3 Peaks 3 Weeks

I just read the story of how a woman was touched through personal experience of being in Africa and buying medicine for a sick child who couldn't afford medicine that was worth 77 cents. And now, she created this mountain climbing movement that raises money for poor people in Africa.

Read the story here and be inspired.

VolunteerMatch - Nonprofit Stories

Reaching up

I rock climbed yesterday, and challenged myself and took a leap and miraculously succeeded in catching the next rock. I didn't think it could happen until I took a chance and just did it. I had the rope on me so I was sure I would not die if I went for it. In relying on the rope I had, I was able to move up the rock wall and climb higher than I thought I could've. I was 100% percent sure I was not going to make the next rock and when I actually reached for it and touched it, I was completely shocked.

Working hard.

Why do you think it's people that work hard that succeed? Besides the obvious, it's because they are going farther, somewhere that many do not dare to. They reach for a spot that the weak cannot reach. It's not just about the confidence. The difference is that one only thinks about doing it while the strong don't think at all and they just do. That is the difference. And, maybe all I ever do is just think.. and never do.

Andrew's always telling me how it's wonderful that I think the way I do, but he's disappointed in the fact that that is all I do, however. It's just talking and thinking and reflecting...but then never taking action. I'm afraid of myself for the lack of action I have in myself. I have lots of ambition that dies down as it just simply passes through my head...

I will make a plan of steps right now for the music club.

Points I need to focus on for the club

Sessions and workshops offered on:

• Path to Change: Turning your Ideas in Action
• Measuring Your Impact
• Building a Website
• Branding and Marketing: How to find your voice and tell your story
• Individual Donors: How to pitch your program and manage donor relationships
• Online Communications
• Starting your Own Not-for-Profit 101
• Corporate Sponsors: How to pitch your program and manage donor relationships
• Public Relations: How to get press for your project
• Succession Planning: How to keep your project going without you
• Political Activism: How to get your local officials to listen
• Recruiting and Managing Volunteers
• Partnerships
• Visual Storytelling

and the following is the Action Training link http://www.dosomething.org/training/finances.


As I think more about the music club project, I think to myself how to find the best ideas to execute, and that is by creating a team who is interested in the idea and hold a meeting kind of like the MakeSense meetings. We go over every aspect and brainstorm ideas, writing them all down on a whiteboard, and then assign positions and responsibilities. If I make this a pretty official and well-organized plan, people will be willing to work together to get this to work.

The club description: Project One is to spread music education by connecting volunteer musicians (college or high school students) to underprivileged kids who wish to learn music, preferably kids from a schools that no longer has a music program. The idea is to provide kids who can't afford music lessons free music lessons from volunteer musicians. The volunteer musicians will be trained by a music teacher on how to teach (with funding or without). This program could work out as  an after school program or as a center. It will receive help through a partnership with music programs or schools that already exist in the area. Musical instruments and books will be provided through funding and donations. In starting the club for simplification purposes, the focus of lessons will be on the most popular instruments such as piano keyboard, guitar, and singing ,etc. For innovation purposes, the volunteers will also teach students how to use the internet and technology  to practice their music as well as continue their music lessons. How long a student gets to keep having lessons has not yet been decided, and many more points must be further evaluated.

My second project idea is here: The project idea number 2 will focus on E-waste. It will gather volunteers (college or high school students), especially those who have interest in the environment, to work to educate the city on the consequences of toxic waste. In addition to education, it will work toward influencing the government to create stricter regulation on the e-waste we can commit as well as fund more programs toward the education and the collecting of goods that can be recycled and reused elsewhere.

It will be called The Nola Deux Something Club

Music Club Approach

What should be my approach in creating my music club? Should I create a business model? Should I try to make it more sustainable by making it a social business instead of making a volunteer program?

If it were to make money, one way I can think of is using the same model as TOMs. So, for example, students can hire musicians for lessons but at the same time, some of the money would go toward music lessons for an underprivileged kid at the same time.

I can also find inspirationg for Sir Ken Robinson so I don't want to forget that but I want to focus on what already exists first, although I had previously done some research but I must continue on that. I guess that would be the marketing section of the business plan. First I must see if there is an opportunity ( idea + need).

