citizen schools

I am working part time for a non-profit program called Citizen Schools. I work with students at Sharpstown Middle School. They are strong, wonderful, resilient kids who are looking for a bright future.

I help coordinate an after-school program that invites community professionals to volunteer and teach apprenticeships. The kids are learning about solar car engineering, cooking, photography, debate, banking and community organizing, etc.




The photography volunteer and I took a small group of the students on a photography field trip to the Buddhist Temple across the street from the school.

testing the water



If anyone is looking for a great volunteer oppourtunity where you can share your skills with inter-city middle school age kids look into Citizen Schools. They are in various cities throughout CA, MA, NJ, NM, NC and TX.

-Alisa

helping each other

"The Lord does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other. The righteous life is achieved as we magnify our view of life, and expand our view of others and of our own possibilities. Thus, the more we follow the teachings of the Master, the more enlarged our perspective becomes. We see many more possibilities for service than we would have seen without this magnification. There is great security in spirituality, and we cannot have spirituality without service!"
--President Spencer W. Kimball

The first time I remember hearing this quote was when I was a missionary, and in line with my missionary assignment, I immediately identified myself as a service giver. As a missionary, I would be a person that would help the Lord meet the needs of others. Even as my life circumstances and roles have changed, I think that more often than not I identify myself as a service giver, that I try to see the needs of those around me and serve them.

As those who know her can attest, Alisa is a wonderful example of service giving. I think that Alisa is inherently blessed with the magnified perspective of life that President Kimball described. She has an ability to see so many possibilities to serve others. I enjoy the privilege of watching her every day in the ways that she builds others, whether it's a listening ear to a friend or visiting someone in the hospital that she just met a week before or babysitting for a relative or friend.

But Alisa and I now find ourselves in a more unfamiliar role, that of a service receiver. Neither Alisa nor I would have expected to need the service of others to help us fulfill our desire of having children, but we now find ourselves in this position. We are receiving service from many who have expressed that they are praying for us. We are receiving service from people who work in or have passed through the adoption process and are providing us with information to best manage the process. A service that we may yet receive could be that one of you knows someone who is placing a child for adoption and helps us make contact with the birth parents. And, of course, an immensely valued service for us would be that of a birth mother who makes the heart-wrenching decision to place her child into our family.

"It is vital that we serve each other." Sometimes we give service, and sometimes we receive. Through it all, we progress together.

-Lonnie