This I Believe Statement
This I believe is an international organization where people can share their own belief statements. Through personal essays sharing stories, goals and lessons learned you are shown a new depth to someone's values. Here I share my own beliefs on Disney, growing up and daring to dream.
Who Wants to Grow Up?I believe in being a kid at heart. However, I didn’t always think this way. When I was a kid, as I’m sure is the case for many a 90’s baby, I was well versed in the Disney classics. I ceaselessly watched Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Jungle Book; really anything I could get my hands on and into the VCR. I wanted desperately to be a princess and to live happily ever after. Unfortunately, things changed as I became a teenager - those nightmarish middle school years. I went through a stage where I rejected all things I considered childish and Disney happened to be one of them. I did whatever was deemed “normal” in order to fit in. I was feeding a voracious hunger to be older, to act older.
In the past few years I have recognized the error in my ways. I don’t understand why I was so desperate to grow up, to enter the real world and stop fantasizing. There’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer; hoping for happy endings and handsome princes. There’s no shame in enjoying a company that finds it fundamentally incorrect to produce |
un-happy endings. Every once in a while I enjoy a movie with a basic plot and reminisce of a time when my greatest tribulations were what color crayon to pick and when I was allowed to ride my bike with the neighbors. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not naïve. I know that things don’t always work out as happily ever after; we live in a country where half of marriages are doomed to fail. I may never find prince charming but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to look. I would do anything to go back and truly appreciate my childhood. To not worry about what I looked like and how I’m going to get through college. To instead be my young curious self, always asking questions and exploring new places; building castles out of cardboard and playing pirate ship on the couch.
Sometimes, well really most of the time, you have to be an adult. But sometimes, those hopefully not too rare sometimes, you get to be a kid. Embrace it. Life is too serious, too complicated. Let down your mature façade, the one holding everything together. Go back to the basics, your childhood favorites. Sing along to that song, the one you secretly know every single word to, loud and out of key - just because you can. Do it because it makes you happy. I can readily admit that Disney makes me happy. Disney has taught me to be a dreamer, to follow my heart and to not grow up. To always enjoy a good laugh and a happy ending. I believe that Disney World is the happiest place on earth. I believe in being a kid at heart. I believe in happy endings. And most importantly, I believe in never growing up.
Sometimes, well really most of the time, you have to be an adult. But sometimes, those hopefully not too rare sometimes, you get to be a kid. Embrace it. Life is too serious, too complicated. Let down your mature façade, the one holding everything together. Go back to the basics, your childhood favorites. Sing along to that song, the one you secretly know every single word to, loud and out of key - just because you can. Do it because it makes you happy. I can readily admit that Disney makes me happy. Disney has taught me to be a dreamer, to follow my heart and to not grow up. To always enjoy a good laugh and a happy ending. I believe that Disney World is the happiest place on earth. I believe in being a kid at heart. I believe in happy endings. And most importantly, I believe in never growing up.
Final Presentation
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Super 8Our first project of the semester was a timeline of six significant events in our life. For this final project we were told to reflect on one final event or relationship that has developed during our first semester in college.
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The significant relationship that I have chosen to reflect upon is the group of friends that I have made over the past thirteen or so weeks. Some of us met doing the Hall Opening Team at the beginning of the year, some I knew from high school and some lived on my floor. We all live in Siddall on the fourth or fifth floors. Let’s just say that we don’t spend too much time apart… But these girls have become much more than a just floormates or even roommates. I have found a group of friends willing to dress up as the Disney Princesses, fulfilling one of my childhood dreams.
