Profile a Volunteer

Volunteering is a major part of my life, I volunteer on a regular basis with my alumnae sorority. Our focus in our community is working with young children, we plan events that supply children with school supplies, host programs that give children resources and education on STEM, and collect shoes for children in need just to name a few of our projects. More recently we have taken on a project where we mentor young ladies in middle and high school. For my personal journey as a volunteer I have a long way to go, I am passionate about many things and need to choose a specific area that I would like to dedicate my life to helping. There is someone in my chapter that I look up to because of her volunteer efforts in many different states. She is a former veteran and dedicates herself to volunteer efforts for troops and former veterans. She hosts Operation Stand Down yearly which supports homeless veterans, she also has her own foundation that supports her causes.  She has lived in several states due to her husbands job but in each city she continues her volunteer efforts. Her efforts and foundation has supported hundreds of veterans and troops. I aspire to become a volunteer on the level that she is.  Seeing and being apart of her journey has taught me a lot, but all her efforts are truly driven by her passion.  Having passion and persistence is just one of the things she has taught me, but she has also shown me how to become a better volunteer and leader.

Using Social Media to Get Connected

Social media has grown to become a way of life for most people. I remember being in college when Facebook was first introduced and you where required to be a college student to join. Now it has grown into a major part of communication with people across the world.  There was a time where I was very active in social media, but now I have began to be more selective with how and why I use my social media accounts.
Social media is important to advocacy because social media is the fastest way to reach a mass amount of people, videos go "viral" in a matter of minutes.  Advocacy organizations can take advantage of reaching people and raising awareness for their issue by creating unique ads, videos, announcements and etc to posted on facebook, twitter, instagram just to name a few sites.
For my own personal use of social media as an advocacy tool would mean sharing my thoughts on issues on my pages and account, sharing advocacy organizations missions with others on my social media outlets, and joing advocacy organizations on the social media sites.

Advocacy through Advertisment

Teacher recruitment is a current issue. 17% of all job openings in 2020 will be in education(Ad Council). Teachers have the power to change the educational system of k-12 education in America. The ad campaign is for a national campaign supported by Microsoft, State Farm, and the U.S Department of Education.The ad touched me because it stated "You don't need to be famous to be unforgettable." And thought campaign is geared toward k-12 this statement is something every early childhood professionals strives to do daily, is build a lasting foundation that each child will have for a lifetime, making it unforgettable.  The early childhood field needs quality teachers as well. The teaching profession shapes the future of our nation and the purpose of this ad is to draw in the brightest students into the profession.

Diversity and Inclusion campaign is meant to promote the reconsideration of biases that we dont even know we have. Basically to draw attention to biases and to challenge everyone to recognize any biases they may have and overcome them. Everyone deserves a fair chance in the nation. The visual as for this campaign has two skeleton bodies with just the hands being colored every other part of the body left as bones, while the hands are holding each other, one hand Caucasian and the other African American with the title Hands-Love has no label. Living in America we are a part of a melting pot where we must teach our children diversity and how to respect others for their differences rather it be race, ethnicity, culture, religion, or disability.

Reference;
http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Campaigns/Family-Community/Diversity-Inclusion
http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Campaigns/Education/Teacher-Recruitment