Student Spotlight: Kim Avery

Kim Avery, a sophomore at Eastern Connecticut State University has a passion for the American Red Cross Blood Drives. Kim has been volunteering and donating for the past three semesters and will continue to do so in the future.


Kim first became interested in volunteering with the Blood Drives on campus after donating one time. "The man who was taking my blood told me that it was great that I was donating because the blood I was giving was going to be used to help someone within three days. I realized the huge need for blood and wanted to help." Kim has since been recruiting people to donate in Webb the days before the Blood Drives, and then working the sign-in table once the volunteers show up. She has also volunteered with the canteen area, and overall just wants to help wherever there is a need.


Kim noted that the most rewarding aspect of working with the Blood Drives is knowing that she is helping someone else. She also expressed some of the challenges. "I want to help as much as I can, and sometimes my class schedule interrupts with that. So instead of cancelling on the Blood Drives, I bring my laptop and study while sitting at the sign-in table." The balance of school and volunteering can be bridged!


Kim offers advice to any first time volunteers working within the Blood Drives: "make sure you know what you are getting into, and do it because you want to. And make sure you can balance both school work and volunteering".

Career Fair!

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Student Spotlight: Megan Sargent

Megan Sargent, a freshman at Eastern Connecticut State University is a student with a very driven attitude. Megan has dreams about becoming a second grade teacher for an inner city elementary school. How has she been fueling her resume? Volunteering at the Center for Community Engagement!

Megan first began volunteering with the CCE last semester. She knew she wanted to volunteer, and after hearing about the CCE through orientation, she decided to seek out more information. Megan learned about the CCE's role in after school programs with the North Windham school systems. She eagerly signed up to work with the elementary aged children. As a native to Manchester, CT, Megan had already gained some experience with working with children. During the summers Megan works with the Manchester Parks and Recreation at Camp Mahoney, which specializes in care for elementary aged students. Being back in a classroom full of kids was exactly what Megan wanted.

Beginning her time at the school, Megan was a little hesitant. She knew that the Windham community was one that was in need, but she was excited about embarking on a journey that was outside of her normal realm. Before she went to the school Megan learned that it was among the top schools in need of aid for school lunches. She also learned about the language barriers. "I was nervous at first going into the school because of the differences from my hometown, but the language barriers were easy to bridge, and the kids were really excited to see me so it became easier."

Megan has really enjoyed her time volunteering with the school systems because she knows she will be able to apply her newfound knowledge to her career goals in the future. Working with this age group and demographic, she has really been able to pinpoint where she would like to teach.

Megan offers advice for anyone going to volunteer for the first time: "go into it with an open mind and try to think of ways that you can contribute without being told, and just have fun!"

Tips for First Time Volunteers

Looking to volunteer for the first time?

Read these helpful tips!

Volunteer with a friend!

Volunteering can be a daunting task, especially if you haven't ever partaken in it. To feel more comfortable, invite a friend or two to accompany you. You may find something that strengthens your bond as friends, and helps the community!

Start small!

Starting out to volunteer is an awesome commitment, however, if you aren't sure where you want to volunteer, starting out only doing an hour or two a week may be best. You can start small to find out if you really enjoy it, and then continually add more hours so you feel more comfortable.

Find something interesting!

If you are nervous about choosing a location, think of things that are of interest to you. If you are taking a class about developmental disorders and enjoy learning about it, volunteering at the Special Olympics can be exciting and educational for you.

Use your talents!

One way to feel most comfortable volunteering is to volunteer with an organization that could use your personal expertise. Different organizations can use all types of volunteers to help out. From athletic to musical, your talents and hobbies can be of use!

Learn something new!

Have you ever wanted to try learning something new? Want a fun, inventive way to learn it? Volunteer somewhere that can teach you new and exciting things!

Develop leadership skills!

Volunteering in your community is a valuable trait that teaches many things. Learning something new is awesome, and developing the person you already are into a leader is another something else that volunteering can offer you!



