Man's Best Friend

Having just gotten a new puppy, I figured what could be more appropriate than writing about my volunteer activities involving dogs. This post is a bit different as it involves two different volunteering activities as well as my hopes for future volunteer opportunities.

The Causes:
When I was a young thirteen year old, I had to decide what I wanted to do for my Bat Mitzvah project. This was the first big volunteer project I took on, so it's a great one to end this blog on to come somewhat of a full circle.

My Bat Mitzvah project involved The Seeing Eye. The Seeing Eye is an organization that raises dogs to then be trained by professionals to become dogs used by blind people. The goal of the organization, which was founded in 1929, is to give people who are blind a type of independence they never experienced before.

The Seeing Eye depends on volunteers to raise the dogs before having their official training back at The Seeing Eye facilities. During the year or so that the foster family has the seeing eye puppy, they are supposed to attend monthly meetings and other puppy club activities, house train the dog and teach it basic commands, and bring it places with them to experience lots of different types of experiences and locations. The purpose of this is so the dog isn't scared of anything once it becomes a seeing eye dog for a blind person. Eventually, the dog returns to The Seeing Eye and has its official training before going to a blind person.

Photo By: Sangudo

The other organization I volunteered at, more recently, was The National Greyhound Adoption Program. Founded in 1989 the program aims to find loving homes for ex-racing greyhounds. Most of the greyhounds come from Florida, but some are sent to the rescue center from other organizations. In addition to finding homes for the greyhounds, the organization makes sure the dogs are healthy. They also educate the public about how to take care of greyhounds and about the issues racing greyhounds face.


What I Did:
For The Seeing Eye, I did not raise a puppy. Instead, I puppy sat. Puppy sitting is simply watching a puppy raisers puppy for them when they are going on vacation. I ended up watching quite a few puppies. In order to be allowed to watch them, I had to attend the club's monthly meetings to learn basic training commands, how to treat the dogs, meet the dogs, and meet the raisers.

One of the Puppies I Watched: Wilbur

When actually watching the dogs, I treated them as though I was raising them. The dogs with me had to follow the normal rules for seeing eye dogs and still needed to be introduced to new situations. For that reason, I brought the dogs with me most places I went. For example, on Black Friday once I was puppy sitting so I took the dog to Target. It was a really interesting experience for both me and the dog who had to pay attention on the busiest shopping day of the year.

For the National Greyhound Adoption Program, I went to the shelter and walked the Greyhounds. Walking the greyhounds give them a chance to get some fresh air and be with people, rather than just sitting in a cage all the time. This is helpful for the dogs' socialization with people and other dogs, making them a better candidate for adoption.

What I Learned:
Both of these volunteer opportunities made me realize why dogs are man's best friend. All of the dogs I puppy sat or walked were sweet in their own way. The dogs just wanted to be loved and I was glad to be able to do that.

Puppy sitting made me realize how smart dogs are. Witnessing a puppy be able to change from all play to work mode in just a few seconds made me appreciate their intelligence. Humans always assume we are the only ones able to truly think, imagine things, and make decisions. After spending time with such intelligent dogs, that are trained to make decisions for people who can't see, I wonder how accurate this is, probably not very.

Photo By: SkyWideDesign

I also learned about making sacrifice for others. The people raising seeing eye dogs are doing so knowing they will have to give the puppy back in just a short year. Giving the puppy back is not easy to do but they do it because they know how great the dog will ultimately be for someone who can't see. The puppy raisers understand selfless acts. I strive to be able to see where I can be more selfless to help someone who really needs it.

When walking greyhounds, I realized how important it is to treat dogs properly. A lot of the greyhounds were mistreated as racing dogs. These mistreated dogs need to learn to trust people again and learn to be able to interact with other dogs again.

Seeing others, dogs or humans, in a worse condition than yourself helps you learn how you must be thankful for what you have and should help others who aren't as fortunate.

In my case, seeing the dogs in this shape make me appreciate my puppy and makes me want to make sure I treat her very well, even more so than I normally would.

