Throughout my three years of Service Learning at Sage Hill, I have never been apart of a group (Sage Campaign for Active and Retired Servicemen aka “SCARS”) that dedicated the time and effort in and out of school to help benefit a cause. This year, I believe was the most focused effort in Service Learning that I have been apart of. We were one of the few Senior groups that was on campus all day, from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, besides lunch. We worked well as a team and divided the work equally and efficiently because we are all good friends. Although we haven’t completed our main event yet, the Tough Mudder Run, we have completed all of our goals this year this year. I am proud to be apart of such a hardworking group. We have raised awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project through multiple presentations at Town Meeting and lunch, and we have also reached out to numerous businesses to help raise donations for the Wounded Warrior Project. I have gained experience from these businesses and have the insight required to make deals like this in the future.
Steven Do:
Throughout the course of the Service Learning project, I learned a great deal about both the Wounded Warrior Project and the men and women who served this country. Examples being the conditions the soldiers have to serve in, their struggles in trying to reintegrate back into civilization, and how the Wounded Warrior Project helps veterans to assimilate back into society. These people put their own lives on the line in order to protect our rights and the country from foreign threats. Before, I only knew about the fact that the Wounded Warrior Project existed so that we can repay the men and women, returning back from the battlefield, for their service. Through this experience, I learned that the work in order to repay them would be much more in-depth and hands on than I originally anticipated. In order to get a better understanding of our cause, we researched heavily on the events as well as trying to organize different sponsorship opportunities to help our cause, with some roadblocks along the way. We communicated with companies such as CDM Yogurt, Cha, and Panera, accumulated support for our primary event, the Tough Mudder Run, and have learned a great deal about how the people serving the military forces worked/trained under, modeled by the Tough Mudder Event. Researching the Tough Mudder, I learned more about the fundamentals of cooperation. Cooperation among the participants is expected to be able to complete the course as it should be for people in everyday life in my opinion. Under the current circumstances, I will definitely be continuing in the Sage Hill Wounded Warrior Project Project next year along with Ian Jun and potentially Alfonso Corona and Jacob Fisher. I know that my sacrifice to the cause would be infinitely insignificant compared to that of our veterans, but I believe that any dedication towards repaying them for their deeds would mean so much to them.
On preparing for the Tough Mudder Run: I do not plan on running the Tough Mudder course. However, I will be coming as a spectator and will be helping out the team however I can (hand them water and etc.).
Jack Preston:
Nothing I do compares to the sacrifice our soldiers make. They put their lives on the line, but it goes beyond that. They leave their children, wives, husbands, mothers, and fathers to protect American ideals. Anything we can do to help these soldiers out means the world to us. Yes, we're not out there putting our lives on the line like these American heroes but we still do a great deal to help out. Raising money for WWP allows us to help military families that do not necessarily have the funds to pay for medical bills, put food on the table, or even own a home. Service learning has taught me that its possible to change the lives of soldiers or really anything in fun creative ways. Doing the mud run is challenging, rigorous, even dangerous course that allows us to experience some psychical aspects that a soldier might go through while simultaneously raising money for our wounded veterans. Nothing means more to our group than helping out others. Being able to help heroes is priceless.
Gordon Strelow
Throughout my two years with our group, I have learned a lot about the Wounded Warrior Project and myself. In our first year, we started with a small group that was dedicated to giving back to the soldiers that risked their lives on the battlefield. Although we worked on trying to help out with the veterans, we were unable to navigate through the bureaucracy involved with volunteering at the Hope center and working directly with them proved unsuccessful. Despite this setback, we focused our efforts on raising money to support the project financially. This year, we were able to recruit more members, and get juniors to carry on the group in the future. We could also devote our efforts to a big fundraising event at the end of the year, so we would have money to donate to the Wounded Warrior project. This experience has helped me learn to overcome difficulties while pursuing a goal, because there is always a different approach you can take to reach it. Since everybody in our group has been passionate about the project since its inception, we have been able to work together to make sure our group succeeds. This year, we have presented to the school at Town Meeting, the parents at the Parent Association meeting, as well as helping host a paint ball tournament, Cha fundraiser, and will culminate our year at the Tough Mudder Event. The Tough Mudder event will help establish the legacy of our group, as it will both raise the most money and awareness for our group as well as give us at least part of the taxing experience the troops face overseas.