I’ve never been the type to have a large group of female dominated friends. Sure, the person I usually call my ‘best’ friend is a girl, but normally I have multiple groups of friends that I spend time with consisting of girls and boys. Maybe it’s the fact that the dorm separates gender by floor, or that we all happened to end up in Siddall, but we all just clicked. I know have a support network, seven people I can turn to at any time, for any reason. We have family dinners on Sunday nights, the occasional meltdown Monday, a steady groupchat of ridiculous pictures and a calendar of planned events. I can’t walk into the building from class without making at least one stop down the hallway – it helps that I’m near the end. We changed from strangers to close friends in less than a week. The girl I asked to lunch the day of move-in, my randomly assigned roommate, one of her best friends from high school, two of my best friends from high school and two girls I met doing Hall Opening Team. Who would have thought I would have a group of eight new best friends in such a short period of time.
Normally students are excited for Christmas break, and I’m not saying that we aren’t, but a bigger conversation came up the other day when the subject surfaced. Summer. What was going to happen when we didn’t get to see each other every day, when we had to go back to our, no longer normal, lives across three different states? We’re not even halfway through the year, yet we have made plans to go to the Kentucky Derby and for everyone to come visit me in New Hampshire. Although its only been a matter of weeks we’ve become much more than just friends. They say that the friends you make in college are the friends you keep forever. At this point if I could have eight bridesmaids, I have some serious contenders right here. A friendship like we have is one that will last more than a semester, a year, a college career. Even when we get separate apartments next year, some of us leave for co-op and we all get busy schedules and new friends, nothing will change what we have right now. I have a found a group of girls that I would like to keep around for a little while. I love our movie nights, planned events and spur of the moment photo shoots. I hope for many more group themed Halloweens, family dinners and group messages. I hope for the perpetuity of the Super 8.
This video is a compilation of a few of my favorite photos of my group of friends. While we have taken many a photograph, no picture could ever properly capture our relationship. The few candid photos in the bunch are my favorites, showing us at our most genuine and vulnerable states. We have shared many memories and experiences already, attending multiple football games, carving pumpkins and dressing up for Halloween. While most of you will not know these people that I have grown to know so well, I hope you can appreciate the smiles and experiences we have shared.
I’ve never been the type to have a large group of female dominated friends. Sure, the person I usually call my ‘best’ friend is a girl, but normally I have multiple groups of friends that I spend time with consisting of girls and boys. Maybe it’s the fact that the dorm separates gender by floor, or that we all happened to end up in Siddall, but we all just clicked. I know have a support network, seven people I can turn to at any time, for any reason. We have family dinners on Sunday nights, the occasional meltdown Monday, a steady groupchat of ridiculous pictures and a calendar of planned events. I can’t walk into the building from class without making at least one stop down the hallway – it helps that I’m near the end. We changed from strangers to close friends in less than a week. The girl I asked to lunch the day of move-in, my randomly assigned roommate, one of her best friends from high school, two of my best friends from high school and two girls I met doing Hall Opening Team. Who would have thought I would have a group of eight new best friends in such a short period of time.
Normally students are excited for Christmas break, and I’m not saying that we aren’t, but a bigger conversation came up the other day when the subject surfaced. Summer. What was going to happen when we didn’t get to see each other every day, when we had to go back to our, no longer normal, lives across three different states? We’re not even halfway through the year, yet we have made plans to go to the Kentucky Derby and for everyone to come visit me in New Hampshire. Although its only been a matter of weeks we’ve become much more than just friends. They say that the friends you make in college are the friends you keep forever. At this point if I could have eight bridesmaids, I have some serious contenders right here. A friendship like we have is one that will last more than a semester, a year, a college career. Even when we get separate apartments next year, some of us leave for co-op and we all get busy schedules and new friends, nothing will change what we have right now. I have a found a group of girls that I would like to keep around for a little while. I love our movie nights, planned events and spur of the moment photo shoots. I hope for many more group themed Halloweens, family dinners and group messages. I hope for the perpetuity of the Super 8.
This video is a compilation of a few of my favorite photos of my group of friends. While we have taken many a photograph, no picture could ever properly capture our relationship. The few candid photos in the bunch are my favorites, showing us at our most genuine and vulnerable states. We have shared many memories and experiences already, attending multiple football games, carving pumpkins and dressing up for Halloween. While most of you will not know these people that I have grown to know so well, I hope you can appreciate the smiles and experiences we have shared.
Operation Christmas Child Takes UC: A Theoretical Self Designed Honors Experience
Basic Information
Full Name: Meghan Eleniak
UC Email: [email protected]
College: Design Architecture Art and Planning
Major: Graphic Communications Design
Title of Project: Operation Christmas Child Takes UC
Thematic Area: Community Engagement
Expected Project Start Date: November 1st, 2014
Expected Project End Date: January 1st, 2015
Project Information
1. Provide a detailed abstract of your proposed honors experiential learning project.
Since I was little my favorite holiday has been Christmas. Like any kid, I loved opening gifts, the overwhelming amount of crumpled wrapping paper, the shiny new toys and carols echoing through the house. Over the years, with a newfound maturity came apathy to materialism. My favorite part of Christmas is now the surprise, seeing the expression on my family member’s faces when they open the gifts that I have so carefully selected. Even though it can be tedious and everyone hates the mass chaos inhabiting the mall during the holiday season, picking out gifts brings me a great sense of contentment. I don’t get caught up in getting everything I put on my Christmas list, not that I really make one anymore. Instead I get to observe everyone else getting something they didn’t expect, a testament to how well I can determine a gift that they will actually appreciate. A gift that they will actually enjoy, not shove into the back of the closet like the never-ending stream of Christmas sweaters from Grandma.
One of my favorite traditions that I participated in during the holiday season, especially in elementary school, was Operation Christmas Child. This project, the largest of its kind, uses filled shoeboxes to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, organized by Samaritan’s Purse. Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 100 million shoeboxes in more than 100 countries. Reaching its twentieth anniversary, Operation Christmas Child is expecting to collect close to 10 million shoeboxes in 2013. Individuals, families, and now hopefully even universities, fill empty shoeboxes with gifts of toys, hygiene items, school supplies and notes of encouragement. National Collection Week for this event is November 18-25, 2013. After the boxes are prepared for overseas shipment at eight major processing centers, Samaritan’s Purse and its partners will deliver gifts to children in more than 100 countries on six continents.
Every year at school we would get a red and green glossy cardboard box, with the infamous logo of the shoebox with wings. We then had the task of buying and collecting items to fill this shoebox for a child in need who would likely not get any Christmas presents otherwise. A clever detail lay in the fact that you can pick from multiple age groups and I usually chose my own. It was like having a new friend in another country, however it was a friend that you would never meet and never hear from.
My hope is to present this holiday activity to the UC campus, hopefully filling thousands of shoeboxes. Beginning in November, I would work to advertise the event around campus. One of the things that always stands out to me is the chalk messages that people put on the walkways all over campus. I think that this would be extremely effective in getting people’s attention and is fairly easy to make. Along with this I would make flyers, posting them in all of the colleges and in the dorms. The dorms are another place that I would pay a lot of attention. I know as a freshman I’m dying to get involved and this is one way, one simple way, to really give back. I would present this project to all the Resident Coordinators to hopefully use as programs in the buildings. Basic information would be provided on the flyers and such, a basic description, where to pick up your box, when the project is taking place. A list of what to pack would be given when students pick up their box. The pick up and drop off for these boxes would be the same location, something on West campus that’s easily accessible for all students.
Going beyond just a community outreach program, planning the event, coordinating the pick up and drop off of all the boxes, getting the boxes to a collection center, I want to be involved through the entire process. I don’t want to have a new friend in another country that I will never meet and never hear from. I want to follow my box. All of my boxes, wherever they may go. I would work directly with Samaritan’s Purse to become an onsite volunteer, helping to deliver the boxes directly to the children that need and deserve them. I would spend about a week in one of the many countries that Operation Christmas Child reaches out to right around December 25th. (Since I am not doing this project at this time, I’m not positive on the duration of a visit or the location where I would be volunteering.) I want to see the difference that I can make in the world, the impact that one shoebox full of seemingly trite gifts. I want to see the look of surprise, amaze and wonder that will hopefully cross these children’s faces when they receive a box. Their own Christmas celebration, even in as small of a token as a shoebox.
