I was given the opportunity to work with some of the AAS elementary school students. An after school gardening activity was organized for the younger students, but there was a lack of teachers to supervise the large group that signed up. I was assigned three students that to this day greet me every time we cross paths at school.

Going into this experience I had my initial fears, as I had no previous experience spending time with elementary students. I didn’t know if they would respect me, listen to me or even like me. I am not the best with children and I was expecting to bump into a lot of challenges, however, I wasn’t prepared for how much I would be able to learn from this experience and the children.

It was fascinating to see how polite and respectful the AAS students were. They took interest in what I had to say. It was especially unexpected to see with what curiosity and amazement they approached every new thing they learnt. When I told them about processes like photosynthesis they looked at me as if I was explaining a complex mathematical concept. Overall, it was an extremely rewarding experience.