3 hours
This day was pretty nondescript. There was nothing of note to be reported.
Monday, November 28, 2011
November 20, 2011- Haven Hospice
2 h
I started my new position today. I now volunteer at the Front desk of the Haven care center. My job involves watching the CC televisions and allowing patients visitors in to the building. I am not supposed to let suspicious people in or those who appear to be homeless. My other responsibility is to greet visitors and help them locate their family who may be staying in the building. I am also supposed to retrieve wheelchairs for those who need them. I am quite happy with my job because it allows me a lot of free time to accomplish school work and music. There is no one there who I work with so its a very solitary job, however, I enjoy the smiles I get when I greet people entering and help them with their needs. The job is important for the safety of the Haven and it makes me feel very confident in myself for helping to safeguard such an important institution.
I started my new position today. I now volunteer at the Front desk of the Haven care center. My job involves watching the CC televisions and allowing patients visitors in to the building. I am not supposed to let suspicious people in or those who appear to be homeless. My other responsibility is to greet visitors and help them locate their family who may be staying in the building. I am also supposed to retrieve wheelchairs for those who need them. I am quite happy with my job because it allows me a lot of free time to accomplish school work and music. There is no one there who I work with so its a very solitary job, however, I enjoy the smiles I get when I greet people entering and help them with their needs. The job is important for the safety of the Haven and it makes me feel very confident in myself for helping to safeguard such an important institution.
November 11, 2011-Debate Practice to train new debators
My partner, Akash, and I helped to train the new debators today at the practice party before their first tournament at EHS. We observed a debate between two of the novice teams and gave them critiques. We tried to teach them what learned throughout our years of debate. We attempted to give them wisdom from our mistakes and tell them what approaches have worked for us in the past. It was nice to see the novices look up to us with such respect because they knew how accomplished we were in the field of debate. We crossfired against a novice team and showed them how to approach a case in many novel ways. The kids all tried to grab our points and cross fire questions, but we refused to give them any points because we wanted them to learn for themselves. The activity meant a lot to me because I have never been in the position to teach other people about things which I know better than other people. I am happy to help my teammates but i feel resentful because we never had anyone showing us the ropes like these novices we trained.
November 1, 2011-NEHS
Today I helped a student at GHS edit his essay. He sent it to me in the late hours of the night and asked me to edit it before he sent to UF. His essay had a multitude of errors in grammar and word usage that I fixed to the best of my abilities. I did not think the essay as it was before I edited would have stood a chance against the admissions officers, after I edited it, I think he will fare better. I tried not to alter his meaning at all, but I suggested that next time he write an essay, he focus more on a specific expierience and not on a broad ranging topic like he discussed. I was glad to able to help a friend in the road towards making a good future.
October 5, 2011-NEHS
Today was our first meeting. The turnout was not very high. I suspect this is because of the fact that most college apps are due mid january and people simply have not had enough time to begin writing significant essays. Regardless, we discussed creativity when writing essays. We concluded it is important to be creative, but not so novel that it appears you are not taking college seriously. We considered the ethics of reading other peoples essays and decided that it may be on the edgy side. However, we reasoned that as long we did not keep copies of essays there was little risk of plagiarism or idea theft.
October 2, 2011-NEHS
Today we officially started planning for our NEHS group: College Essays. We read a small pamphlet on the writing of college essays and gained an understanding of what Colleges look for in the essay. We learned a lot about how they interpret a students true worth from 500 words of writing. We envisioned a direction for the club that allowed us to help other students by giving tips and possibly editing essays of willing students. I am working with Akash and Daniel to work out a schedule for our meetings.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
October 16, 2011-Docent at Haile Homestead
4h
Docent at Haile Homestead
Today was the single largest amount of people who ive ever witnessed at the Homestead. There was a group of 10 people following each of the 3 volunteers here. There were also a large amount of small children. I was volunteering with Caitlyn and and older volunteer, we had to work together to make sure the kids were contained and kept entertained while we gave the adults information. Me and Caitlyn handled a large amount of people while the other volunteer kept the other segment of people occupied in a different area of the house to prevent over crowding. Throughout the time I spent there, I noticed that I was getting better at extemporaneous speaking and making my info relevant to the audience accumulated. The only thing I was not very good at was greeting the guests and being as personable as my female counterparts. I have noticed this in other volunteering positions. I have learned that being personable and friendly to strangers starts with the assumption that everyone is there to be treated nicely and that you have to approach them as guests and not strangers. It helps to pretend that you've known them for a long time so that you are more comfortable.
Today was the single largest amount of people who ive ever witnessed at the Homestead. There was a group of 10 people following each of the 3 volunteers here. There were also a large amount of small children. I was volunteering with Caitlyn and and older volunteer, we had to work together to make sure the kids were contained and kept entertained while we gave the adults information. Me and Caitlyn handled a large amount of people while the other volunteer kept the other segment of people occupied in a different area of the house to prevent over crowding. Throughout the time I spent there, I noticed that I was getting better at extemporaneous speaking and making my info relevant to the audience accumulated. The only thing I was not very good at was greeting the guests and being as personable as my female counterparts. I have noticed this in other volunteering positions. I have learned that being personable and friendly to strangers starts with the assumption that everyone is there to be treated nicely and that you have to approach them as guests and not strangers. It helps to pretend that you've known them for a long time so that you are more comfortable.
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