This past Friday, (March 27th, 2009) I presented at the Gulf South Summit Conference on Service Learning in Baton Rouge, LA. The conference was spearheaded by Louisiana State University and the presentations took on to three glances: Rethinking Student Roles, Rethinking Faculty Roles, and Rethinking Community Roles.
Presenting during our timeslot of 2:00pm - 3:15pm along with myself and a fellow classmate were our adored Xavier University of Louisiana's Communications professors Dr. Kimberly Chandler, Dr. Ross Louis, and Dr. Dave Park (who had won an award by the way - way to go!) Also with us was our community partner Brandan from http://www.2-cent.com
During my time to speak, I described to the audience what my experiences were like while doing service learning. During a PR course we took last semester, we did two campaigns. One to save a historical church (http://www.savewesleyunited.org - designed by us!) and another to donate money to the Lower 9th Ward Village Community Center. (http://www.lowerd9thwardvillage.org - link below!)
This experience has definitely turned me on to community needs as well as preparation for my career as a Public Relations practitioner. I've learned that EFFECTIVE campaigns takes time and dedication. I've tightened up my press release writing skills and I'm taking with me an experience to remember for a lifetime.
So far, we've gotten incredible results for the church but still open for more generosity. :)
The Lower 9th Ward still needs money to fund their afterschool programs, computer labs, art studio, recording studio, basketball court and kitchen!
What I've learned is that hard work and dedication can have great results. I've learned that I can be an effective change agent and that I can make a difference. I'm glad that our PR campaign reached the audiences that it did. To find out that it went to the Netherlands and Holland as well as caught the eye of some big time businesses overwhelmed me to say the least. They will be donating materials and workers (for FREE) to help save the historical Wesley United Methodist Church!
To find out more, please visit:
Save Wesley United!
Lower 9th Ward Village
and our latest campaign :)
Re Grand Opening this Saturday, April 4th at 10am!The Wright Place!
1 comment:
Thanks for writing about your experience at the Summit. Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (www.servicelearning.org) is always looking for photos of folks doing service-learning to post on our website. If you're interested, check it out! www.servicelearning.org/library/share/index.php
Or email me directly (heatherm@etr.org)
Great work!
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