Community Impact at Columbia University

Community Impact is a nonprofit located at the Columbia campus that helps the people and communities neighboring it. Being a volunteer GED teacher for the past three semesters for the JEEP (Jobs and Education Empowerment Program) here has been a life-​changing experience.
Though I’m not a Columbia student, anyone can apply to volunteer here. Being a full-​time grad student has its ups and downs, and while being a GED instructor gives me a lot of work, I always leave each lesson (you teach one class a week) humbled, determined, fatigued, energized, and feeling proud of my students.
No description can really capture the classroom experience I’ve had here. As ineffably corny as it may sound, I end up learning as much as — maybe more — than my students do. And it’s sooo much better when my lessons on subject-​verb agreement start to kick in!