Two Week Report # 4

[Jordan Merlo]

Eight-weeks ago I started my internship at Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connections. Cabrini Connections is a non-profit organization designed to enrich and further develop the lives of students who live in low-income neighborhoods such as Cabrini Green. They do this by providing tutor/mentor programs for these students after hours, which not only provides alternate learning opportunities but keeps these students out of trouble. At my internship my job is to promote the organization further through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, volunteer forums, etc. Through this I will help expand others' knowledge of Cabrini Connections, get people to either donate or volunteer at Cabrini, as well as increase my own knowledge of certain social media outlets.

So far in my internship I have done a lot to promote the organization. As being a Public Relations/Advertising major my main focus is to bring in funds and support to Cabrini Connections. My goal is that with my degree I will become an event planner. I believe that I have the talent, drive, and skill to become an event planner even though I have no real experience in the matter.

At the beginning of the internship Dan Bassill, President and Founder of Cabrini Connections and I sat down and discussed what my learning goals would be for this semester long internship. We came up with the following: learn how to effectively spread a message through social media tactics, and learn how one person can make such a huge impact on society. So far I believe that I have certainly accomplished my first learning goal. These several weeks I have figured out many important and beneficial tactics. I now know how to correlate day-to-day news with Cabrini Connections and how to promote upcoming events we are having in an effective manner. I have found an abundance of ways to promote Cabrini Connections and I now know which methods are more effective in getting people's attention. For instance, it has come to my attention that Facebook has been an effective way of getting people to acknowledge Cabrini Connections' efforts in developing the lives of students living in low-income housing. All of these are extremely important to my learning because it will not only help spread the word of Cabrini Connections but it will also help my knowledge of social media and learning how to connection organizations with the people. As far as my second learning goal is concerned I have found several examples of how one person has made a difference but I have been on the search for several more as this information will greatly contribute to my final paper.

I have not only begun research to start answering my learning question but I have also started writing the paper. My learning question is: how to unleash one’s personal power to change the world through social media. So far I have started to discuss my personal experience in the matter, viewing people changing the world first hand through social media. I have also looked into how my classes have affected my knowledge of social media and how they have shaped me in a way that I can be beneficial to the people here at Cabrini Connections. I still have a long way to go on my paper but it is off to a great start.

[Daniel Bassill]

Jordan, thank you again for working with us. During the next few weeks I encourage you to browse the articles in the Tutor/Mentor Institute and see how we are creating content, using maps, graphics, video, etc. to share our ideas of what it takes to make a better world for inner city kids. From an advertising perspective, we need to find ways every day to increase the number of people who look at our web sites and this information, but from a design perspective, we also need to find ways to map out a blueprint for change that others can follow.

Before the internet, and before desk top publishing, different people in an organization would create the ideas, other people would package the ideas, others would put the ideas on paper and in film, and even more people would be responsible for distributing the ideas to the public. Now the person with the idea, can package and distribute it. If it's a good idea, presented in a creative and informative way, with lots of persistence, others may find the idea, and volunteer their own time to spread it to an even larger audience.

If we teach many people to think and act this way, we can have a dramatic impact on how the world of the future looks.