Food & Nutrition Program Week 1

Yesterday we went to Windham Middle School to kick off our 4H Food and Nutrition Program. Since it was our first time we did some ice breaker games that most Eastern students dread doing but the kids absolutely LOVED! It was a lot of fun to see them excited about games like "Squirt", "Move Your Booty", and "Get on the Bus." The ice breakers helped ease away the shyness some kids had when they approached us.

Our first activity was called "Bean Buddy." Basically, we went over the basics of what plants need to grow: water, air, sunlight, and soil. We then constructed mini greenhouses which had all of these with plastic bags. This activity will be the catalyst for our program as next week we'll get to see how the plant started to germinate and have activities about seeds. The next weeks will be dedicated to soil, water, plants, climate, sun/photosynthesis, and nutrition!

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped out! Stay posted to hear about our adventures in the weeks to follow...

Under Awareness Panel & Collection!

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1st FJC Meeting Wrap Up

Meeting Notes

Thank you to those that attended the first Food Justice Committee meeting! We went over:

• - Why we’re here
• -   Goals of the committee
• -   How the committee will work
• -   4H After School Program

Some of the food justice interest of those who were able to attend were: GMOs, food politics, nutrition, the industry, appreciation of food, farming, hunger & access locally, volunteering, youth.

We’re going to have a discussion at our weekly meetings on these topics. We’ll all share in taking on a leading a discussion based on our interest where we can share what we have read/watched/heard and have a discussion as a group about the information and how we can address that particular in Willimantic. From that, we can plan our events. This is no pressure or formality required whatsoever!

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is Monday, January 30^th at 1pm again in the CCE. Becky is going to investigate information on the local status of the population and food security. We will discuss her findings next week. Feel free to search around too and if you find anything, bring it to next week’s meeting.

Whitney brought up some interesting ideas after the meeting in regards to food waste, dumpster diving, and Chartwells. We’ll get into that too!

4H After School Program

This Thursday we will be starting a Food & Nutrition After School Program at Windham Middle School. Thank you to those who expressed interest in helping with this initiative. We will be working with 11 middle schoolers on Thursdays from 4pm-5pm. We will plan and put on a basic curriculum on how plants grow (i.e. lessons on soil, sunlight, water, parts of a plant, etc) and healthy eating (i.e. “my plate”, reading food labels, etc). Starting in March, we will go to Sweeney Elementary School on Fridays and work with the Middle Schoolers to enable them to teach the younger kids the same lessons! Should be a lot of fun J If you would like to as volunteer as well, please let me know ASAP.

Resources

Courtesy of Dr. Curran:

http://farmlandgrab.org. Good source of international data and current research.

http://www.fao.org. The UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization. Excellent general and country-specific information and current research. Good for globalization data.

http://www.usda.gov. US Department of Agriculture.  Good source for food recalls (agency archives goes back to 1996), food research, rural community data, food security and nutrition data, info on WIC and child nutrition.

www.epa.gov. US Environmental Protection Agency. Info on environmental regulation of agricultural chemicals, on agriculture-related contamination, pesticides, climate change, and sustainability.

www.fda.gov. Food and Drug Administration. Good info on food safety and recalls, regulatory science, and globalization.

www.ufw.org. United Farm Workers site. Great data on US farm labor practices, current research, pesticide data, good video lab too.

www.un.org. The UN site where there’s additional data under the headings of development, human rights, and the World Food Programme.

www.worldbank.org. The World Bank site where you can search specific projects related to food production and get data on world hunger.

www.imf.org. International Monetary Fund. Another good source for country-specific data.

Books: Diet for a Dead Planet, Banana, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Compassionate Carnivore, and Fashionable Foodn Fast Food Nation, The Death of Ramon Garcia, Food Politics, What to Eat.

Have a great week and I hope to see you at our next meeting, Monday January  30^th at 1pm in the CCE!