Stephany Perez

My involvement in being a sister of Sigma Pi Alpha has been doing community service, getting more involved with school, and making new connections. I have to do hours of community service every month individually and then more hours as an organization. This month, I went to do service at the Redwood Empire Food Bank. I have also been involved more with school because of this organization, and as a commuter, that is very important to me. I will be helping with an animal shelter event this month and other events in the following weeks. I have also met amazing people and have made great connections. There are older girls who are about to become teachers, and so I have received great advice and suggestions. I told myself my first semester that I would put myself more out there and step out of my comfort zone. I have accomplished it by doing several things, and this has been part of it. I have learned great skills such as communication, organization, adaptability, time-management, teamwork, and more. Lastly, it has helped me be more proud of being a Latina.

During the summer of 2023, I was a Summer Bridge Leader for EOP at Sonoma State University. I worked with students that were coming in that fall online and kept track of their attendance because they were taking courses to start getting a feel for what college would look like. I was one of those students my freshman year, and so being on the other side was very exciting and interesting. I put in a lot of effort to help these students, and I would most of the time be constantly responding to emails because of how many questions they had. I would also host game nights on Thursdays with my summer bridge leader partner so that the students could get to know each other and build relationships for when school started. During the last two weeks of summer, we did an in person component so that the students could move in earlier and we would have activities and workshops set for them. Every day there were different activities, and as a leader, I would help them around and make sure that they were attending the events, as well as building great relationships. I remember how confused and anxious I was my first year, so my biggest goal was to provide the most help I could to the students so they wouldn't be too confused, stressed, or anxious. I made amazing memories, created new friendships, supported the students to the best of my abilities, and strengthened several skills.

I have babysat my siblings even when very young, starting at about the age of 10. I have looked after my brother and sister and now my brother who's two years old. My grandma who started to take care of him left for a couple of weeks to live with my aunt so over my winter break I had to watch over him and take care of him. I would feed him, change his diapers, shower him, and do activities with him, especially teaching him how to say new words since he's been struggling with that. I always made sure that he was in sight at all times and when he would take a nap I'd do house duties to help my mother when she came back from work.

During my first semester, I volunteered at Luther Burbank to get some hours and experience in this field. I was the teacher's assistant and helped with several activities and also did a one-on-one reading with the students. I also helped during recess to watch over the students because sometimes there was not enough staff for all the children. I did about 30 hours. I'm going to be an elementary teacher so this experience definitely helped a lot to see the whole picture from a different perspective. I will continue to do more hours this semester.

During the summers of 2021 and 2022, I was a camp counselor at the camp 'Camp Tule' at the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation. I led groups of children safely through a variety of camp activities and helped young children learn about the native plants and animals of the Laguna de Santa Rosa ecosystem. I also made sure that the children ate their snacks and lunch, and that they kept themselves hydrated. I as well constantly did tick checks on them and had to take several of them off from the kids. I had to maintain calm and reassure the child that everything was going to be okay. It was another great experience to work with kids and I had a lot of fun with all the activities. With this job, I was able to strengthen my communication skills and adapt to changes quickly, such as switching schedules last minute or switching up kids and remembering their names. Working with children also improved my problem-solving and leadership skills.

I worked in the warehouse where I would help glean and package fresh produce, assemble grocery boxes, and sort donated staple pantry items for distribution. I sometimes made mesh bags for the fruits and vegetables and I as well helped clean up at the very end of every shift, sanitizing everything, and putting tables back in their place. I did about 50 hours of this community service.