Courtney Garside: Helping Girls Understand Emotions

Dec 1, 2018

Courtney grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Boston. Both her parents worked full time, so she went to the Boys and Girls Club after school and in summer. The experience, she says, was enriching and rewarding and taught her the value of a community that goes out of its way to help others.

"The personal development that came about as a result of others giving themselves up in service to me has never left me," she says. "That is why I choose to serve, because I believe that kids who are growing up like I did have just as much chance to succeed as I."

Her public school education at a college prep high school prepared her well for Xavier's challenging academics, but her club experience, which included organizing service projects, prepared her more than she realized for the Community Engaged Fellowship. Her application essay reflected deep-seated values that she'd developed as a result, which helped her win the scholarship, and led to her recent decision to become a teacher of biology and Latin rather than a doctor.

"It was all just fun. You were there because it was what you did in our neighborhood," she says of the Boys and Girls Club.

"I talk about that a lot when I'm asked about service because it was so important for me that it became second nature volunteering, and service was just part of life. In my essay to Xavier, I talked about that and how that's how it should be. You do service."

Courtney's favorite service site is an after-school program at Evanston Academy she runs for girls in kindergarten through second grade. The goal of Ladies of Awesomeness (the girls picked the name) is social and emotional learning-something many of them are lacking as they're growing up in single-parent homes. Their big project this year is making a poster of their emotions a la the Disney film, "Inside Out."

For Courtney, the biggest reward is the relationships she forms with the girls. She makes sure to know and say their names often, something she valued from her days in the Boys and Girls Club. Knowing each other's names is a key part of community-which is a key part of being a Service Fellow.

"What the Fellowship really emphasizes is the concept of being part of a community and helping it by being part of it," she says. "There's a place for service where you help and then go home, but I think there's a greater need to be with community and improve it from the inside."