I volunteered as part of a first-year service-learning course sequence in my freshman year at Saint Joseph’s University. As part of a fall political science course and spring philosophy course, first-year students are matched up with organizations where 2-3 students are partnered to volunteer weekly for 3 hours. I volunteered at Southwark School in South Philadelphia for an after-school program called Puentes de Salud as an education volunteer. Puentes is an after-school program that specifically serves K-8 Spanish-speaking students. The program serves as a way for students to grow their social skills and have a creative outlet after a long school day. It also allows Spanish-speaking students to communicate in whatever language they prefer with the other students and with us teachers. Each week, my partner and I came in soon before dismissal. We worked in a tight office packed with other after-school programs with the same goal as Puentes but for other demographics. We gathered the kids after dismissal, allowing them time to play and eat snacks, before shifting to a classroom setting. I worked with a group of about 7 students who were all in 1st grade and 2nd grade. Most of my students preferred Spanish, so I utilized my 5 years of Spanish throughout college and high school to get comfortable communicating with them. As teachers, we assisted students with their creative activities. Activities included building the tallest possible tower from sticks and marshmallows, making instruments from simple materials, using recycled material to build a model of their town, and coloring flags of where their family is from. The creative activities tended to have a theme of building community pride and pride in the kids’ Hispanic background. My role was to support the kids in building their confidence in social skills and giving the students the individualized attention that they could not get during the school day when one teacher was responsible for almost 30 students. The volunteer experience exposed me to both the challenges and benefits of serving a diverse student population. I also learned about issues involving underfunding in Philadelphia public schools. My experience at Puentes was my longest consistent service experience. It revealed the importance of physically showing up and being present in your community to serve and learn. Grassroots efforts contribute to change just as much as top-down efforts, and neither can be optimally effective if employed alone. Leadership through service inspires volunteers to fully dedicate themselves to the experience of learning from those they serve and understanding needs straight from the mouths of the people who experience struggles. It connects volunteers not only to one another and to the served but also builds confidence and empathy within oneself. Leading through service shows the importance of reaching out and offering assistance rather than expecting people to ask for help before acting. Solidarity and understanding are incredibly important attributes of any human in today’s world as struggling is amplified through the internet and media. We must have compassion for one another to act when we realize struggles going on within our community.