Description of the particular experience and goals:

I volunteered in an organization called Unitree. The aim of Unitree is to empower children with down syndrome and make them feel like they belong in the society. Unitree plans sessions like celebrating festivals, fun activities and more in order to fulfill their aim. I helped out in planning the sessions that are to be conducted and interacted with the children with down syndrome. 

Learning Outcomes I have catered during this experience:

Learning Outcome 1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

While volunteering in Unitree, I came to know about my strengths and weaknesses. I discovered that I am good at presenting creative ideas. I have the ability to plan different types of sessions for the children. It was important for me to understand my strength so that I could help as much as possible. Along with that, I discovered that I am not a very good communicator when it comes to talking to new people. I can communicate well with the people I know but it takes time for me to open up to new people. It was important for me to understand my weakness so that I could overcome it. Gladly, I have been able to communicate more with new people than I could before since I attended a lot of Unitree sessions. I got used to talking to new people and now I can say that I am a lot more confident when it comes to communicating with people I don’t already know. 

Learning Outcome 2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

In the Unitree sessions, there was a lot of interaction involved. Usually, I am not the best at interacting with unfamiliar people. Since I am an introvert, I was not able to open up and communicate freely with the children that had down syndrome because they were unfamiliar to me. I realized that eventually I would have to build up my confidence and talk to strangers without hesitating so I slowly began interacting with the children of Unitree. With time, I got better at communicating with unknown people since I got used to it because of attending Unitree sessions. I believe that it is crucial for us to overcome challenges so that it can make us a better person and I am glad that I developed this skill of communicating since it is important to interact with people in order to learn more about the world. 

Learning Outcome 5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

I had to work with a set of people while planning and conducting the sessions. It was easy for me to work with people since I have been a part of group projects before. My quality of listening to everyone and considering each and every opinion was useful here because there were clashes of ideas. I feel that it is crucial to learn how to work with people since teamwork can be very beneficial and increase the quality of the work. I am glad that I had to work with a team in this experience because everyone had unique ideas and it took us less time to plan and conduct the sessions since the work was divided amongst people.

Learning Outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance 

Discrimination is a very common issue that is faced globally by people with down syndrome. They are not treated equally and excluded from society. It is important for us to spread awareness about such issues and start accepting everyone the way they are. I am glad that I am aware about this issue and have interacted with people that face this issue on a daily basis because now I can learn to be open-minded and accept everyone. This experience helped my personal growth and allowed me to empathize with people. Now that I understand the severity of this matter, I will try my best to spread awareness about it and take action in order to eradicate the discrimination. 

Learning Outcome 7: Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

As a member of the society, I believe that it is my responsibility to make everyone feel like a part of the community. In Unitree, I made choices and took actions that support the children with down syndrome. We celebrated Navratri together, painted diyas(candles) and did a lot of more things as a whole community. This encouraged inclusivity and equality amongst all. It helped the children with down syndrome gain confidence and truly feel like a part of the society. 

Final Takeaway

Volunteering in Unitree helped me in understanding the importance of the global issue of discrimination and how it needs to be eradicated. Unitree also helped my personal growth since I learned how to empathize with people and accept everyone the way they are. I developed the learner profile attributes, open-minded, caring and thinker during this experience. I was open-minded when I did not discriminate and accepted everyone. I was caring towards the children and empathized with them. I was a thinker when I used my creative thinking skills to plan out sessions to conduct. Overall, this experience was beneficial for me.

Evidence of volunteering: