RSVP and being Junior Intern

 

 

To Read or Not to Read, That is the Question

Honor Baslim

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

So I'm not exactly sure who is going to take the time to actually read this blog post, but if someone does I do sincerely hope you enjoy it.

 

Thus far into my Summer of Service I have begun work as the 2013-2014 Junior Intern, as well as working with graduated Senior Intern, Courtney Williams with the Volusia County Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) as an intern.

 

The Retired & Senior Volunteer Program is a program that recruits retired individuals of a minimum age of 55 who are interested in volunteering. Each RSVP program selects three issue areas for there county, in Volusia county the three issue areas are: early childhood literacy, mentorship with at risk youth, and disaster preparedness plans for businesses.

 

With RSVP today (May 21) I assisted Courtney in an orientation of newly recruited volunteers out at the Daytona Beach Public Lirbrary. We had four volunteers arrive promptly at 10am and we were with them till roughly noon. An associate of Courtney's named Lauren who works with the Early Learning Coalition of Flagler & Volusia County came and spoke with the volunteers (all of who are interested in reading to young children). The Early Learning Coalition focuses primarily on reading to children four and younger, but RSVP also coordinates with Head Start, as well as many other youth literacy programs. Since it's summer time however the new volunteers will not be able to start working with kids in classrooms until the beginning of the school year, until then we will get them fully oriented and get their background checks fully processed while continuing to recruit new volunteers.

 

As far as Junior Intern process goes, this summer I am working primarily on 3 projects: The 2013 Fall Retreat, Freshman Exploration, and orienting incoming Bonners. A LOT, and I mean a lot of help from our fantastic Senior Interns Deryck and Julie. If anyone is reading this and has any suggestions about any of this please PLEASE feel free to text me (978)239-4705.

 

 

Week 1

Well, even after months of planning and double-checking there are still things you can't account for. My housing has now fallen through and with no A/C it's looking like a bad week. However, I will just finish my work pool-side in Naples instead of in DeLand, who can complain?

This summer I'm working on program development for Bonner. Sounds fancy, right? Actually, I've got a few ideas for projects for Bonner in the fall that I'd like to work on before we all get back to school.

First, I am going through different literature to present to Bonners for either Friday reflections or just as other sources for meetings. I have a few interesting books, Outcasts United and Stones Into Schools, that I'd like to work in some way and also a few books that offer short reflections or essays that really make you think about why we do what we do. This aspect is a lot of fun because essentially I can log hours for reading books I've always wanted to read while taking notes so we can hopefully use them later on.

Next, I am working on ideas and planning for the new student orientation and the Fall retreat. I have a great ICEBREAKER for us to play (I know everyone hates that word!). I'm also working on some B-Love projects for the summer and Fall. One of my major goals is keeping everyone connected in whatever way that may be.

Also, I'm working on an idea that would allow Bonner to be featured in the newspaper every week. If anyone wants to write articles, please let me know! Hopefully we can feature service sites, issue areas, and opportunities for other students. This is all part of my master plan that incorporates Bonner into Stetson more.

Finally, I'm working on 2 academic projects: the first is a book feast that will feature the book Outcasts United, which is an amazing story of a refugee soccer team in Georgia and a series of lectures throughout the year that Mary Kathryn and I are working on. The first one will be Service in Sports, hosted with the help of SMA (Sports Management Assoc.).

So those are my projects, can't wait to keep you updated.