William's Blog

Hello, my name is William Leong and I am a senior at Sage Hill School located in Newport Coast, CA.

I'm interested in assisting the veterans at the VA Hospital because I would like to give back to the veteran community for everything that they have done for our country. My dedication to do so also spurs from my passion for the military. I plan to commission into the Navy and pursue Naval Aviation.

I am currently in a program called the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps which is a youth military program that revolves around the fundamentals of the U.S. Navy. With over five years of exposure to the military traditions/customs and simply being around active duty/retired military personnel, it is only appropriate that I continue my venture with the military through my senior Service Learning project.

Day 1:

Today, we visited the VA Hospital in Long Beach to receive our application to become a volunteer at the VA Hospital. We also scheduled an appointment for our volunteer orientation day and an appointment for our TB shot. One of the moments that stuck out to me was how respectful the employees at the hospital were to each other. For example, whenever an employee would walk in the building, he or she would make sure to say "hello" to their colleagues. This made me reflect on the idea of how being in the military can allow people to form strong and everlasting relationships with their peers. I feel that choosing to volunteer at the VA Hospital was a great decision because it will allow us to form personal relationships and connect with the veterans of our community, and I think this will be a great way of giving back to our veteran community. In our orientation day on October 6, we are going to learn and develop the skills that are needed to work with the veterans and I am excited to start working with them to learn about themselves, and even possibly learn about myself. I believe that myself and the service learning group communicated clearly and efficiently to accomplish our goals of this service learning day. One of our members had already collected the application forms and he provided helpful information on how we should proceed to collect our own application forms.

Day 2:

On the second day of Service Learning, we started our volunteering duty at the Long Beach VA Hospital. Before I could start officially volunteering, I had to receive volunteer badge which contained my name and the date. Once this was done, I was ready to start volunteering. My service learning group and I were transferred to the main volunteering waiting center which is located right next to their East Community Living Center. Within the waiting center is a stand where the volunteer coordinator assigns volunteers tasks. He receives a call from someone who needs assistance in helping the veterans get back to their living center. And the coordinator calls up the volunteer and the volunteer carries our the task. Our group was assigned multiple tasks throughout the day. I remember one of my first task was to push a veteran in a wheel chair. This soul experience was a great introduction to what we would be doing as a volunteer at the VA simply not only because I was helping the veterans, but also because I was able to have a very friendly conversation with an experienced volunteer, an ex-Army Ranger. Him and all of the rest of the volunteers made our experiences much more memorable and fun at the same time. One other particular volunteer gave us helpful, yet humorous, advice on how to carry a career in the military. I think what we were mainly expecting going into this experience was being able to connect with the veterans who we were helping. But after the first day, I realized that I was also connecting with the other volunteers who also happened to be military veterans. I look forward to our next experience with the veteran and volunteer community!

Day 3:

On the third day of Service Learning, we continued to work with the patients at the VA Hospital in Long Beach. This time, I received my volunteer code so that I could finally clock-in my hours. Though I still received hours for Day 2, the were unable to provide me with a volunteer code at the time due to a volunteer coordinating not having the essential items to do so. The highlight of the day was being able to talk to a fellow volunteer who flew C-130s in the Air Force. He had heard of my interests in being a pilot in the Navy so he told me of his experiences working in the military such as working with special forces, including international special forces. I remember him saying that all he had to do was ask them where to fly them over and open the ramp for them to jump out. Since we were still fairly new to volunteering at the VA, whenever we were called up to go assist a patient another, more seasoned volunteer would have us shadow them around the maze of hallways. However, we were overall still more confident in the where to go and what to do. I, again, look forward to my next visit at the VA.

This is a photo of the voluntary services building. This is where we clock-in to begin our volunteering day (photo taken on 10 January 2018).

Day 4:

On the fourth day of Service Learning at the VA Hospital in Long Beach, we saw some familiar faces and also had the opportunity to meet with people who we had not met before. On our first assignment, one volunteer (who served in the Navy) and I pushed a patient in a gurney. From my experience, I've learned that gurneys can be difficult to handle. When using the gurney, we are always taught to push slowly, especially when pushing it over bumps in the hallways. Pushing the gurney over the bumps can be very uncomfortable for patients as there is very little cushion within the gurney's mattress.

Later on throughout my day, the volunteer who I just mentioned said to us that he understood that we attend Sage Hill. He told us that he knows Sage because of his previous job of being a bus driver for sporting events. Therefore he has been to Sage numerous amounts of times, along with some of our rival schools. While talking to the other volunteers, I learned that one's nephew is a Navy SEAL who currently works as an instructor at basic Navy SEAL training, known as BUD/S. He remarked that when he was there for his nephew's graduation from BUD/S, he said that he was built like wood and it was nothing like he was prior to reporting for training. Overall, these conversations that we have with the other volunteers constantly remind me of why I am joining the military service. Whenever I talk with them, I feel like I can relate to the other volunteers very closely because of our same desire to serve.

This photo (taken on 14 February 2018) is right outside of the volunteer building. The water towers in the background are right outside of the VA Hospital.

Day 5:

On the fifth day of service learning, our group stayed at Sage Hill to recruit new members for the Hero Project. Though it was fairly uneventful, it is still good to know that everything that we have worked for will continue onto the next year. We have a few prospective new members who are interested in the group.

Day 6:

On the sixth day of service learning, our group spent our last day of service learning volunteering at the VA. Overall, it has been a great experience volunteering at the VA. Meeting the patients and other volunteers has been phenomenal. Being able to hear their experiences while in the military have all been different types of stories but mostly all of them gave me some advice. Though this will be the last time volunteering at the VA through Sage Hill’s service learning program, I still have the ability to volunteer on my own free time, since I am still a volunteer, and would still like to volunteer outside on my own free time.