Aaron Kim:
This program has been influential in my pursuit of becoming an officer in the United States Military. It has played a great role into my application for West Point, United States Naval Academy, and ROTC Programs. It has reaffirmed my interest in joining the military.
Founding and serving in the Sage Hill Wounded Warrior Program has caused me to reflect on what it means to be dedicated. Besides raising funds and awareness for the Hope Rehabilitation Center at Camp Pendleton, I've met wounded veterans and active duty personnel whose experiences have taught me that the sacrifices I've experienced are nothing when compared to those of the soldiers served by the WWP. I have profound respect for these people and am grateful for their sacrifice. One story I found inspiring is that of Sergeant Jason Pacheco, who lost a leg in Afghanistan. Through the Hope Center, he was able to recover and return to active duty, serving as a sniper instructor. His dedication further inspired my military interest.
The Tough Mudder event will give us an opportunity to bond with wounded veterans, and teach us that there are no excuses in life. As ordinary citizens we can experience the taxing lifestyle of being deployed out of country. The event upholds the same values that our group hopes to embody: Duty, Honor, and Country. Duty to our veterans, honor for our project, and service to our country. We hope to bring these values to our community, and in doing so bring awareness to the Wounded Warrior Program. We’ve reached into our community through Town Meeting announcements, PTA Meetings, and outreach programs. From this point on I can only hope for the best, as the juniors take this service learning group with them into next year and hopefully the future.
On preparing for Tough Mudder Mud Run: "I will prepare for the Tough Mudder by participating in track for strength and running daily for conditioning. I plan on wearing clothes that are adequate for a 14 mile mud run, and are old enough to be disposed of at the end. I also plan on wearing a chest mounted go pro to capture the entire event."
Zach Burns:
Every year, the Service Learning program here innovates, bringing new processes, challenges, and excitement to the Sage Hill Campus. During my junior year, I worked with a group of four of my peers in an attempt to get connected with the Wounded Warrior project. At that point in time, we were productive and worked well together simply because of the group size; every member had an apparent roles and significance in the groups workings. We soon found, though, that getting involved with the Wounded Warrior Project directly was unreasonable given the two year life span of our group, given the processes and training required. As a result, last year served as a learning year for our original group members, learning and understanding our goals and deciding what future endeavors we wish to take on. Thus, transitioning into our senior year Service Learning was much easier, given we had a solid foundation set for a group. Now as a group more than double the size, I have found that it is much more challenging to be productive and maintain an overall focus on the goals of our group. Delegating tasks each day to every member of our group is one of our biggest challenges, simply because the things we wish to accomplish do not usually require the hands of ten people. Additionally, the views and mentalities of each member of our group never match up, causing our group to have friction when performing tasks and planning for the future. Ultimately, I feel that the sheer size of our senior year group negatively impacted the workings and efficiency of our once driven and motivated project. While we spoke of many plans for our senior year (i.e. car washes, paintballing tournaments, etc.), we did not accomplish nearly as much as we had hoped with the addition of new members, bringing less passion for our mission than had already existed. We did, however, perform a Cha for Tea fundraiser and will soon participate in the Tough Mudder run to demonstrate our support for our veterans and active duty soldiers. With this said, I truly believe that our group could have admitted new members with more care, thoroughly deducing which would positively effect our group's working. Consequently, if I could go back and redo the senior year process, I would assume more of a leadership role to keep the group focused and passionate about the ultimate cause, even if that means excluding friends from the group.
On preparing for Tough Mudder Mud Run: "To prepare for the Tough Mudder, I am going to be training for the various sports I play, which parallel the training required to run the course. For the event itself, I will be wearing regular athletic equipment, along with a GoPro mounted to my chest to document the run."
