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Monday, February 21, 2011

What have I learned so far?

There are many things I have learned throughout my time in CLP. The main things I have learned are fostering relationships and forming connections, project planning, youth-led organizing, time management, fundraising, and brainstorming.

Core CLP practices and principles:
Fostering relationships, forming connections (Dialogue, Connection)
An example of this is with Mentoring Today for Tomorrow, also a non-profit organization. We were able to talk to them and share our ideas so that we could build relationships with one another.


Transformative program and theory development:
Project planning (time line, goals, resources, etc.)
An great example for this is Making Space. We organized the time line and how long each event would last and we focused on what our main goal was: fundraising. All of us had to work as a team so everything could be done quickly and in order.

Youth-led organizing and young adult leadership skills (Action)
When we would be learning about grant writing young students from high school were helping us figure out what to write about in our grant. Young adult leadership skills are very important because we are the ones who can make a difference.

For-Impact Organizational Development:
Time management, prioritizing
In Making Space I learned that for every event someone wants to make, prioritizing is the best way to do it successfully. We can start as early as one month before the event. Starting by emailing the people we want to help us and then reminding them we need them for a special date. We want to know the theme of the event, the audience, the space rentals, what the fundraiser will be, email friends or post the event on facebook, and assigning roles to people who are willing to helping us.

Fundraising (Grant-writing, donor asks, mail, online networking,
event-planning)
I learned a few things about Grant Writing. We need to be sure what they are asking for. We don’t need to show -off our writing style, we simply need to inform the reader with simple writing.
I e-mailed many non-profit organizations so we could meet with them to share our ideas. Mentoring Today for Tomorrow was an organization we met and were able to talk with them about their organization and their work with young adults and children.

Brainstorming (creation, formation, action)
By brainstorming we create many ideas which could become useful for whatever purpose. In many Intern meetings that is what we do, we brainstorm and everyone shares his or her ideas so everyone can cooperate in whatever ways they can.


Monday, January 24, 2011

Slowing Down...

There is one thing I know for sure, and that is that time passes by very quickly… When I was living in Mexico everything was easy for me and I thought my life would always stay the same and nothing would change. As I got older, I started to see how time was changing everything around me. At first I hated it and wanted to go back to the way things were but I realized that was impossible. Time shouldn’t be the one changing us; instead we should be changing with to time.
I remember when I used to visit my grandparents’ farm in Mexico and I would feel relaxed and filled with energy.  There was no internet and I couldn’t even watch TV because my grandparents would always be watching black and white movies, so I would always be outside playing volleyball or swimming in the pool, or simply walking around and singing in the fields. For me there, time didn’t exist. But when I came to the U.S. everything changed… I had to go to school and when I got home I had to work on tons of homework. Everything seemed so different; I would always be thinking about the past or about the future, but I would never enjoy the present.
One day my parents couldn’t pick me up from school so I had to go walking, and that’s when I realized that I had been rushing through life. I hadn’t noticed how beautiful everything was; there were flowers blooming and the trees were so green that everything looked perfect. When I went to school driving I would never realize all the little things going on around me, and from that day on I have always done things slower. I drive slower and I try to look at everything that surrounds me. People these days don’t notice these things because they are so busy working or so busy thinking about their problems.  
Now I know that when we don’t rush into things everything works out perfectly because we don’t have too much work to accomplish in so little time.

Changing Education Paradigms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U



My Chicano Studies teacher showed us this video... Hope you like it! :P

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Why India? Why Mexico?

In order to be an active part of the change and growth of a community we first need to change ourselves, our characters, and our ideas. The whole world is suffering from some kind of problem and I believe that we should start by helping those who need it the most.  In the video interview of Arundhati Roy, she said that there are more poor people in India than 26 of Africa’s poorest countries put together. People there can survive with less than half a dollar a day. I was shocked when I heard this and this is part of the reason I choose India. We will always learn from anyone wherever they may be. If we go beyond our own world and what we already know we can learn a lot more and people in those places can also learn a lot from us. There’s this quote that got stuck in my head, “The whole world is but one family”. This is entirely true. Yes, there are different cultures and different views of the world, but we are all one, and we can learn from each other. I also choose Mexico, and the main reason why I choose Mexico is because I know how bad it is right now, with the government fighting against drug dealers and all. Mexico seriously needs our help. Violence there is getting worse every day. Every person is proud of where they come from, and since I was born and raised in Mexico, I think it is part of my responsibility to help the people who share part of the same customs and traditions.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010