My New Puppy: Charlotte

Reflection and The Future:
Writing this blog helped me realize why I love volunteering so much. I love being able to help others, as most people who volunteer do, but I also really enjoy the lessons that come out of volunteering. Seeing others in different conditions and learning how to do other things has made me able to connect to all sorts of people while learning really interesting things along the way.

In the future, I plan to continue volunteering in a variety of ways. I plan to focus more on opportunities related to my major, Biology- so probably medicine, to learn lessons related to my major as well as about life. However, I also plan to continue volunteering in other areas to continue growing as a person and seeing life from different viewpoints.

WE ARE... but will you be too?

Do you remember a little over a year ago when you were trying to decide where you would spend your next four years? Well, the time has come for this years high school seniors to make the same decision. Recently, I have been volunteering at Schreyer Accepted Student Days to help these kids out.

The Cause:
For those of you who don't know, Schreyer Honors College is Penn State's honors program. In order to get into the program a student most apply. Once in, the students get honors housing and priority scheduling, among lots of other opportunities. They must maintain a 3.4 GPA and write an Honors Thesis to graduate with honors. The Accepted Students Days are a chance for the incoming class of 2020 to understand a little bit better what Schreyer offers and what it believes its students should stand for, the college's mission. Some of these values include academic excellence, integrity, and civic engagement.

Accepted Students Days include a presentation by Schreyer faculty, a student panel, student run tours, mingling with current students, and an opportunity to buy Schreyer merchandise.

Decision Day and Schreyer Merchandise

What I Did:
To help with the Accepted Students Days, I decided to be a tour guide. To do this I had to be trained, by the person organizing the tours, by pretty much by going on the tour myself. During the tours I show the main lounges and computer lab in the lobby of Atherton to give people an idea of what types of spaces we have available. Then, I show a sample room, almost always my own to give parents and students an idea of what they can expect from a real dorm. Then, we go through the basement and ground floor to show more spaces to study or get assistance from faculty. Finally, we head over to the other honors dorm where I show them a few common spaces and the GLOBE, a global perspective special living option within Schreyer that students can apply to.

My room that I show on tours- it's more decorated now.

My tour group can range from just a handful of people to 15 people. I have done tours both with parents and students and another with just parents. These groups were interesting because in the parent only group they tended to ask more questions and ones their kids may have prevented them from asking in a combined group.

What I Learned:
Giving these tours has given me a different perspective both on Penn State and Schreyer. When asked different questions about the university and honors college I realized how much I truly know about where I am. Whenever I'm asked questions about the negative sides of things here, I have learned to be able to give true answers that show that everything isn't perfect. Having questions asked of me about these negatives has allowed me to truly analyze where I am and how I like it.

The tours and questions that are asked have allowed me to become more reflective, something I tend not to be very good at. I have been able to bring this new and improved ability to reflect to the rest of my life, mostly academically, to understand why things happen the way they do and what I can do to change these things in the future. I also realize what happened, happened and can't be changed.

Giving tours, has allowed me to figure out what the most important points are to present to the groups and how to keep the group engaged throughout the tour. This can be applied to to other aspects of my life when I have to present or convey information or a message in a relatively short amount of time. It's becoming easier for me to choose what is important to include and what is okay to leave out.

Also, this experience has allowed me to connect with current high school seniors and hopefully give them some guidance about if Schreyer and Penn State are the right fit for them. It's important to realize that if you choose to go somewhere you don't fit in or do something you don't truly like, you won't prosper. I really enjoy being able to help seniors figure out if they will prosper here in anyway that I can.

Overall, the tour process and helping seniors has made me realize how much I like Schreyer and Penn State. I had my doubts about coming here, but looking back now I am very happy here and can't imagine myself anywhere else. I'm glad I made the decision I did and ended up here in Happy Valley.

WE ARE... happy we chose Schreyer and Penn State!

L'dor Va'dor- From Generation to Generation

With the end of the school year fast approaching and my favorite Jewish holiday just around the corner I can't help but think of something I am normally doing this time of year, working at the Community Religious School of Yardley. I volunteered at this religious school for many years and later began working at Kol Emet's religious school.  

