“I started off as a volunteer. I would go in and help detainees go through worksheets and just kind of learn about different things. (I would) answer any questions that they would have. As I kept going, my first semester there I began teaching this lower level English group ...
“Volunteering at a detention center isn’t really something that my parents would be like ‘oh my God, that’s our daughter!’ It was kind of different, but you get to talk to the detainees and you get to learn about their lives. In that moment, you learn that they’re human. You don’t talk about the crimes they’ve committed. You don’t talk about why they’re there. You talk about where they’re from, their families, their kids, their lives. ...
“I’ve had people come up and tell me that I’ve changed their lives. (It makes me) think, I’m 20 years old, it’s a good day if I’ve taken a shower and gotten to all my classes. It puts your life in perspective.”
