Oprah and Rebecca Welsh Discuss the Rewards of Being in Service to Others
Many of us want to be of service to others, but aren't exactly sure how to begin. Watching Oprah’s latest “The Life You Want” Class may help. Oprah sat down with Van Jones, an attorney and host of the Van Jones Show on CNN, and Rebecca Welsh, founder of The HALO Foundation, which provides shelter and educational opportunities to homeless youth. During the conversation, they talked about how to be of service to others and how taking small steps forward can lead to fulfilling outcomes in the future.
In harmony with these points, Welsh beautifully recounts a full-circle moment she experienced with one of the young people she helped years earlier. Kalin, a 15-year-old whose parents were addicted to drugs, moved into HALO pregnant and homeless a decade ago. With the help of Welsh’s foundation, Kalin is now about to purchase her first home. “I got to take her two weeks ago to get her first home loan, which was fantastic,” says Welsh.
Welsh goes on to say that rewards don’t always show up right away, and that it’s about continuously putting “a drop in the bucket.” People extending themselves through service will eventually get to see the fruits of their labor. “At some point,” she says, “that bucket fills up.”
Watch the clip above to see the conversation between Oprah and Welsh in its entirety, or take a look at the transcript below.
Oprah: What's been the most rewarding part about this work—working with homeless children, giving them homes?
Rebecca Welsh: Well, thank you, Oprah, for that introduction; it was fantastic. The most rewarding thing for me is when I get to see a change in a child. It may be immediate, where you're feeding a child and they're no longer hungry. Or it could be like two weeks ago, I got to take a girl named Kalin—when she moved into HALO, she was 15, she was pregnant, her parents were drug-addicted parents, and she had nowhere to go. She'd gone through rehab, and she lived with us for a long time—and I got to take her two weeks ago to get her first home loan, which was fantastic. And her daughter, Evelyn, is now 10. So that, to me, is the reward. It sometimes doesn't show up right away—and Van, I'm sure you've experienced this as well—but it can be if you stick with something and you're putting a drop in the bucket, a drop in the bucket, at some point, that bucket fills up.
*Note: I need to make sure that Kalin and Evelyn's names are spelled correctly (Welsh pronounces it as Avelyn, but it was Evelyn in the transcript). I'll reach out to Cullen for Welsh's asst/or another contact that can verify. Thx!
To watch Oprah's full “The Life You Want” Class on service and to catch up on past classes, click here.
You Might Also Like