The Cause:
The Community Religious School of Yardley was a religious school created by several families who left their synagogue, didn't want to join another, but still wanted to continue their children's Jewish educations. The school had 10-15 kids at any given point from grades 5-7. There was one teacher who taught all the kids at one time, splitting them up for certain lessons, like Hebrew, to teach to their level. Every few weeks, another teacher came to lead Jewish songs and prayers. There were also 4 aides to help the teacher. I was one of these aides. The school was held in a community room at a local grocery store once a week. The school also took trips to a very Jewish section of NYC, apple picking for the Jewish new year, volunteering trips, and trips to houses for different holidays.

Pickle Guys in the Lower East Side of NYC with the religious school.

What I Did:
As an aide, I did all different types of things. During class, when we split up the students, I would work on practicing reading Hebrew with the older kids or teaching the younger kids how to read or write Hebrew. Also, I would help all the kids learn prayers, whether just for our yearly religious school service or in preparation for their B'nai Mitzvot. I would also help the kids learn about the different Jewish holiday through different activities. These activities could include reading a book about the holiday, going somewhere like apple picking, planing a carnival, or making edible treats related to the holiday. This was always the most fun and the activity I was most involved in. We made edible Sukkahs for Sukkot, edible Torahs for Simchat Torah, and fruit covered cookie pizzas for Tu B'shevat, just to name a few.

Fruit Covered Cookie Pizzas- Tu B'shevat

What I Learned:
Being an aide at the religious school was one of the best things I have ever done. I met a lot of great kids and truly enjoyed the time I got to spend with them while helping them learn all about Judaism.

While being an aide, I learned about teaching to different lifestyles and having to adapt plans to help everyone succeed. This is definitely a lesson I have and will continue to carry over to all parts of my life. When someone isn't getting something or won't cooperate, I try to teach the lesson a different way or present it in a different light in an attempt to get everyone to understand. This happens in my life even when deciding about something with friends when we have to look at things from different perspectives and in different ways to make sure everyone sees the full picture.

I also learned about how all topics can be made interesting and captivating if you figure out the right way to present them. This is another good lesson to be applied to daily life when you are trying to keep people interested in anything you are trying to present and "sell" to them.

Finally, I learned more about sharing tradition. I have always viewed tradition as a very important part of religion and life in whole; however, this experience has made me appreciate it more. I now realize how important it is to pass tradition on from generation to generation, l'dor va'dor. I had the chance to pass on my tradition to the children I was teaching and it allowed me to analyze my own tradition more and really understand where it came from and why I stand for what I stand for.

It is important to reflect on your own traditions or you will loose sight as to why they are important and why they need to be passed on. If no one understands the importance of a tradition non one will pass it on and it will die where it is.

Splish, Splash, Is it Summer Yet?

With the weather still so spectacular it is getting harder and harder to focus on school. I know summer is just around the corner. This of course reminds me what I did for the past 10 summers, competitively swim on my township's swim team. For years, I volunteered at practices as a helper and then a coach. In more recent years, I got paid to coach practices but still volunteered at the meets.

My Last Home Meet as a Swimmer

The Cause:
The Lower Makefield Township (LMT) Swim and Dive Team is a competitive and recreational summer team. The point of the team is to create a fun environment for kids to learn the great sport that is swimming and diving. In my case, I focused on swimming. LMT's team not only creates a place to learn and perfect swimming and diving but allows the swimmers to make great friendships, I speak from experience, and to progressively prove and gain their responsibility and independence.

The swim team practices every weekday morning and competes most Tuesdays and Thursdays from June-July. While school is still in session there are afternoon practices. The team is divided by age group for practices and split into two divisions for meets, since there are so many swimmers.

Meet Schedule

What I Did:
When I was younger, I would get stuck at a pool, I couldn't swim in, until my brother finished practice. So, I began to help set up lane lines and help run the dry land for the kids in the younger age groups than me. As time progressed the head coach and other coaches allowed me to help them a bit and see what coaching was really like. As soon as I was old enough to coach I became, Coach Laura.

I absolutely love coaching. While coaching, I teach the swimmers new drills, run practice sets, and give them pointers of what they can change to improve their stroke and speed. I also spend lots of time working with the swimmers on starts and finishes. If I could ever get in the water to help I would. Whenever we had Fun Friday practices, I tended to be the one in charge of the games and activities throughout the younger practices.

