My Nonprofit Reviews

Before volunteering with ETA4, I never fully understood the magnitude of joy rewarded in helping others. Now, however, I can't imagine something more amazing than just that. I traveled to Taiwan, a country of a different language and culture, last summer with ETA4. In the time I spent there I fell in love with a hundred children, a whole country, a entirely new culture, and most importantly, the act of teaching others. ETA4 embraces teaching English as a means to not only help others to achieving their own goals but as a means to understanding another culture and making new relationships. The work ETA4 does then is so much more than English lessons. ETA4 opens students and volunteers to an entirely new way of viewing the world, themselves, and their own capabilities.

One of my students Annie, a shy student hesitant to speak English in class, helped me realize this about ETA4. During a class break, looking over class journals, Annie began asking me questions about where I live, what I like to do, and what "America" was like. The next day, in her journal Annie wrote about our conversation. It was reading her entry that made me understand why I had come to Taiwan. She explained how she never talked in class because her English was "bad" but that talking to me made her really happy, that she wanted to try to speak in English more, and that, perhaps, she could even come to America sometime to visit me and speak more English. It seems so simple and maybe not even anything special to the average person reading this, but to me this is the essence which makes me come to tears when I think of 'my kids' in Taiwan. To volunteer with ETA4 is to make relationships like these. Ones that encourage students who believe they have so little realize they can dream and be anything they set their minds to. They can speak English, they realize. They can travel to another country, they realize. They can, they realize, do so much more than they ever imagined.

A similar realization dawned on me too during this moment. I began to realize that I can, along with every other individual, offer so much to others. That I can truly make a impact on the lives of others. I think sometimes that many people feel they don't have the means, the aptitude, or the special skills to truly make a difference in the world. But thats so untrue. I believe ETA4, which emphasizes passion to help others more than anything, embraces this. As an organization it provides an overall greater understanding for both its volunteers and students about their extraordinary capabilities.

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