My Culminating Project
For my Global Scholars project, I partnered with my fellow Global Scholar Alec Walsh to publish a book called Invest Yourself: Pasadena that canvasses different community service organizations in the Greater Pasadena area and catalogues them based on the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) they work towards. Alec and I partnered with Ms. Larios (our school's community outreach organizer) and the Commission on Voluntary Service & Action (CVSA) and modeled our local voluntary guide on the CVSA's national version.
I have always had an interest in global issues and community service, so I was immediately interested in this project after I heard a presentation by Susan Angus (from the CVSA) about their national edition of Invest Yourself. I then went to the Global Scholar cohort's leaders to ask if I can do a local version of this guide as my Global Scholars project. Unbeknownst to me, Alec also wanted to do the book and went to the Global Scholars leaders like I did, so we were able to partner up on the project (which I am now very thankful for, given the amount of time and energy we have had to put into it).
Alec and I began our process by meeting repeatedly with Ms. Larios to outline a tentative schedule we could work towards, plan/organize training meetings for our student volunteers, and recruit different Poly students to help us gather information and design the book. Then, over the course of January and February, we and our student volunteers reach out to different organizations and ended up collecting information from 19 of them. The information included the a basic description of the organization, where it is located, its website, a contact person, some of the requirements for volunteers, the SDGs the organization is working towards, and some other basic information. We then edited all of the information for grammar and just general style to keep everything consistent and professional. The last stage of the process has just been putting each organization's information into the book layout, creating indexes, writing intro pages, and designing the covers. We are almost done with the last stage of the process (before the physical printing of the book can begin), but we still have a couple more final edits to complete.
One of our main goals in completing this project is to make it easier for people in Pasadena to find organizations to volunteer with that they have a genuine interest in. Too many times I have heard my friends both in and outside of poly complain about the community service requirements at their school and how they just go to random service events to try and obtain some hours. I hope that through a guide like this my classmates (along with younger children or older adults) can find organizations that they are actually interested in (whether it's because the organizations are working towards a specific goal that the person is interested or for some other reason).
Another one of our goals is to raise awareness for the UN's SDGs. In the U.S., it is rare to find people who know a lot about the SDGs, namely because our federal government has done little to promote them on a large scale. However, that does not make them any less important. The SDGs are a way for people across the planet to unite in the common goal of addressing global issues, whether it's reducing poverty, reducing inequality, improving access to clean food/water, reducing our impact on the environment, or improving education. From the lack of food and water in conflict-ridden countries like Yemen (which has been undergoing a violent conflict and massive humanitarian crisis for years) to the poor education systems in the Dominican Republic to the increased fire season and prolonged periods of drought in California, the amount of global issues that need to be addressed is clear. There are so many problems across the planet, and the only way to feasibly address them all is if we all work together, which is what makes the SDGs so important.
I hope that in the future this project can continue and extend to other schools in the Pasadena area (whether it's PHS, Flintridge Prep, etc.) in order to make it a bigger community effort. I also hope that other communities across the U.S. can take inspiration from the project and create their own local editions in order to create more of a widespread initiative across the country.
I would say that one of the hardest parts about this project was just managing our time. It wasn't even that we had poor time management skills (trust me, I can be incredibly anal with deadlines), it was just that we had a lot to do in a very short amount of time on top of our already very busy schedules (which for me includes staying on top of my school work while also continuing my commitments to my school clubs, Peer Mentors, SALC, Global Scholars, sports teams, LACC, and the musical). Another challenge Alec and I faced was getting our student volunteers to really stay on top of things. While we originally reached out to around 25 volunteers, we only got submissions from like 12 or so of them (some submitted information for 2 organizations and Alec and I did 2-3 ourselves, which is how we ended up with 19 organizations) because many volunteers either never responded to our emails after originally saying they would help, or they came to us a week before the deadline saying they couldn't do it for various reasons (namely, they were too busy, stressed, etc.). All of the reasons for volunteers being unable to help were completely understandable (since most were incredibly busy or were having trouble reaching out to their organization), it just made it difficult to gather a lot of information in such a short timeframe.
I would say that my group and I did a very good job of staying as organized as possible during this project (we had folder after folder full of information in our attempt to keep track of everything). We planned ahead and really tried to meet each of our proposed deadlines. We also really tried to work as a team by sharing each of the responsibilities.
If this project continued in the future (as I hope it does), I would definitely recommend that the future student leaders reach out to Alec and I, for we can share some of the things we learned from our mistakes along the way and pass on advice. For example, the student volunteer training process could have been cut down and made a lot clearer, which might have helped more students want to volunteer. I also would recommend that the future leaders make an online version of the book, since that would make the information more accessible to people.
All in all, though, I am very proud of all that Alec, Ms. Larios, Calvin (our graphic designer), Violette (our cover artist), all of our student volunteers, and I have accomplished in this project. I was very happy with all the work Alec and I put in (including how our presentation went–I think we succinctly covered everything we hoped to cover, like why we're interested in global issues, what our project is, our hopes for it, our process, etc.), and I believe that the final printed version of this book will be something we all can take pride in.