At swim meets, I make sure everyone is in the right place. To do this, I check the roster, the kids in line, and their events marked on their hand to make sure they are in the right place, this is extremely important for relays. To make this process go a bit faster, I also help explain the process to the parents in charge of the little kids, the mouse moms, and help them throughout the night. I also watch the meet, cheer on the swimmers, and give them pointers based on their race.

The Roster

What I Learned:
Volunteering on the swim team has taught me so much. I learned how to be a good team member as well as a leader. We've had some really strong leaders to rally behind through the years as well as some weak ones. Figuring out what to do in both situations has allowed me to improve my skills of working in a team setting as a leader and member of the team.

I also learned how to deal with urgent issues, like finding a kid who is about to swim and is no where to be found. This type of stressful situation is easy to handle as long as you know how and stay clear headed throughout.

One of my favorite lessons is realizing how much of a role model bigger kids are to little kids. I saw this both as I saw some kids become attached to me and others attach to other older swimmers. This made me realize that you never know who may be watching you as a role model. You should always live as though someone will follow your actions and you may surprise yourself at what you can do.

As I've said in past posts, it is great to share your passion with others. I absolutely love swim team and to help others share this experience is one of the best ways to spend my time, in my opinion. Sharing a passion in this way keeps you excited and allows the passion to be passed to others.

Finally, the most important lesson I learned from volunteering on the swim team is: Have Fun! Without fun there really is no point. You are there to have a great summer, make friends, and learn a great sport, so go out and do it. This lesson clearly carries over to everyday. I believe in living life to it's potential by having fun, even when doing boring things. My great aunt always says "You have to make your own fun, Kiddo." Swim team has shown me how important this is and how much more fun it can be when you drag others into your fun.

Were you on a swim team or other sport or summer activity? What did you learn? Feel free to comment!

Music for All: By The Youth

With the weather getting warmer I can't help but think of summer. Summer reminds me of a trip I took in the summer of 2014 to Italy with a great organization called the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County, YOBC. I was a member of this group throughout most of high school as a clarinetist and while belonging I always helped volunteer with the organization.

YOBC Italy Tour

The Cause:
YOBC is an audition based youth orchestra organization that rehearses at the Bucks County Community College on Sundays and holds a Winter and Spring concert. Every other year the organization takes a tour, around 12 days long, to a European country where they perform in global festivals and concerts featuring them.

Outdoor Performance in Florence, Italy for an Audience of Over 2,000

YOBC is split into 3 divisions- junior, intermediate, and advanced- which is made up of 13 different ensembles with a total of around 300 students. These ensembles include small groups, bands, and orchestras. 

In addition to working with all the students to improve their musical skills, the organization creates a friendly environment for music outside of school and works as an outreach group to get young kids interested in music. It also helps people with less money afford instruments so they too can play music. 

What I Did:
Every week, I would help set up and break down our rehearsal space. This would involve getting other kids to help me so I didn't have to do it alone and to all show our respect for the space we were generously given to rehearse in.

At the end of the Italy tour, on the bus ride between two towns, I interviewed everyone on the bus to see what their highlights of the trip were. These video interviews were then put together by our videographer to document everyone's take on the trip.

Recently I returned to YOBC for one of my brother's concerts and helped check students in and chaperone them with my parents.

The biggest project I volunteered with YOBC for was during my final year in the organization. I worked closely with the Executive Director, Colleen Sweetsir, on an outreach project. The goal of this project was to spike interest about music in little kids. Our goal age group was preschool age. The event was held at our local Barnes and Noble in the children's section where some fellow musicians and I "performed" the book. We had a narrator and I was the organizer and conductor. As the book was read and certain instruments were talked about those instruments were played for the children to hear. It went something like this...

After the performance, the kids got to participate in an instrumental "petting zoo." Where they could touch the instruments and talk to the musicians to learn more about the instruments.

To prep for this event, I worked with the Executive director to figure out what instruments were needed and what musicians we would ask to participate. Then, we both meant with the individual instrumentalists to work out how we wanted each instrument to sound. Then, we had a rehearsal with everyone participating where we read and played through the book to make sure everyone understood how it would go. At the actual event, I helped set up and make sure everyone and everything was where we needed it.