2. Connection to Learning Outcomes within the Honors Thematic Area (identified above)
The first learning objective that I wish to address is “participates in community and understands own role as citizen of community”. The whole reason for this project is to immerse myself into the community I am quite literally living and breathing in. What I am lacking is really taking part in that community, the UC community as a whole. I feel that I have involved myself in the DAAP community as well my Siddall community. I want to be an active member of my community, someone who knows what’s going on and is genuinely trying to make it better for everyone involved. With a simple project such as Operation Christmas Child, so much gratitude and appreciation of one’s own life is discovered in doing something so simple for someone else, someone who truly needs it. It put our own lives into perspective, making us realize how good we really have it. In doing this project I hope to bring all types of UC students together to do something good for not only our community but for the global community at large.
Another important learning objective is “relates, communicates, and works effectively with others towards sustainable social change”. While I know that I may not be able to quite literally change the world, I want to make it a little less dreary, especially with all of the joy and enthusiasm that surrounds the holiday season. Changing the world takes more than an individual. I would surely need the help of a few friends or other interested community members to help make this a success, even if their only skill is pretty handwriting. I do need someone to help me draw with chalk. The entire project requires me to interact and help motivate the entire student body to work together to take part in this activity. I have to get them excited, get them to the proper location to pick up a box, then again to drop off their filled boxes, and the whole time to share this idea with others, getting everyone involved in the cause. For sustainability, hopefully this can become a program done every year by UC students, even long after my own graduation. Maybe even world record worthy?
3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories
A. I want to be a global citizen, someone not so afraid of this vast world around us. I also want to be an active community member, not just in high school and college, but in life. Doing this project will help me to attain both of these things. I will, for the first time, travel beyond this continent, with people I have never met and going to places I have never been. Instead of being afraid, I am purely excited. I want to immerse myself in new cultures and traditions. Sure it would be amazing to travel to Europe and visit multiple Western countries like the one we live in now, but I would also like to experience and learn to appreciate the lives of those less fortunate. As empathetic as I want to be for them, I feel that I cannot fully do so until I can step into their shoes for a week or even a few days. Being an active community member means taking part in things that I feel passionate about, whether it’s helping out at a local animal shelter because I love dogs or helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity. I want to stay involved because I feel it truly makes me a whole person, being able to give back, even just a little for those who deserve it.
B. Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational Evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. I thought that it would not only be applicable but beneficial to take a few religion courses here at UC in preparation for the time I would spend working with the organization. UC offers two religion courses that I thought looked interesting, Introduction to the Study of Religion and Biblical Studies. Both with help me with insight into religion in general, which provides the platform for this organization as well as the reason for distribution: a tangible way to demonstrate God’s love. As well, depending on where I would be volunteering I would research the country’s the state of the social and economic systems as well as looking at their history, religion and geography to become a more respectful visitor.
4. Initiative, Independence, and/or Creativity
My unique contribution to this project would be the fact that I am actually travelling to help distribute the product of everyone at UC’s hard work. It is not required that these be delivered by participants, Samaritan’s Purse relies on volunteers to ensure that every deserving child that they have a shoebox for, gets one. I cant call myself a perfect leader, or probably even a good one, but this is something that I really hope to develop with this experience. I think that I could develop working with people of different personalities as well as being able to properly share my passion and enthusiasm for this project. I want to be respected by people, for how I handle such situations as well as for the work that I have done. My love for travel as well as other countries can be tied back to fifth grade. My friends and I discovered a program called PlayPumps, which used merry-go-rounds to pump water for water deprived regions in third world countries. We held a bake sale and raised $1400. It didn’t buy an entire pump, but we made a difference and that was all that mattered. Even in high school, I have participated in over 150 hours of community service. I want to give back, do my share, for I have lived nothing but a fortunate and blessed life.