I have always had an interest in global issues and community service, so I was immediately interested in this project after I heard a presentation by Susan Angus (from the CVSA) about their national edition of Invest Yourself. I then went to the Global Scholar cohort's leaders to ask if I can do a local version of this guide as my Global Scholars project. Unbeknownst to me, Alec also wanted to do the book and went to the Global Scholars leaders like I did, so we were able to partner up on the project (which I am now very thankful for, given the amount of time and energy we have had to put into it).
Alec and I began our process by meeting repeatedly with Ms. Larios to outline a tentative schedule we could work towards, plan/organize training meetings for our student volunteers, and recruit different Poly students to help us gather information and design the book. Then, over the course of January and February, we and our student volunteers reach out to different organizations and ended up collecting information from 19 of them. The information included the a basic description of the organization, where it is located, its website, a contact person, some of the requirements for volunteers, the SDGs the organization is working towards, and some other basic information. We then edited all of the information for grammar and just general style to keep everything consistent and professional. The last stage of the process has just been putting each organization's information into the book layout, creating indexes, writing intro pages, and designing the covers. We are almost done with the last stage of the process (before the physical printing of the book can begin), but we still have a couple more final edits to complete.
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| A picture of the team after our meeting with our publishing mentors at Red Hen Press |
One of our main goals in completing this project is to make it easier for people in Pasadena to find organizations to volunteer with that they have a genuine interest in. Too many times I have heard my friends both in and outside of poly complain about the community service requirements at their school and how they just go to random service events to try and obtain some hours. I hope that through a guide like this my classmates (along with younger children or older adults) can find organizations that they are actually interested in (whether it's because the organizations are working towards a specific goal that the person is interested or for some other reason).
Another one of our goals is to raise awareness for the UN's SDGs. In the U.S., it is rare to find people who know a lot about the SDGs, namely because our federal government has done little to promote them on a large scale. However, that does not make them any less important. The SDGs are a way for people across the planet to unite in the common goal of addressing global issues, whether it's reducing poverty, reducing inequality, improving access to clean food/water, reducing our impact on the environment, or improving education. From the lack of food and water in conflict-ridden countries like Yemen (which has been undergoing a violent conflict and massive humanitarian crisis for years) to the poor education systems in the Dominican Republic to the increased fire season and prolonged periods of drought in California, the amount of global issues that need to be addressed is clear. There are so many problems across the planet, and the only way to feasibly address them all is if we all work together, which is what makes the SDGs so important.
I hope that in the future this project can continue and extend to other schools in the Pasadena area (whether it's PHS, Flintridge Prep, etc.) in order to make it a bigger community effort. I also hope that other communities across the U.S. can take inspiration from the project and create their own local editions in order to create more of a widespread initiative across the country.
I would say that one of the hardest parts about this project was just managing our time. It wasn't even that we had poor time management skills (trust me, I can be incredibly anal with deadlines), it was just that we had a lot to do in a very short amount of time on top of our already very busy schedules (which for me includes staying on top of my school work while also continuing my commitments to my school clubs, Peer Mentors, SALC, Global Scholars, sports teams, LACC, and the musical). Another challenge Alec and I faced was getting our student volunteers to really stay on top of things. While we originally reached out to around 25 volunteers, we only got submissions from like 12 or so of them (some submitted information for 2 organizations and Alec and I did 2-3 ourselves, which is how we ended up with 19 organizations) because many volunteers either never responded to our emails after originally saying they would help, or they came to us a week before the deadline saying they couldn't do it for various reasons (namely, they were too busy, stressed, etc.). All of the reasons for volunteers being unable to help were completely understandable (since most were incredibly busy or were having trouble reaching out to their organization), it just made it difficult to gather a lot of information in such a short timeframe.
I would say that my group and I did a very good job of staying as organized as possible during this project (we had folder after folder full of information in our attempt to keep track of everything). We planned ahead and really tried to meet each of our proposed deadlines. We also really tried to work as a team by sharing each of the responsibilities.
If this project continued in the future (as I hope it does), I would definitely recommend that the future student leaders reach out to Alec and I, for we can share some of the things we learned from our mistakes along the way and pass on advice. For example, the student volunteer training process could have been cut down and made a lot clearer, which might have helped more students want to volunteer. I also would recommend that the future leaders make an online version of the book, since that would make the information more accessible to people.
All in all, though, I am very proud of all that Alec, Ms. Larios, Calvin (our graphic designer), Violette (our cover artist), all of our student volunteers, and I have accomplished in this project. I was very happy with all the work Alec and I put in (including how our presentation went–I think we succinctly covered everything we hoped to cover, like why we're interested in global issues, what our project is, our hopes for it, our process, etc.), and I believe that the final printed version of this book will be something we all can take pride in.
| Here is the current version of our front cover (designed by Violette) |
| Here is the current version of our back cover (again, designed by Violette) |
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