49
? Reflection Journal
“Study without reflection is a waste of
time; Reflection without study is dangerous”
- Confucius
Reflection is a critical part of doing service. It allows volunteers to look
back on, think critically about and learn from their service experiences.
This section of the program book is provided to help you record your own
unique perspective on your journey in your HOBY experience. What you write
is up to you. Questions are provided to help you discover, process and evaluate
your service experience. Volunteers often discover through reflection they have
learned and grown more than they realize. We hope this is true for you.
Designing time to reflect and think critically about a service project
or program is essential; it gives meaning to your experience and helps
you understand how your efforts impact your community. Reflection also
helps you to improve on your existing and future service and leadership
experiences.
Reflection is not an overly technical process, despite its importance in
fostering learning outcomes and new forms of understanding and action. There
are however, some common and necessary elements for successful reflection; it
needs to be a purposeful and strategic process.