Name: Evelyn Denise Plata
From: Houston, Texas
Votes: 1
In
my time volunteering, I chose to dedicate my time at the Children’s
Museum of Houston. I chose to volunteer at the Children’s Museum
because I thought it was a great opportunity to grow my communication
and speaking skills. I volunteered at the Children’s Museum of
Houston the summer after my sophomore year of high school. Typically,
I would go in every weekend in the summer. I ended up receiving 67
hours worth of community service by volunteering at the Museum.
As
a Discovery Squad Volunteer at the Children’s Museum of Houston, my
job was to ensure that museum exhibits were kept organized, and to
provide customer service to museum guests by giving them information
about the museum.
As
a volunteer, my biggest challenge was having to keep up with museum
exhibits when they became too disorganized. For example, the most
popular area in the museum is called Kidtropolis. In Kidtropolis,
there is a market where children can grocery shop as if it were an
actual grocery store. In the market, there are many fruits,
vegetables, canned goods, and other boxes of foods that can get
overwhelming to pick up when there are an abundance of children using
the market at once. At times, I was the only volunteer working in the
market when it was a complete disaster, so I had to work diligently
by myself to make the place organized enough for other visitors to
enjoy visiting the museum. Sometimes I would have to contact a
museum employee to help me work the market, and that was a challenge
as well because they also had tasks to complete for the museum.
On
the other hand, the most rewarding part about being a Discovery Squad
Volunteer at the Children’s Museum of Houston was the fact that my
speaking and communication skills grew immensely. Before I was a
volunteer, I was insecure about the way I spoke in front of people,
and I was nervous about the way I would present myself. I thought of
myself as awkward, and embarrassed to speak to anyone. However, this
volunteer opportunity allowed me to realize that I had to break out
of my shell and I had to inevitably communicate with others. As a
result,I became confident when speaking to people because they relied
on me to give them information about the museum. I felt like an
important resource for visitors because if they couldn’t get ahold
of an employee, they could rely on me to help them in order to enjoy
their experience as much as they could.
Since
becoming a Discovery Squad Volunteer, I became an employee for the
Children’s Museum of Houston. I am now a Discovery Guide, which
means it is my job to provide customer service to museum guests, and
to help children learn about the components of the galleries in the
museum. Being a Discovery Guide has helped me understand what I want
for my future. I have decided that in college I would like to study
education in college so that I can become a teacher. When I am
working with children at the museum, I get inspired when I help them
learn something new. I become excited when I think about all of the
possibilities I can have as a teacher, because I get to make a
difference in a child’s education. I believe that all children, no
matter their race or economic status, deserve the chance to have a
successful future. I want to make a child believe that they too can
reach for the sky with their education.
