Guatemala Orphanage Assistant
January-March 2018
With my time off of school, I decided to pursue a volunteer experience abroad that would allow me to serve an organization in need, while living in a different culture, and improve my Spanish. My role was to work in the nursery every morning for 4-5 hours. I was responsible for caring for the babies (age 0-3), interacting with the mothers (age 12-17), and assisting with snacks and meals. I also purchased medicine and syringes when needed for the girls. During breaks from the girls' classes I also tutored English and math on various levels. Throughout the experience, I lived with a local family where I assisted with meals, daily tasks, and homework in various subjects while practicing my Spanish.
January-March 2018
With my time off of school, I decided to pursue a volunteer experience abroad that would allow me to serve an organization in need, while living in a different culture, and improve my Spanish. My role was to work in the nursery every morning for 4-5 hours. I was responsible for caring for the babies (age 0-3), interacting with the mothers (age 12-17), and assisting with snacks and meals. I also purchased medicine and syringes when needed for the girls. During breaks from the girls' classes I also tutored English and math on various levels. Throughout the experience, I lived with a local family where I assisted with meals, daily tasks, and homework in various subjects while practicing my Spanish.
Mankato YWCA - Ready 2 Learn Tutor
September-December 2017
The Mankato YWCA is an organization dedicated to empowering and ending racism in a roots up approach. Their Ready 2 Learn (R2L) program is meant to teach children ages 0-5 in immigrant families to prepare them for preschool. This program addresses the possible language gap, connects the new families with community resources, and allows the parents to gain knowledge of the school systems in Mankato. In this role, I was assigned a 3-year-old boy to tutor weekly based on a curriculum from the YWCA. I would work from the curriculum to create 2 hours of lessons, games, experiments, etc. We would read books, learn to recognize shapes/colors, practice writing the alphabet, and make play dough.
September-December 2017
The Mankato YWCA is an organization dedicated to empowering and ending racism in a roots up approach. Their Ready 2 Learn (R2L) program is meant to teach children ages 0-5 in immigrant families to prepare them for preschool. This program addresses the possible language gap, connects the new families with community resources, and allows the parents to gain knowledge of the school systems in Mankato. In this role, I was assigned a 3-year-old boy to tutor weekly based on a curriculum from the YWCA. I would work from the curriculum to create 2 hours of lessons, games, experiments, etc. We would read books, learn to recognize shapes/colors, practice writing the alphabet, and make play dough.
Rake the Town
November 2016, November 2017
Rake the Town is a community event where people get together and rake yards in the Mankato and North Mankato communities for those that are unable to do it for themselves. For this project, I went with a group of other Honors students and we raked 4 yards in the North Mankato community. I was able to reconnect with students in the program and make new friends. The day was perfect to give back to the community and spend time with friends at the same time!
November 2016, November 2017
Rake the Town is a community event where people get together and rake yards in the Mankato and North Mankato communities for those that are unable to do it for themselves. For this project, I went with a group of other Honors students and we raked 4 yards in the North Mankato community. I was able to reconnect with students in the program and make new friends. The day was perfect to give back to the community and spend time with friends at the same time!
Campus Clean-Up
April 2017
Campus Clean-Up is an event coordinated by the MNSU Community Engagement Office where groups and individual students come to clean-up trash on and around campus. I attended this event and brought 7 students from my learning community to participate in the event with me. We were assigned 3 streets around campus and collected 6 garbage bags of trash from the roadways and sidewalks in our assigned area. This was an easy way to show pride in our surrounding community and a great opportunity to give back with a group of friends.
April 2017
Campus Clean-Up is an event coordinated by the MNSU Community Engagement Office where groups and individual students come to clean-up trash on and around campus. I attended this event and brought 7 students from my learning community to participate in the event with me. We were assigned 3 streets around campus and collected 6 garbage bags of trash from the roadways and sidewalks in our assigned area. This was an easy way to show pride in our surrounding community and a great opportunity to give back with a group of friends.
Worry Dolls for Anoka County Foster Care
April-May 2017
The Anoka County Foster Care Program helps place a portion of the 11,000 children in Minnesota entering foster care with families in the area. The children entering the program are going through a monumental change in their life and the change is usually difficult to adjust to at first. Worry dolls come from Guatemalan culture and are meant for children to tell their worries to before sliding the doll under their pillow for the doll to relieve their worries while they sleep. I organized this project for the MNSU Honors Student Council, as well as various learning communities on campus. I contacted the foster care program to get my idea approved, bought supplies, and made short descriptions of the dolls to include in the envelopes with the dolls we made. Every students that contributed to this project made a worry doll, named it, and wrote a letter of encouragement to the child that would receive their doll. The project was able to send 40 dolls to the Anoka County Foster Care Program to be put in care packages that each child receives when first entering the program.
