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Hello,

I'm too sad to leave for Korea soon. I'll miss IIT and T/MC.I was learning many things by internship.

Especially, I had knowledge about system of volunteer organization.

Although there are many volunteer organizations in Korea, it's different from Tutor/Mentor Connection.

First, volunteer organizations located in Korea didn't build a database  as I know. To keep managning and increasing association, it's very important to maintain a database.

Next, there are scanty opportunities for connecting with a volunteer organization except for big organizations which supported by major company. people can see a lot of infromations through Internet in information-oriented society because most people have smart equipments as well as computer. If we make a blog or website like Tutor/Mentor Connection, we also can encourage more people to participate in volunteering personally and donating.

 And I hope that next intern will introduce the Tutor/Mentor Connection to his/her hometown.

Thank you for having a great time during internship.

I have worked at Tutor/Mentor Connection for six weeks where is a non-profit organization for anyone who wants to help inner city youth connect with extra adult tutors and mentors. Even if it could be short time, it was very long time to me. Because I learned American culture as well as computer skills during that time.

First, I knew American culture especially company culture. I knew how to communicate with my boss and work promptly. Furthermore, I have worked with co-worker and realized again that cooperative activity is essential to effective work. For instance, we have to send invitations to millions of people in order to invite congratulation dinner party. From putting a letter in an envelope to posting a stamp, all work is done manually. To finish quickly, we cut the pie up the task to share it, so we can end easily.

In addition, I could begin to pay attention to graphic. Though my major is related to IT, I have no opportunity to design graphic. But my primary responsibility is to make something that helps people to understand easier. I usually create one or several pages of presentation file and image after viewing an article posted at blog. To make creation, I need to read carefully and summarize on my words. And it was represented by new form.  While I worked, I’m interested in infographic which is very useful tool. Because in traditional way to represent information, data was usually expressed by a variety of numeric and text-only. Infographic can help people to understand information easier in new nontraditional ways to use graphics, easy to identify, clear, simple, fun. Also, another form, animation is very helpful to give information to people. I created several animations. One is to encourage people to donate to keep organization. Another is to explain company’s system of maintenance.

As a result of internship, I learn more than I expected. So it’s very special time to me.

I made a infographic.

Do you want to add anything? 

***This post was created a few weeks ago, but was "saved to draft" and was never published...I'm new to blogging...don't judge***

On May 19 and 20, Tutor/Mentor Connections hosted its bi-annual conference in Matteson, IL.  Leading up to the conference, I did not know what to expect or how it would look like, but I was optimistic about a good turnout.  I was not disappointed.  The conference itself was much larger than I had anticipated, and everyone I met during those two days were very excited about participating and were very open to discussing their own organizations and about how to improve on what they do.  The conference itself consisted of multiple rooms with workshops being held by organizational leaders from a variety of backgrounds, and featured a wide variety of topics ranging from how to utilize online media to better your organization, to legal issues surrounding Illinois tax laws, to alternative methods to engage children in tutoring/mentoring programs.  I personally enjoyed the workshops that I attended, and highly recommend anyone who is interested in becoming involved in tutor/mentor programs as an organizer or even as a volunteer, to participate in these conferences.

At lunch on the second day, I sat with a group of individuals who were discussing the struggles that face non-profits working with children, sharing stories about behaviors that the children displayed, and educating a young woman about where to send her resume and about whom to contact to get her foot in the door.  This young woman was interested in getting involved in the field of working with children from under-privileged backgrounds in Chicago.  I began realizing that this was in part, what the conference was all about: spreading information between leaders from multiple organizations, and sharing that information with people who want to make a difference.  Who knows, perhaps that young woman will start up an organization that will go on to help many children in need, all because she was given an opportunity to network at this conference.  Every story has that moment where the individual became informed and got their foot in the door, and this conference was definitely a great breeding ground for those moments to occur.

Apart from all the great things that occurred at the conference, I must ask one question, why does it have to take place at a conference?  To put it more simply, why can't this exchange of information and ideas occur on a daily basis through sites such as this one?  Over the past few months, I have come to realize the value of this massive amount of information that Tutor/Mentor Connections shares through their websites, but the discussion regarding this information needs to occur more frequently and needs to involve leaders and future leaders to be able to make an impact on a large scale.  I encourage anyone reading this to spend a moment reading through some of the discussion topics and to contribute in any way that they can to keep the conversation alive.  Whether it is as a comment or just bringing up the conversation at the dinner table or at lunch with your co-workers, spreading the information about the importance of tutor/mentor programs in the fight against poverty and crime is the foundation for change.

         When I came here for work as a intern, I was a little bit confused because all things in here were not familiar and all things I do look like awkward. However, the more time I spent here, everything in here was getting comfortable. Through this internship, I learned lots of things. First of all, I learned how to working process going in America. My initial purpose of coming here is to get to know America’s culture. At this aspect, I think I achieve that. Secondly, by working here, because Tutor/Mentor Connection is Non-Profit Organization, I could know how to help other students a little bit by Tutoring and Mentoring. Also, while I working in here, most of works that I did were making something to animation or video. There upon, I could improve my computer skills and I learned how to use one program, clearly.