What I Learned:
Throughout all of my volunteering with YOBC I have learned the importance of gaining respect and trust from others. Working closely with the Executive Director, I observed how everyone was always attentive in her presence and willing to do whatever she asked of them. I wanted to become a leader like her. I learned that to gain respect of others you need to respect them and show them you respect them. You must treat people with common decency and show them you are willing to listen to them and work with them to make whatever you are doing a better experience better for everyone. I got a chance to practice this with Farkle McBride and learned how to take all ideas into consideration but still deciding what would work best for the group.

Also, it is important to show your respect for others even when you aren't trying to gain them as followers. This was shown in how we had to keep our rehearsal space clean and correct, as we were just borrowing the space.

Photo By: Patrick Marione

I also learned that yelling is not the best way to get attention, make everyone hear you, and listen to you. Sometimes you need to be quiet and wait for others.

By doing all this, I learned that you gain trust from your equals and superiors. This is really important to success and being allowed to do more to enhance your experiences.

Finally, I learned/was reminded of the importance in sharing your passion. I spent lots of time playing music in high school. When I saw the pure joy and amazement on the faces of kids who were hearing some of these instruments for the first time it reminded me of what made me start playing in the first place. It was really cool to see these kids become interested in something for the first time that I had been working hard at for the past 9 years.

It's important to be reminded of the beauty and even amazement for others in something you do everyday and that has become normal for you to do.

My Feet Have Never Hurt So Bad

The Cause:
Being my first post after THON and being a volunteer at THON it is only appropriate that today's post to be about THON. If you don't know, THON is the world's largest student run philanthropy.

Most people only think about the 46 hour dance marathon where no one is allowed to sit as being THON.

In reality this event just caps off an entire year of hard work. The year between each THON weekend, the dance marathon, is filled with lots of fundraising. All different types of organizations focus on raising money for THON, whether it be there main purpose or something they do on the side, for the year leading up to THON. Fundraising goes from sending letters, emails, social media campaigns, canning, canvassing, and a variety of events to make money all for THON.

What does THON do with all this money?

THON's only beneficiary is the Four Diamonds Foundation which uses the money to help families with kids diagnosed with cancer pay for treatment and other services where insurance stops. Thanks to Four Diamonds, these families never see a bill and can focus their attention on their children.

Four Diamond Sign

Left over money goes to Hershey Medical Center. They use the money to continue researching possible cures for pediatric cancer.

What I Did:

For THON this year, I was on a Rules and Regulation's committee, which is pretty much security. We had meetings every Wednesday since October to learn everything we needed to as well as become close with the people we would spend the weekend with. I was always in charge of icebreakers

The weekend of, I had my first shift 3PM- 8PM Friday and my last shift 5am- 10am Sunday. Each shift was slightly different and provided a new perspective on THON. In the beginning, no one was there yet but we were next to the floor when the dancers arrived and got to see their excitement for the challenge that was in front of them.

We also got to be back stage and on the floor in the beginning when families were first there. Some of my committee members got soaked by the kids' water guns. While next to the stage we were guarding certain areas, answering questions, looking for people sitting, and keeping an eye out for anything suspicious that may need more attention.

After this and for almost every other shift we were in the stands. When in the lower bowl of the BJC we were in charge of patrolling the aisles to make sure everyone in the section was standing and not breaking any other rule, guarding portal doors and closing them as necessary, and watching the concourse.

In the upper bowl, we were just in charge of watching the stands in our section to make sure rules were being followed.

It was really cool to see the event going on from different locations in the BJC and witness the entire stadium shake and fill with energy during special events- pep rally, family hour, ect.- and every line dance no matter what time it was.

What I Learned:

In regards to security, I learned people feel a sense of entitlement even when it is no where near justified. One shift I was working the gate because we needed to build a human wall. People were trying to burst in when the building was at capacity and were arguing with security when they were told they had to wait and couldn't enter at that point. For an event that was supposed to be about others this shocked me a bit.

