FirstSchool is an organization that is rethinking “ public education for children ages 3 to 8 in partnership with a broad community of people who care deeply about young children.” I’ve only been working with FirstSchool for a short time but I feel like I’ll be working with the association for the rest of my college career. I know I’m at the very beginning of something big. This semester I’ve worked on literary review work concerning the planning of FirstSchool facilities. I attend meetings and am encouraged to do as much independent research as I wish.

Through my service, I’ve learned that demonstrated appreciation can motivate disproportionately (on our first day at FirstSchool our advisor baked us ginger bread cookies. It was a simple gesture but it charged us to do our best work for the organization). I learned how to look at a report or website on school design and unearth what makes a given approach special. And in the words of my Service-Learning classmate Melanie Smith (and a host of others), I learned that “what goes around comes around.” At FirstSchool I get the impression that the more work I do the more I actually influence how FirstSchool will be built. I can’t think of a better reward to “come around.” 

I believe that an improved education system could save the world. And I believe that FirstSchool is an organization that will improve our education system. Thus, there is a link between working at FirstSchool and saving the world. That’s why I wanted to perform this service.  

FPG Child Development Institute
CB#8180, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8180
FPG Information: 919.966.2622