In class when we were asked to write down our own definition of community service I

wrote: a person who volunteers their own time, labor, and efforts in order to benefit a cause,
place, or other person/people without monetary compensation. Even now, over a month since
writing this, I stand by my statement. I very particularly selected the words, benefit, and
compensation, because they are pivotal to the accuracy of the definition. When committing an
act of community service I think that the servant should not be concerned, in any capacity, about
how the act will benefit them but solely on how it will benefit another. However, over the course
of the semester Ive been able to expand my understanding of this definition through learning
about servanthood, discussing in class other peoples definitions of community service, and
connecting it to key concepts of identity and citizenship.
Although I would only consider myself as being in the very novice stages of learning
how to serve the Charlotte community, I can easily recognize what my role as a citizen here
should entail. I used to define citizenship as being the ability to legally prove your place of birth
and/or place of residency, but now I would say that it is more about the place one lives, works,
and fulfills their civic duties in. After discussing this terminology in class I realized that when we
are born we dont have a say in regards to the place we are born and raised in and, therefore, will
reach a point in life when we may get to choose were to live and be a citizen which may not be
the same place were initially raised in. Now that Im no longer living in Raleigh, Ive had to put
forth a lot of effort to transition myself into Charlotte citizenry. My address has changed, I have
transferred jobs, and have registered to vote in this city and now, subsequently, consider myself a
Charlottean.
On the other hand, Ive learned in this class that even though you can change your
citizenship, you can still be proud of where it is that you came from. In our Voice of Witness

reading assignment, I read about Lorena: a young Mexican woman, my age, at odds with being
prideful of her rich culture and heritage and being afraid to be stereotyped for the same reasons.
Lorenas story as an undocumented citizen in the United States is an inspirational and
informative one. Her fears of being stereotyped are absolutely rational because there is a mean
and detrimental stigma towards people who live, work, and fulfill civic duties in this country
without the paperwork to corroborate that theyre legally allowed to be doing so. The people
living in Optimist Park are stuck in a similar dilemma; they want to share their culture and pride
of being from Charlotte without being scrutinized for living in a part of the city that is less
glamorous than its Villa Heights, Belmont, or NoDa neighbors.
This ongoing assignment/community work with the citizens of Optimist Park calls for a
complete understanding of how to properly serve underdeveloped communities without
undermining them or only addressing their weaknesses. By taking into account the stories from
Voice of Witness, How Servanthood is Bad, the oral histories from last semester, and an
overall awareness about the detriments of cognitive dissonance, I feel well equipped to begin
diving into the Optimist community and listening to its stories and learning from its past.