5. Reflection
One of the most meaningful modes of reflection that I have encountered comes from blogs, especially ones heavily laden with photographs. It takes an experience from being personal to being meaningful and applicable to many people. If I am able to share what I have seen and the difference that I, as one person, have been able to make with this project hopefully I can inspire others to not only continue my project but to start their own. I want to be able to capture the process of bringing everyone together. The joy that we are not only going to be bringing to these kids but the joy that we are instilling in ourselves. Reinforcing the importance of giving back, especially during the holiday season when we are used to indulging ourselves. I also want to be able to capture the good and the bad when I am on my trip. Showing the possibly sordid conditions but also the difference and the delight that is being instilled in those that deserve it most. I also hope to delve into the changes I am making within myself, hopefully how I have become a more active citizen, in my community and the world.
6. Dissemination
Since asking the UC community to participate will be a rather public endeavor, I hope to thank everyone that has helped make a difference. Maybe a banquet of some sort, or at the very least a presentation where I can thank everyone and present some of the photos that I have taken and the experiences I have gained. I would also love to share my blog, especially my photos with the general public, inspiring them to go out and do their own experiences and service based trips. I would of course keep the project up on my weebly website as well for younger honors students to look at in the future. The specific audience is the UC community, people who were, or hopefully if the project is continued, can be involved in this endeavor.
7. Project Advisor (list the person’s name, title, and contact information)
The advisor that I have provided is the head of international volunteers for Samaritan’s Purse. He will help me organize the event at UC, providing shoeboxes as well as helping coordinate pick up of all the boxes and getting them to a collection center. He will also directly help me with helping to distribute and my entire experience abroad.
Mr. Terry Harmon
Field Support Unit Manager
Projects Department
P.O. Box 3000
Boone, NC 28607
8. Budget
The budget for this trip would only be my travelling expenses, primarily flights, as I believe that Samaritan’s Purse provides most of the other accommodations as volunteers.
Full Name: Meghan Eleniak
UC Email: [email protected]
College: Design Architecture Art and Planning
Major: Graphic Communications Design
Title of Project: Operation Christmas Child Takes UC
Thematic Area: Community Engagement
Expected Project Start Date: November 1st, 2014
Expected Project End Date: January 1st, 2015
Project Information
1. Provide a detailed abstract of your proposed honors experiential learning project.
Since I was little my favorite holiday has been Christmas. Like any kid, I loved opening gifts, the overwhelming amount of crumpled wrapping paper, the shiny new toys and carols echoing through the house. Over the years, with a newfound maturity came apathy to materialism. My favorite part of Christmas is now the surprise, seeing the expression on my family member’s faces when they open the gifts that I have so carefully selected. Even though it can be tedious and everyone hates the mass chaos inhabiting the mall during the holiday season, picking out gifts brings me a great sense of contentment. I don’t get caught up in getting everything I put on my Christmas list, not that I really make one anymore. Instead I get to observe everyone else getting something they didn’t expect, a testament to how well I can determine a gift that they will actually appreciate. A gift that they will actually enjoy, not shove into the back of the closet like the never-ending stream of Christmas sweaters from Grandma.
One of my favorite traditions that I participated in during the holiday season, especially in elementary school, was Operation Christmas Child. This project, the largest of its kind, uses filled shoeboxes to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, organized by Samaritan’s Purse. Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 100 million shoeboxes in more than 100 countries. Reaching its twentieth anniversary, Operation Christmas Child is expecting to collect close to 10 million shoeboxes in 2013. Individuals, families, and now hopefully even universities, fill empty shoeboxes with gifts of toys, hygiene items, school supplies and notes of encouragement. National Collection Week for this event is November 18-25, 2013. After the boxes are prepared for overseas shipment at eight major processing centers, Samaritan’s Purse and its partners will deliver gifts to children in more than 100 countries on six continents.
