My Most Enjoyable "Work" Experience So Far This Year
This past week I had the pleasure of participating in a Service Learning project at Cesar Chavez Elementary School in San Jose California. This was a remarkable opportunity to give back to the community, while connecting with the incredible students at Cesar Chavez. The VMware Foundation team arranged for our service learning event with the City Year team, led by Development Manager Preety Kaur. Isa Bell was the City Year manager of the after school program. The event was a "Culture Fair" for nearly 120 elementary school students and part of an after school program for Cesar Chavez Elementary. The kids got to explore different cultures and parts of the world such as Italian, Chilean, South African, Mexican, Cherokee Indian and Hawaiian cultures. Isa did a fantastic job with the students - they love her and she has a lot of fun with them. The City Year team was absolutely great - they helped organize our VMware team and we quickly began setting up booths and then played other roles such as handing out food, and helping students prepare for their craft projects. Have a look at some of the pictures from the event! (#26 is great group photo of the City Year and VMware team) I had the fortune of being a "Manager" and got to lead a group of 14 students throughout the cultures during the after school program. I felt so lucky to be able to spend several hours with the children, learning about them, what they love about school, and helping them learn about the various cultures. The students were so full of life and spunk - it was an absolute delight for me to be able to spend time with them.
I'm looking forward to participating in more Service Learning projects this year with my team and others at VMware. What a Wonderful Experience!
About City Year: City Year was founded on the belief that young people can change the world. City Year programs are run by Corp members who are 17-24 year old young adults from diverse backgrounds that give a full year of full-time service as tutors, mentors, and role models. Their mission is to help children stay in school and on track, and transform schools and communities.
About VMware Foundation and Service Learning: The mission of the VMware Foundation is to engage our employees around the world in programs aligned with our core values that leverage VMware’s human, intellectual and financial assets to embed service and active corporate citizenship in our culture while making a contribution to ourselves, our industry and the wider world. The Service Learning Program helps VMware employees make a difference in the community by providing an opportunity for us to contribute our energy and expertise back to the community.
Please comment and let me know what you think!
- PG