As a part of the volunteer requirements at Prep, every senior chooses an organization he will work with throughout the whole year. I chose the Cardinal Shehan Center in Bridgeport because they provide a free after school program for the underserved children of Bridgeport. There are groups ranging from kindergartners to eighth graders, and the volunteers act as counselors for these kids. We organize activities for them, help them with homework, and connect with them in meaningful ways. After more than 30 hours of service there once or twice a week I have made friends with everybody in my group. I work with fourth and fifth graders, but when tutoring them, I see problems and concepts that I learned about a year or two earlier than them. That's not to say I am better than them, it has only helped me realize that the schools in Bridgeport are vastly different from those in Trumbull, the very next town over. Public schools in Bridgeport prepare their students to fail; they don't encourage any curiosity or questions, and they function like a minimum wage job. The students are shown how to do the work, they get assigned problems, and all they need to do is copy directly from their notes. I believe that everybody should be given an equal chance to succeed regardless of how much money they have, what race they are, or where they were born. These children were unlucky enough to be born to low income families, but that does not mean they should get a worse education than those privileged to be in a wealthier town

As a part of the volunteer requirements at Prep, every senior chooses an organization he will work with throughout the whole year. I chose the Cardinal Shehan Center in Bridgeport because they provide a free after school program for the underserved children of Bridgeport. There are groups ranging from kindergartners to eighth graders, and the volunteers act as counselors for these kids. We organize activities for them, help them with homework, and connect with them in meaningful ways. After more than 30 hours of service there once or twice a week I have made friends with everybody in my group. I work with fourth and fifth graders, but when tutoring them, I see problems and concepts that I learned about a year or two earlier than them. That's not to say I am better than them, it has only helped me realize that the schools in Bridgeport are vastly different from those in Trumbull, the very next town over. Public schools in Bridgeport prepare their students to fail; they don't encourage any curiosity or questions, and they function like a minimum wage job. The students are shown how to do the work, they get assigned problems, and all they need to do is copy directly from their notes. I believe that everybody should be given an equal chance to succeed regardless of how much money they have, what race they are, or where they were born. These children were unlucky enough to be born to low income families, but that does not mean they should get a worse education than those privileged to be in a wealthier town. Therefore, when helping them with work, I encourage them to figure out how to do it on their own rather than finding the answers posted online. I help them by either showing how to do a similar problem or explaining the concept instead of just giving them the answers. The vast majority of the kids are struggling to read because no one has taught them, so we practice reading and writing as well. My first time volunteering there was an eye opening experience because I had never experienced a school system outside of Trumbull, and when I saw these kids and how they live, I was disturbed. Something needed to change for the better, so we started to introduce them to different concepts than what they were learning about or different ways to view those they already knew. For example, one day I was helping two boys with their math homework when they were doing division. I asked how they ended up with the answers they did, even though they were correct, but all they said was that their teacher just told them how to multiply, without any explanation. I taught them my way, which they liked more because I also told them why each number had to be multiplied separately and answered any other questions they had. Lucas, another boy in my group, was sitting alone on a bench one day when I arrived and I asked him why he wasn't playing basketball with the rest. They would not let him play, so I took him off the court so we could play soccer because both of us love it and pretty soon the rest of my group was playing with us, and so Lucas got to play with his friends. Now that the swimming season is starting soon, I said goodbye to all the children because I will not be able to come during the week. They were all very sad and none of them wanted me to leave.

One of the most impactful activities I have taken up in high school is working out. Coming from eighth grade, I have never really been out of my comfort zone in terms of fitness. That type of effort would only come when I joined the rowing team at Prep. My coach told me that sometimes I just needed to put my head down and push through the pain because pain is a measure of improvement. The more painful the workout was, the stronger we got because of it. Eventually I understood this, after watching an embarrassing amount of videos of college and Olympic level rowing, when I saw how exhausted the crews were after each of their races. I figured I had to reach the same level of mental and physical exhaustion if I was to catch up to the rest of the team. So I rowed, and rowed, until I learned to love the pain for what it is: being stronger and faster than before. As soon as I figured it out, I could put it into practice in our workouts. I love going fast, but going fast still means pain. Unimaginable, blinding pain. It makes you want to get off the erg and never go back again, yet that's exactly why I love it. During sophomore year, I started going to the gym and lifting weights in addition to all the cardio from rowing. It dramatically improved my fitness and I went from a scrawny kid weighing only 130 pounds to weighing in at 180 now. Not only has working out improved my health and well-being, it has also drastically improved my mental health, too. I was always the quiet kid, keeping to myself and barely talking to anyone except the few friends I had. However, joining the rowing team has formed me into a much more social person because I was, at first, forced to interact with the team, but eventually we formed friendships that will last a lifetime. It cured my depression and made my self worth increase drastically because I no longer had the time to focus on my problems, everything was either sports or homework, and recently, work. I saw that I was capable of much more than what I realized previously and that I had not even discovered my fullest potential. I had to keep pushing to find that, which was only more motivation to just get better. The way I viewed any kind of chore, whether it was working out, homework, or housework, also changed greatly. I found that if I only start doing it, the rest will come easily.