By Oumaima Zenati, YES 2015-2016, Morocco, hosted by IRIS in Harcourt, IA

After returning from a year of cultural exchange in the USA, I wanted to give back to my community by sharing what I had learned from my experience. I had to think of a project.

I decided to help parents and children start the school year off right by offering them books and clothes. Basically, I gathered my family's unused books and notebooks, and was happy to discover that I had books for most age groups.

After distributing the books, I wanted to do more, so I decided to teach the students and help them explore the books. I helped the older students learn new information about physics and science, and taught the younger students the Arabic, French, and English alphabets.

The clothes that I gathered also made the kids excited about going back to school. It was really nice to see those beautiful faces smiling. It made me feel better about myself.

This is what community service is all about. It's about helping people to make them happy. And that's it. Don't expect anything back from them. And by helping others, you realize you're helping yourself too.

Thank you, YES program, for giving me the chance to discover myself. I also want to thank my host family for sharing their life with me!