Ian Jun:
Being a part of the Sage Hill Service Learning group S.C.A.R.S has taught me a lot about the sacrifices our veterans make everyday and the challenges they face when they return. These brave souls give up their lives to protect those back in the U.S. and unfortunately their services go under-appreciated a lot of the time. I’ve learned that there are many ways to give back to our Veterans through donations and other means of support. This year we ran a blog that was updated monthly with what our objectives were and what we did to give back to the Veteran community. Earlier in the year we participated in a paintball tournament at Camp Pendleton, which was a fun way to raise money for our Service Learning group because it was very interactive and a close representation of war. Participating in this gave us some insight as to what war is actually like and it made it even more special because it was at a real Marine Base where the military actually trains. We also plan on participating in the Tough Mudder event at the end of March to help raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project. This is the most intense obstacle course the world has seen and continues to get thousands of participants who want to get a glimpse of what soldiers go through during their time in the military. Although I’ve learned a lot about veterans and their lives during and after serving, I’ve realized that the sacrifices we make doesn’t even come close to the ones men and women in the military make because no amount of fundraising or support can compare to the time and efforts they have given up for our freedoms. Despite this I would still like to continue my support for our vets and would like to continue the S.C.A.R.S. Service Learning group next year. I want to give back to the veterans with the support they deserve, no matter how small my contributions may be.
Logan Cook:
Throughout this Service Learning, I have learned a multitude of things. One of the most important is that someone can make a difference in ways other than raising funds and donating money. Fundraising went from being the only focus to a supplementary focused. Our goals evolved over the months. Fundraising, as we learned, was but a small part of the overall final goal of the project, which included among fundraising, participating in a huge event that will make a huge impact for the soldiers. We also did a paintball event to help raise funds, spoke to the PTA, and spoke at several town meetings. Another thing I learned was that a small group can accomplish so much. Sometimes a smaller group can accomplish more than a large group. A large group has to delegate jobs to a large amount of people, slowing down the process of actually doing the work. A small group has to work from the start and take responsibility for all the work. We will also participate in the Tough Mudder event, which will be extremely difficult, but worth the effort.
On preparing for Tough Mudder Mud Run:
I will prepare for the Tough Mudder by running every week. I will also buy shoes and clothes that are adequate for such an event.
Jake Fisher:
I learned that there are a lot more people than I had originally thought, that are contributing to the wounded warrior project. There are many people who we found that were willing to contribute to W.W.P, including Cha for Tea, and Panera Bread. Cha and Panera both agreed to help sponsor our service learning group, S.C.A.R.S, and help pay for some of our admission tickets for the Tough Mudder. I've also learned that it is really fun being in S.C.A.R.S. Our group gets our work done when it needs to be done, but we always find a way to have a fun time while doing so. S.C.A.R.S is definitely something that I want to continue to be a part of next year. I would also be very pleased if our service learning group continued to live on, after the juniors and I eventually graduate. One way that I think will bring in new and excited students into our group, is the Tough Mudder. The Tough Mudder is the mud run that some of the members of our group are participating in. It consists of challenging obstacles that also seem very fun and will hopefully attract more students to join S.C.A.R.S.
Alfonso Corona:
Throughout the year, my determination was tested. It was tough spending lots of time at school stressing about the tiniest of details like the format of text on our blog entries. This also taught me that when the cause is right, sacrifices must be made. This cause was right because I realized all we really owe to people who were injured fighting for our country, and being part of this group was a small way for me to help. I completed all tasks assigned to me with precision and skill, and made all necessary sacrifices to be a big part of this group. Some tasks were updating our blog and going up during town meeting with fellow team members CJ and Ian to promote our club’s fundraiser. Organizing a fundraiser taught me people skills and gave me a rewarding feeling when we saw the results. Something interesting about this group this year was the size. We had an excess of people for every task. I think this was beneficial because it reduced the time it took to complete an assignment as a group. However, the downside was that we had a lot more free time where we had to remain on campus with no tasks left to complete. Next year, I would suggest a smaller group.
