Loyola’s mission is to work to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice and faith. My engaged learning experience through the Rohingya Cultural Center allowed me to test that mission. I have learned that through “service of humanity,” I am able to help and affect the lives of people around me. I am connected to Loyola’s mission because I have stepped out of my comfort zone and gained a whole new perspective, which can only grow from this point on. Through my service learning, I was able to connect with refugee kids, whose lives are extremely different than mine. I feel because my high school wasn’t big on volunteer work and didn’t place a big emphasis on it, other than completing some hours as a graduation requirement, I only had exposure to people my age. The people that were at my high school live in the same neighborhood as me, and therefore were no different than I. However, through this experience, I was able to gain proximity with the people, who are different. I was able to gain view of life that was not lived by me. The kids that come to the Rohingya Cultural Center are refugee adults in the afternoon and kids in the evening. I could only imagine the pain and suffering they must have gone through. The hard, anguishing journey they have been on, to escape their life at home. Yet, they are here living life like none of that even occurred to them. They are kids, who act like kids, and if I didn’t know any better I would think that they weren’t refugees. This adventure, not only introduced me to some really amazing kids, but I was also able to establish a relation with them during my time there. I’m connected to Loyola’s mission because I was able to be of service to someone, which gives me a great feeling of gratitude and happiness. I was able to be of service to someone that wasn’t me. My engaged learning experience gave me a great amount of exposure of this tiny portion from the issue that stem with refugees, out of the many issues that are going on in this universe. I was able to see one aspect of this prominent issue. Even though it probably is just one percent of all the things that are going on in this world. I feel that this one percent is so important. This small exposure has given me so much and I have received more impactful education out of it. I have become more passionate about the issues that interest me such as homelessness and wrongful incarcerations. I have learned that I don’t have to minimize my interest in these topics, but that it is very important that I speak out. On a professional development level, I’ve become more energetic and passionate to to work on combating and changing some of the major problems in our city. In relation to my intellectual development, I now have first-hand experience with kids that are refugees. But, I also know that every situation is different and not all kids will behave the same way. Even at my service learning area, some kids were loud and energetic, where as some were quiet and shy. I’ve become more patient, especially due to the fact that I was helping kids, who spoke another language, came from another country, and simply because they wanted to be kids. Obviously, their way of living and learning is different than the methods taught here. I have also become more open minded about meeting new people and trying new experiences. Instead of judging from what other people have experienced, I’m more about making my own conclusions through what I have experiences. Also, keeping in mind that even a bad experience is temporary and that I can have a completely opposite experience the second time around.