Every year at school we would get a red and green glossy cardboard box, with the infamous logo of the shoebox with wings. We then had the task of buying and collecting items to fill this shoebox for a child in need who would likely not get any Christmas presents otherwise. A clever detail lay in the fact that you can pick from multiple age groups and I usually chose my own. It was like having a new friend in another country, however it was a friend that you would never meet and never hear from.
My hope is to present this holiday activity to the UC campus, hopefully filling thousands of shoeboxes. Beginning in November, I would work to advertise the event around campus. One of the things that always stands out to me is the chalk messages that people put on the walkways all over campus. I think that this would be extremely effective in getting people’s attention and is fairly easy to make. Along with this I would make flyers, posting them in all of the colleges and in the dorms. The dorms are another place that I would pay a lot of attention. I know as a freshman I’m dying to get involved and this is one way, one simple way, to really give back. I would present this project to all the Resident Coordinators to hopefully use as programs in the buildings. Basic information would be provided on the flyers and such, a basic description, where to pick up your box, when the project is taking place. A list of what to pack would be given when students pick up their box. The pick up and drop off for these boxes would be the same location, something on West campus that’s easily accessible for all students.
Going beyond just a community outreach program, planning the event, coordinating the pick up and drop off of all the boxes, getting the boxes to a collection center, I want to be involved through the entire process. I don’t want to have a new friend in another country that I will never meet and never hear from. I want to follow my box. All of my boxes, wherever they may go. I would work directly with Samaritan’s Purse to become an onsite volunteer, helping to deliver the boxes directly to the children that need and deserve them. I would spend about a week in one of the many countries that Operation Christmas Child reaches out to right around December 25th. (Since I am not doing this project at this time, I’m not positive on the duration of a visit or the location where I would be volunteering.) I want to see the difference that I can make in the world, the impact that one shoebox full of seemingly trite gifts. I want to see the look of surprise, amaze and wonder that will hopefully cross these children’s faces when they receive a box. Their own Christmas celebration, even in as small of a token as a shoebox.
2. Connection to Learning Outcomes within the Honors Thematic Area (identified above)
The first learning objective that I wish to address is “participates in community and understands own role as citizen of community”. The whole reason for this project is to immerse myself into the community I am quite literally living and breathing in. What I am lacking is really taking part in that community, the UC community as a whole. I feel that I have involved myself in the DAAP community as well my Siddall community. I want to be an active member of my community, someone who knows what’s going on and is genuinely trying to make it better for everyone involved. With a simple project such as Operation Christmas Child, so much gratitude and appreciation of one’s own life is discovered in doing something so simple for someone else, someone who truly needs it. It put our own lives into perspective, making us realize how good we really have it. In doing this project I hope to bring all types of UC students together to do something good for not only our community but for the global community at large.
Another important learning objective is “relates, communicates, and works effectively with others towards sustainable social change”. While I know that I may not be able to quite literally change the world, I want to make it a little less dreary, especially with all of the joy and enthusiasm that surrounds the holiday season. Changing the world takes more than an individual. I would surely need the help of a few friends or other interested community members to help make this a success, even if their only skill is pretty handwriting. I do need someone to help me draw with chalk. The entire project requires me to interact and help motivate the entire student body to work together to take part in this activity. I have to get them excited, get them to the proper location to pick up a box, then again to drop off their filled boxes, and the whole time to share this idea with others, getting everyone involved in the cause. For sustainability, hopefully this can become a program done every year by UC students, even long after my own graduation. Maybe even world record worthy?
