participated in was Make A Difference Day.  I have to admit that this was not quite as fun as my previous experience at Chestnut Lane.  Fortunately, however, I got to play in the sunshine after all.  I met up with a few other volunteers and received my instructions for the day.  I was instructed to cut down the shrubbery in front of the building where we all met that was no longer living due to seasonal changes, help a woman clean up her yard so the city would stop bothering her about keeping it up to code, and help a deaf man clean up his yard as well.  Overall it was an interesting experience.  I got to explore Monmouth and get to know a few of its community members a little better.  I not only got to know the community better, but I also got to know a few of my classmates from the interpreting program at Western.  I was also able to give back to a few people in need.  I had a fun day, especially when I met up with the rest of my classmates to work on the Deaf man’s house.

DCS-Analysis
Situation #1: Playing BINGO in the downstairs Game Room at Chestnut Lane

Demands

Controls, resulting demands, and new controls

i. Resulting Demand: They cannot have a good time talking to each other, and they lose interest in the game.

ii. New Control: During- let them miss out on the information while they are talking (it is not my job to mother them).

i. Resulting Demand: I am taking up too much time and missing out on some new letter-number combinations for the game.

ii. New Control: Pre- tell all the consumers that the game is fast paced, and that it cannot be held up on account of one person.

2. Some people can’t see very well (tunnel vision, Usher Syndrome, etc.).  Control: sit close to those who can’t see very well and sign.
1. + Consequence: The DC(s) can see what is going on through the interpreter.
2. – Consequence: I might not be adequately interpreting for all of the other DCs.
   
   
3. I feel good about my interpreting abilities (I feel I am doing a good job).  Control: Post- allow time for some positive self-talk.
1. + Consequence: I feel good about my interpreting abilities and am having more time.
2. – Consequence: I could get cocky, and start to act conceited. 

Situation #2: Raking, picking up debris, and cleaning up outside in the Monmouth Community.

Miscellaneous

What, if any, communication problems or interaction problems occurred between the participants during the conversation?  Explain below:
When I worked with the deaf man I noticed that he preferred to use voice.  It was a challenge to switch modes (from ASL to English) after each turn.  I would sign, he would talk; it was very odd.

Other thoughts/comments?
I had a really great time, and I noticed how difficult it is to prune flowers and sign at the same time.  Also, I learned a lot about teamwork.

Part 3: Reflection
     I dove into the world of service learning with no enthusiasm or fervor, thinking my time spent out in the community would be time wasted.  When I was first informed of the service learning required for this term I have to admit, I was a little nervous.  I thought the stress of trying to fit in ten hours of irrelevant volunteer work was going to push me over the edge.  However, I soon realized that volunteer work doesn’t have to be irrelevant, nor useless.  If I choose so, I can do something that will better prepare me for my future career.  Going out there and experiencing service learning, firsthand, has made me realize how beneficial it can be to both parties: the community and its volunteers.  I now think of it as an unpaid internship where I get to learn my trade under loose supervision.  What a neat opportunity.
     I have learned so many things from only a few hours of working with my fellow students, and for my beneficiaries.  While at Chestnut Lane I discovered that elderly individuals are not all scary.  I think I might have even overcome my fear of them (at least the elderly-Deaf).  I know now not to generalize because every person is different.  Also, when I was helping with cutting down shrubbery, and especially when I was cleaning up around the deaf man’s house, I learned how advantageous teamwork could be.  A job that would have normally taken over two hours only took one.  I am very thankful for that realization, and plan to utilize this newfound tool in my work as an interpreter.  Another thing I find very interesting is how obvious it came to be that my own perspective clouded my thoughts.  While I was cleaning up the yard I had a vision of how it was supposed to happen; I set up the order of events and did not question their reliability.  I soon realized that other people had their own schema, or idea, of how they wanted to do things, and I had to adjust my approach accordingly.  With this realization I took a step back and reevaluated my whole outlook on teamwork.  I had fun volunteering out in the community here and at Chestnut Lane.  I would love, and plan to continue with helping provide game days for the retirement home in Gresham.  I guess service learning is not so bad after all.

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