Tijah Arnett

Youth Forward Scholarship

I
volunteer in two areas: homelessness and youth academic programs. I
volunteer with the homeless because I remember what it was like when
my mother, my brother, and I had to live with my grandmother because
we had nowhere else to go. I remember the financial and mental
adversities that we endured, so I help those I can. For the past few
months, I’ve been working on opening a tutoring corporation in
order to help those that need help with academics and fine arts.
Tutoring has always been a big factor in life due to me having a
little brother who wasn’t as academically prone as I am, and
therefore, I always tutored him, which led to me tutoring others, and
giving back to the community quickly became a deep aspiration of
mine. In the field of homelessness, I work 4 hours a week. During
those 4 hours, I clean extensively to find non-expired food and
unwanted clothes. Afterwards, I separate my findings equally for
those with an unstable home. In the field of academic programs, my
hours range from 6-8 hours a week, depending on how many courses the
child has and how rigor the material is.
My
responsibilities as a volunteer is the ability to communicate and
empathize because empathy overalls provide a sense of comfort when
you are able to share you knowledge. I take on a caregiving role and
the role of a teacher. My biggest challenge as a volunteer is
scheduling because sometimes my sessions for tutoring may not
coincide with my sessions for cleaning and preparing. I receive the
most satisfaction from knowing that I have the ability to bring
happiness to others. From my volunteer positions, seeing those in
need, I have learned the concept of gratefulness because some people
don’t have the things that I have, so who am I to complain, and
through my tutoring, I have learned the concept of patience when
helping one academically.
My
career goal is to be a neurologist. Examining neuroscience could
empower me to discover a cure for illnesses, for example, cancer,
which would bring about the aiding of people, and my volunteering now
just grants be a better sense of diversity and variation among
people. “Forward looking” means how can one progress their dreams
to create a better future. I believe my activities are forward
looking because they help those who are the future generation and
those who create our future generations. In the future, I hope for an
expansion in homeless shelters and I hope to expand my brand of
tutoring. If I were to come pack in a few years, I think my
determination to get people off the street and open more shelters
would have succeeded in actually getting people off the street and
into stable jobs. I hope my tutoring would have enabled children with
no hope to have great hope and go to college to become some
successful.