3. Connection to Goals and Academic Theories
A. I want to be a global citizen, someone not so afraid of this vast world around us. I also want to be an active community member, not just in high school and college, but in life. Doing this project will help me to attain both of these things. I will, for the first time, travel beyond this continent, with people I have never met and going to places I have never been. Instead of being afraid, I am purely excited. I want to immerse myself in new cultures and traditions. Sure it would be amazing to travel to Europe and visit multiple Western countries like the one we live in now, but I would also like to experience and learn to appreciate the lives of those less fortunate. As empathetic as I want to be for them, I feel that I cannot fully do so until I can step into their shoes for a week or even a few days. Being an active community member means taking part in things that I feel passionate about, whether it’s helping out at a local animal shelter because I love dogs or helping build a house with Habitat for Humanity. I want to stay involved because I feel it truly makes me a whole person, being able to give back, even just a little for those who deserve it.
B. Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational Evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. I thought that it would not only be applicable but beneficial to take a few religion courses here at UC in preparation for the time I would spend working with the organization. UC offers two religion courses that I thought looked interesting, Introduction to the Study of Religion and Biblical Studies. Both with help me with insight into religion in general, which provides the platform for this organization as well as the reason for distribution: a tangible way to demonstrate God’s love. As well, depending on where I would be volunteering I would research the country’s the state of the social and economic systems as well as looking at their history, religion and geography to become a more respectful visitor.
4. Initiative, Independence, and/or Creativity
My unique contribution to this project would be the fact that I am actually travelling to help distribute the product of everyone at UC’s hard work. It is not required that these be delivered by participants, Samaritan’s Purse relies on volunteers to ensure that every deserving child that they have a shoebox for, gets one. I cant call myself a perfect leader, or probably even a good one, but this is something that I really hope to develop with this experience. I think that I could develop working with people of different personalities as well as being able to properly share my passion and enthusiasm for this project. I want to be respected by people, for how I handle such situations as well as for the work that I have done. My love for travel as well as other countries can be tied back to fifth grade. My friends and I discovered a program called PlayPumps, which used merry-go-rounds to pump water for water deprived regions in third world countries. We held a bake sale and raised $1400. It didn’t buy an entire pump, but we made a difference and that was all that mattered. Even in high school, I have participated in over 150 hours of community service. I want to give back, do my share, for I have lived nothing but a fortunate and blessed life.
5. Reflection
One of the most meaningful modes of reflection that I have encountered comes from blogs, especially ones heavily laden with photographs. It takes an experience from being personal to being meaningful and applicable to many people. If I am able to share what I have seen and the difference that I, as one person, have been able to make with this project hopefully I can inspire others to not only continue my project but to start their own. I want to be able to capture the process of bringing everyone together. The joy that we are not only going to be bringing to these kids but the joy that we are instilling in ourselves. Reinforcing the importance of giving back, especially during the holiday season when we are used to indulging ourselves. I also want to be able to capture the good and the bad when I am on my trip. Showing the possibly sordid conditions but also the difference and the delight that is being instilled in those that deserve it most. I also hope to delve into the changes I am making within myself, hopefully how I have become a more active citizen, in my community and the world.
6. Dissemination
Since asking the UC community to participate will be a rather public endeavor, I hope to thank everyone that has helped make a difference. Maybe a banquet of some sort, or at the very least a presentation where I can thank everyone and present some of the photos that I have taken and the experiences I have gained. I would also love to share my blog, especially my photos with the general public, inspiring them to go out and do their own experiences and service based trips. I would of course keep the project up on my weebly website as well for younger honors students to look at in the future. The specific audience is the UC community, people who were, or hopefully if the project is continued, can be involved in this endeavor.
7. Project Advisor (list the person’s name, title, and contact information)
The advisor that I have provided is the head of international volunteers for Samaritan’s Purse. He will help me organize the event at UC, providing shoeboxes as well as helping coordinate pick up of all the boxes and getting them to a collection center. He will also directly help me with helping to distribute and my entire experience abroad.
Mr. Terry Harmon
Field Support Unit Manager
Projects Department
P.O. Box 3000
Boone, NC 28607
8. Budget
The budget for this trip would only be my travelling expenses, primarily flights, as I believe that Samaritan’s Purse provides most of the other accommodations as volunteers.