Service-learning and volunteerism incorporate multiple challenging reflection activities that are on-going and that prompt deep thinking and analysis about oneself and one’s relationship to society. Hopefully, through your projects, you learned something about yourself and your role as a civic contributor in this world. Be sure to reflect and catalogue those feelings and experiences in your blogs.

• Record your thoughts. Be specific! Don’t just say that you learned a lot, explain what you learned and/or how you learned it.
• Add pictures to capture your reader’s attention.
• If your blog is a reflection on a specific experience, include what you would do different if you had a chance to do it again. Maybe you would prepare more before hand, maybe you needed more or less people, or maybe it is something as simple as remembering to bring water and snacks.
• Also list what you think worked really well to help other GivingPointers as they plan their own projects.
• Post a link to a website dedicated to your Passion. Someone else might be interested in the same thing but unsure of where and how to get involved.
• Remember to read other GivingPointer’s blogs. They might have a question you can answer, have great information about your passion, or have a project that you want to be a part of.
• Ask questions and reply to other blogs.
• Deliberate about differing points of view from community partners and how you helped solve disagreements or differences. How did you influence others?
• Express new insights on how to solve problems. What did you learn about your strengths and weaknesses during the project?
• Write about how the volunteer experience deepened your understanding of a larger civic or social issue in society.

When Writing Your Blog, Here Are Some Questions to Reflect On

• Why do you do service? What did you get out of your volunteer experience?
• Describe the people you met at the service site.
• Name three things that stuck in your mind about the service experience.
• Describe some of you interactions with the people you helped.
• How are your perceptions of the people you served different?
• How did the people's responses make you feel?
• How did the services site make you feel?
• How are you similar/different to the others (others in your service group? others seeking services? etc.)?
• In what ways did being different help/hinder the group?
• What have you learned about yourself?
• If you were one of the people receiving services, what would you think of yourself?
• How does this experience compare to others you've had?
• Did you feel a connection or build a relationship with the nonprofit organization that you served?
• Did you bond or admire someone working at the nonprofit? How did they make you feel as a volunteer?
• How was your service contributed to your growth in any of these areas: civic responsibility, political consciousness, social understanding?
• What have you learned about a particular community or societal issue?
• How did this experience challenge your assumptions and stereotypes?
• Do you think these people (or situations) are unique? Why or why not?
• Describe what a typical day might be like for someone who uses the services of the organization you worked with.
• How would you do this differently if you were in charge?
• What was the best/worst/most challenging thing that happened?
• Did you feel like a part of the community you were working in?
• Discuss a social problem that you have come in contact with during your service work. What do you think are the root causes of this problem? Explain how your service may or may not contribute to its alleviation.
• How can society be more compassionate/informed/involved regarding this community?
• How has what you learned made you different?
• Did your objectives while volunteering get accomplished?
• How will this affect your life moving forward?