I also learned the true definition of a support group. During family hour everyone in the BJC had there arms around each other as they were watching the Celebration of Life video. This was probably the most powerful thing I have seen. Thousands of teens coming together and truly uniting no matter their organization or reason for being there to support the kids and families going through things most of us can, thankfully, never understand.

Throughout the weekend, my committee was a support group for me as we all helped each other get through the long shifts when we could barely stand anymore. I have never been more relieved to get off my feet, eat, and sleep than after a shift.

My Captain

Finally I learned the total really doesn't matter. While it is always nice to surpass last years total THON went through a lot this year and still being able to raise almost $10,000,000 is truly an impressive task. Plus, we are not there for the money were are there "For the Kids" and it is important to remember this throughout such an overwhelming weekend as THON.

With this being said, I also learned THON is not for everyone. Some people would rather stay at home and maybe check in on the live webcast now and then and this is completely okay! People should be able to experience this event as well as any other in any way they want to.

My faith is restored that people are willing to volunteer. I just wish I saw them doing it for more activities than THON.

Fresh Discovery

The Cause:
This week has a two part cause.

You may remember our first weekend here Penn State had something called Fresh Start where all freshmen could volunteer during their first Saturday here. I decided it would be a good way to learn more about my community so I signed up.

At the event, we were put with a random group of other Freshmen and then sent to one of the many possible locations they had set up. My group ended up at the Discovery Space Children's Science Museum on Foster Avenue downtown.

This museum is a hidden gem. From the outside, the museum appears like any other apartment building or office space.

However, when you walk inside it's like a science Disney World for kids. For those of you from outside of Philly, it is just like a mini Franklin Institute. For those of you not from the Philly area, it is basically a "please-touch" museum where kids are able to learn basic science techniques and topics through hands on experiences.

Franklin Institute- Photo By BadDadRadio.com

The Discovery Space Museum aims to teach and spark science interest in children in the State College area. This includes daily admittance, special programs, and camps at the museum.

What I Did:
When I first got to Discovery Space Museum the museum was closed. The people there told us about the purpose of the museum and then let us explore a bit. To say the least, my entire group's inner kid came out. We all explored the entirety of the museum and played with all of the displays, actually curious about the science behind some of them. One of the rooms was focused on electricity and had a giant Lite-Bright in it. We decided to show our Penn State Pride with it.

After exploring for a bit, we helped move things outside for the event the museum was holding in a local park. As an end of the summer event, the museum was hosting a STEM- science, technology, engineering, and math- day. Different vendors, such as 3D printer companies, came to the event to promote their companies but it was mostly local STEM related companies showing kids what their companies do. 

I helped people set up, direct kids to stations, and just help out wherever I was needed. One man I helped was creating community ice molds for the ice festival held here over our winter break. It was really interesting to watch the vacuum process to make the ice molds and see the kids and adults amazed by it.

The event was also a place where kids who participated in the museum's camp could race the electric cars they made throughout the summer. I helped the kids fix their cars with hot glue, helped make the race track, and supervised a few races. 

The park the STEM event took place in

What I Learned:
During this event, I learned how important it is to inspire little kids. The kids at the event were so interested in their cars and everything else going on. Had they not been introduced to the world of science they may have spent the summer inside. Who knows, one of these kids could be one of the most important scientists of the future. Without learning new things while young there is no way to learn what you are passionate about and want to learn more about.

I also learned about the importance of community. We live in the center of a great community here that we don't really realize being so absorbed in our school work and lives on campus. Seeing the young kids reminded me that we are role models to them, as well as to the slightly older kids, and we should show them it is important to be involved in the community.

Everyone I met at the event was very community focused. People from across the community showed up and were happy to see their neighbors there as well. The man I helped with the ice molds really made this point clear to me. The idea of the molds were to make one and then pass the mold to a neighbor until everyone in the community had an ice sculpture for the festival. He really encouraged everyone who got a mold to pass it on. He showed me how much he loves his community based on the way he talked to everyone who came up to his stand and the way he took the time to make sure the kids understood how the process worked.

After seeing this event and meeting people like this man I want to get involved in the State College community. We have a community that supports the university and we should support it right back.