         On the top of that, making decision for my future is come to easier. Before I came to USA, my ultimate purpose was experience America’s culture as I said earlier. The reason for that is I have wanted to transfer to America and settle my life in here. However, I actually cannot be sure about life in America before I came here. Consequently, when I look back my internship experience and classes that I took in here, I think America is nice to live in. Anyway, I will always remember all things happened in here and learned in here. In addition, I would like to say this to next PLP students that wherever you will have an internship, you will learn something. However, if you want to learn something about volunteering and doing computer works through your internship, I am sure that T/MC is going to be best choice for your internship. You would never regret your choice.

I saw the article about infographic on blog.

I think Infograpic is very useful.

Because in traditional way to represent information, data was usually expressed by a variety of numeric and text-only.

Infograpic can help people to understand information easier in new nontraditional ways

to use graphics, easy to identify, clear, simple, fun.

This is examples which use infograpic to represent information.

This is a volunteer-recruitment video created by Minsub Lee, and intern from Korea working with the Tutor/Mentor Connection. The video does not promote a single program and instead points to this page on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site that shows how programs can build campaigns to support recruitment for all tutor/mentor programs in a region.

There is sound, too. Please turn on speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykM9y-kyn40

This video was created by Minsub Lee to show how athletes might adopt and become spokespersons for different neighborhoods in the city where they are star players. See blog article with more info.

Sam Lee, an intern from IIT working with Tutor/Mentor Connection in May-June 2011, was asked to look at two graphics created to illustrate the role people might take in expanding the network of support for tutor/mentor programs. Below you can see the interpretations she created.

I created a new graphic interpretation for the graphic Dan had posted(labeled A and B)

I uploaded PPT file.

Labeled A HOW%20CAN%20WE%20GROW%20THE%20%25%20OF%20PEOPLE_old.pot

Labeled B BUILDING%20COMMUNITY%20FOCUSED%20ON%20KIDS_old_2.ppt

separated files

HOW%20CAN%20WE%20GROW%20THE%20%25%20OF%20PEOPLE_old.pot

BUILDING%20COMMUNITY%20FOCUSED%20ON%20KIDS_old_2.ppt

Good morning : )

I summarized five articles in a presentation.

1) Friday, June 13, 2008 article - Each of us has a Civic Responsibility. Marketing Solutions.

2) Wed, June 11, 2008 article - Expanding the volunteer workforce - capacity building

3) Tues, June 10, 2008 article - War on Poverty Requires Sophisticated Battle Plan

4) Monday, June 9, 2008 article - "Our greatest challenge is the gaps between rich and poor." Jimmy...

5) Saturday, June 7, 2008 article - Maximizing Value from Civic Engagement

Maximize%20Value%20from%20Civic%20Engagement.pot

There is five articles, and summarized presentation. 

Tell me what I need to correct.

Thanks

During my research last week, I came across a study that dealt with mentor volunteer retention and recruitment, specifically looking at the gap between male and female mentors.  This is an important subject to tackle as the authors cite studies that show that mentees who are connected with the same mentor for 2 years show the most significant positive change, whereas the mentees who are paired with the same mentor for only 6 months show almost no positive change, illustrating the importance of mentor retention.  The authors also cite the value of mentoring programs on "at risk youth" but then state that despite growing research to demonstrate this, there are very few mentoring programs and some have very long waiting lists for youth to get paired up with a mentor.

If there is so much research showing the benefits of tutor/mentor programs, then why isn't there a larger push to develop more across the nation?  I feel as though it is the failing of the information reaching the right people (people who might fund a program, people who may start up a new program) that is impacting this, highlighting the importance of Tutor/Mentor Connections and its goal of collecting all of this information and presenting it to as many people as possible.  By maintaining a database of information regarding volunteer recruitment/retention, Tutor/Mentor Connections is also providing the infrastructure for the growth of new, strong tutor/mentor programs that are better able to make an impact in the lives of at risk youth.

Going back to the article, the authors reported findings some differences between males and females in regards to becoming a mentor.  The primary reason that women gave to becoming a mentor was due to a sense of personal gratification, or a belief that they would experience a sense of personal gratification.  Men however, listed their primary reasons for becoming a mentor revolved around social and peer expectations and interactions.  In regards to retention, men were more likely to follow through with their time commitment of one year due to having to fulfill their obligation, whereas females continued as long as they felt a sense of gratification.  All of the mentors used in this study had strong mentors in their own lives, and thus understood the importance of a mentor in a youth's life.  I am wondering if educating more people as to the strong benefits of having a mentor in a youth's life would encourage more people who may not have had a strong mentor in their own life to volunteer their time.

Some conclusions can be drawn from this study, primarily in methods of "advertising" your program to different genders.  On one hand, to have a better chance at recruiting females, a program may want to focus on stories of current mentors and how it feels to become a large part of a child's life, where to recruit more males, a program may want to focus on recruiting groups of men who may already be linked together socially (a group that works together or golf together).  Focusing on the social interactions that the mentors have with each other may increase recruitment of males, as the study indicates that as a large factor.

I made animation version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l4Xk_g_C3Y

This is a "Famous Athlete" character created by Minsub Lee and included in the video he created from the ideas in this pdf and these blog articles.

Hi,

Today, I made a PPT file involved in this article.

I attached jpg file and ppt file which include some animation. 

marketingsolution_old.pot

I made Animation about 'Enough, is enough'.

I attached video file, too.

Enough__is_enough_v2.swf

Hi,

I talked with Sam and we decide to divide her works.

I will make Atheletes and celebrities things as animation.

If you want me to do other things, please tell me.

Until that, I will work on this.