Becky Kempf post 1

Hey friends!

My name is Becky Kempf, and I enjoy horror films and long walks on the beach. Since I turned 14, I have been babysitting, teaching at my church's Sunday School, and volunteering at a local preschool. Through this, I have developed a love for teaching and a passion for child care. In addition, in my past 2 years at Rhodes, I have discovered that I am a feminist and I have tried incorporating those values into my daily life. I did a bit of research, and discovered Girls Incorporated, an organization that "inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold, [and provides] more than 138,000 girls across the U.S. and Canada with life-changing experiences and real solutions to the unique issues girls face" (http://www.girlsinc.org/about/about-girls-inc.html). Because this organization aligns with my interests of feminism and youth work, I decided to become involved with Girls Inc Memphis (GIM).

Within GIM, I am working on their Youth Farm in Frayser, in which we have 6 teenage girls employed and farming themselves, in addition to learning more about sustainable living, entrepreneurship, leadership, public speaking, and how they can actively contribute to their community (here's a link to our facebook page, if you're interested in learning more!). We usually farm in the mornings, and do various leadership activities in the afternoon, like planning businesses and creating a farm stand to sell to our neighbors in Frayser. We also take field trips, including the weekly Frayser Exchange Club meetings, another local farm, and a landfill, to name a few. On Saturdays, we have a booth at the Memphis Farmers Market (thanks to those that stopped by yesterday!). Because this is their first year the farm has been in existence, we've been doing a lot of scrambling around and making a lot of edits to the schedule. However, we've all been learning how to adapt and creatively come up with new programs on a short notice. I anticipate growing a lot this summer (wow. That pun was completely unintended. I noticed it on my final spellcheck, and I apologize for being cheesy). I am a very quiet and passive person, and I hope to become more assertive and vocal, to both my coworkers and our teen farmers. I also hope to continue to push my own personal limits--including but not limited to meeting new people and forming new friendships and becoming more comfortable assessing a problem and solving it without checking with someone else.

I've been thinking about service a lot this week after our discussion. My initial definition was "utilizing your strengths to help someone else." But after some thought, I'd like to make some edits to that definition. I believe service:
* is an act done to help or assist others in a way that they need. While serving, a person shouldn't overtake another's environment. They should provide additional support and work where it is needed, not where they think it is needed.
* utilizes your personal strengths and abilities. If a person doing something they can't do, they might be causing more harm than help. We've all experienced a child wanting to "help" when they just end up breaking everything. The same applies to adults, if a person doesn't understand how to communicate with 4 year-olds, they should not offer to assist a preschool teacher.
* should be viewed as an experience, not a duty. While a person shouldn't think of the activity as something that needs to be studied, they need to learn from everything you do. In addition, everyone should want to be in the place they are serving at. A negative attitude is worse than not being there at all.
*is a lifelong activity. Many people want to volunteer in order to diversify their college applications, or to have something to do during retirement. However, service needs to be viewed as an act that can be done throughout an individual's lifetime. I even intend to encourage my children to volunteer throughout their lives, starting as early as their maturity will allow.

I can't wait to work with all of you this summer!