April-May 2017
The Anoka County Foster Care Program helps place a portion of the 11,000 children in Minnesota entering foster care with families in the area. The children entering the program are going through a monumental change in their life and the change is usually difficult to adjust to at first. Worry dolls come from Guatemalan culture and are meant for children to tell their worries to before sliding the doll under their pillow for the doll to relieve their worries while they sleep. I organized this project for the MNSU Honors Student Council, as well as various learning communities on campus. I contacted the foster care program to get my idea approved, bought supplies, and made short descriptions of the dolls to include in the envelopes with the dolls we made. Every students that contributed to this project made a worry doll, named it, and wrote a letter of encouragement to the child that would receive their doll. The project was able to send 40 dolls to the Anoka County Foster Care Program to be put in care packages that each child receives when first entering the program.
MLK Jr. Day of Service ~ BENCHS Project
January 16, 2017
MLK Jr. Day of Service is a fair put on by the MNSU Community Engagement Office where students and community groups set up small service projects in the student union for students to attend and contribute to different organizations without leaving campus. For this event, I connected with the Blue Earth and Nicollet County Humane Society (BENCHS) to represent their organization. I organized and hosted tables for BENCHS where students attending the fair had the opportunity to make various pet toys, decorate adoption folders, and make beds and blankets for the animals at BENCHS. I also coordinated for a learning community on campus to help run the various stations for the different projects. Overall, the station made 170 items to donate to the humane society.
January 16, 2017
MLK Jr. Day of Service is a fair put on by the MNSU Community Engagement Office where students and community groups set up small service projects in the student union for students to attend and contribute to different organizations without leaving campus. For this event, I connected with the Blue Earth and Nicollet County Humane Society (BENCHS) to represent their organization. I organized and hosted tables for BENCHS where students attending the fair had the opportunity to make various pet toys, decorate adoption folders, and make beds and blankets for the animals at BENCHS. I also coordinated for a learning community on campus to help run the various stations for the different projects. Overall, the station made 170 items to donate to the humane society.
ECHO Food Drive
October 31, 2015
ECHO Food Shelf is a food shelf that serves the Mankato area. For this project, my learning community handed out flyers and collected non-perishable items for this local food shelf. On Halloween night, members in my learning community and I went door-to-door collecting items in our Halloween costumes. We were able to collect over 700 pounds of food for ECHO and the donation was greatly appreciated. It was fun to go out and make a difference in the Mankato area and tell people about ECHO food shelf.
Campus Kitchen
October 2015
Campus Kitchen is a program that collects food donations from restaurants, such as Panera Bread and Olive Garden, and redistributes the food to those in need. The program focuses on getting food to students and families that are hungry. When volunteering for Campus Kitchen with a few other students in the Honors Program, I helped divide bread and bagel donations into portions meant for families and individuals. Before this experience, I did not realize how close the problem of hunger was to home.
Red Cross Blood Drives
September 2012 - April 2015
From the time that I was in my sophomore year of high school until I graduated, I regularly volunteered for Red Cross blood drives. Over the years, I have contributed by checking in donors, serving snacks, helping with set-up and take-down, along with making consistent donations myself. Volunteering with the Red Cross allowed me to interacted with different people from my community while helping people outside of my community at the same time. When working with other volunteers, I heard stories about how blood drives have helped people in my own community and not just nameless faces in a distance city.
October 31, 2015
ECHO Food Shelf is a food shelf that serves the Mankato area. For this project, my learning community handed out flyers and collected non-perishable items for this local food shelf. On Halloween night, members in my learning community and I went door-to-door collecting items in our Halloween costumes. We were able to collect over 700 pounds of food for ECHO and the donation was greatly appreciated. It was fun to go out and make a difference in the Mankato area and tell people about ECHO food shelf.
Campus Kitchen
October 2015
Campus Kitchen is a program that collects food donations from restaurants, such as Panera Bread and Olive Garden, and redistributes the food to those in need. The program focuses on getting food to students and families that are hungry. When volunteering for Campus Kitchen with a few other students in the Honors Program, I helped divide bread and bagel donations into portions meant for families and individuals. Before this experience, I did not realize how close the problem of hunger was to home.
Red Cross Blood Drives
September 2012 - April 2015
From the time that I was in my sophomore year of high school until I graduated, I regularly volunteered for Red Cross blood drives. Over the years, I have contributed by checking in donors, serving snacks, helping with set-up and take-down, along with making consistent donations myself. Volunteering with the Red Cross allowed me to interacted with different people from my community while helping people outside of my community at the same time. When working with other volunteers, I heard stories about how blood drives have helped people in my own community and not just nameless faces in a distance city.