Graffiti Removal

Students of Service (SOS) volunteers came out to paint over graffiti in a drainage area, and we captured the day for the San Antonio youth nonprofit. There was a second goal too: helping kickstart the Jefferson High School SOS club by bringing in a new group from a local high school that was new to SOS.

SOS gives kids an outlet to help their community, says participant Ellie Rubio. “They always say, oh, go help and serve, go get community hours, but they never give you an option to do those things.” SOS is “kind of here to help those kids to have that option.” Students can learn about community service and servant leadership. One speaker also describes SOS’s “state-of-the-art portal,” which tracks service hours and lists events open to youth all over the city.

Amir Samandi, executive director of Students of Service, thinks “it’s a unifying force,” a way to “help open the eyes of students beyond what they learn in the classroom” to real-world problems they can do something about. “For me, it changed me a lot,” Ellie says. “I feel more independent and I feel like I have become a better leader.” Each event is a little piece, one speaker says, but together they add up to “a huge aha moment,” especially for a young person. It’s one of several event videos we filmed for SOS.