I served my hours at Mountains Community Hospital, my community’s local hospital. I volunteered with the IT department, working directly with the department head. The nature of working in a hospital immediately presented some challenges. I had to undergo a full suite of TB tests, vaccines, and paperwork. After all of this, I was left with very little time to complete my hours considering my work schedule. I ended up taking a week vacation from work and spending the week completing my hours. Once I began my hours, things went well. I learned a lot from the hospital staff about the nature of community service. The biggest impact for me was the opportunity to work with a team of computing professionals.
My advice to future service learning students is to begin the entire process as soon as you can. Try and find a site well before the course begins, and leave yourself ample time to schedule your hours.