I just read of another organization called Roots of Music that provides so many resources to help underprivileged kids learn music. Here is a description " Roots of Music is a year-round, free music education and academic mentoring program for at-risk youth aged 9-14. It provides training in both hard skills, such as music instrument proficiency, as well as soft skills, such as self- discipline and responsibility. It also serves as a prevention program, deterring participants from violence, truancy, and school failure. Students receive free transportation, hot meals, mentoring, uniforms and instruments. The program has a waiting list of over 400 students. Transportation is the organization’s biggest cost; participants attend 40 schools and are picked up at 25 locations across the area before being safely delivered at home in the evening. This grant will support transportation costs for students. "


I realize that even if something like this already exists, it's okay to create another one, because there is after all a waiting list of 400 students and it doesn't matter if there is "competition" as it's not competing for money but rather another program to serve more people out there who need it. However, I will try to see if I can create a type of network just like in my haptic headband project where it worked with blind institutes and at the same time co-existed with other substitutes and competitors.


Roots of Music actually acts as a music education for a school and is mandatory for schools. It is a marching band made up of 100 students. The program provides music education in history, theory, instrumental instruction and ensemble performance. Furthermore, academic tutoring is offered to ensure the students maintain at least a 2.5 GPA in school.


One volunteer musician to only student is too little. It should be even more. It should about 3 to 1 perhaps. And I should also gain experience first before beginning this program by teaching some students myself. I should give piano lessons at my house at Alice Harte. But, at the same time there are a lot of problems with this idea because I probably can't bring a kid to my house without any information about myself. But at the same time, there are many people who just teach kids music by paying them by the hour without many documents. I wonder if I could just do that. I got to find out about this. O gosh, this is becoming more and more complicated as I go more and more in depth into this. 


This is the site where I found these types of organizations : http://www.emergingphilanthropists.org/grants/2010-recipients/.

Question

My question is why is Loyola's School of business not so orientated toward social business? How come we do not have a program toward social business or even a class? I don't understand because I know that in my first business class ever at Loyola, Dr. Reed compared the business school of Tulane's mission statement to that of Loyola's. The difference between ours is that at Loyola, we aim to be socially responsible. However, I don't feel like that's what any of my business professors tried to teach me. In addition, it is at Tulane that they have classes and programs that teach and initiate social business.

I've made a realization today

My dad works so hard to make my life so easy as well as my mom, but in a different way. My life is different from  those of almost everyone I know. I may not be completely spoiled but I have it really easy when it comes to money. My dad makes all the money in the house and somehow, we can all live so well. I'm never worried about money except when I spend a lot and that's only because I'm so traditionally Chinese. I started to see how little I actually have to worry about money because my dad works so goddamn hard everyday to make our lives so easy and wonderful. My mom at the same time is always working to make our lives comfortable. She cleans my room and does my laundry so that I can focus on my school work and see my friends. I'm so incredibly fortunate that for a while I had no idea what I could do to repay my parents. I was often feeling the pressure that I must make a lot of money in order to make it up to my parents as well as make a lot of money just for my family and I so that they will be proud of me for being so successful. But as I start to realize what my dream and passions are more and more, I had an epiphany today that the truest way to not take my parents for granted, to give back in return for everything they've ever done for me in their lives is to use everything I've got in me and follow my true passion to make the lives of others better. To help the less fortunate to make them as fortunate as me. To learn from what my mother and father have done for me and do the same for them. To not just pass on my wonderful life to others but to share it.

Research for Music Education in Nola

Reading this post of a Gentilly school, it truly is effective for students doing badly in school to try harder and make better grades when they start to dedicate themselves more to music. This article is leading me to the idea of also adding choirs to the schools as that they can benefit a larger number of people at the same time, and choirs are fun to be in. There's this emotional wave you get going through you when you are singing with a bunch of others like you, a kind of spiritual feeling.

Some similar organizations like the one I want to create are MusicianCorps, which pays for musicians to come teach at a more underprivileged school. They are currently at 5 schools in New Orleans, but the difference between my idea and their organization is that I want to get volunteer musicians who are in college to do this for free or at least volunteer hours, so that it's a program that doesn't require funding to pay for the musicians but perhaps for the instruments and for the places (however, I hope I can find free spaces for the teaching).

I'm reading about Musiciancorps in which they allow volunteers to teach children how to play music and music appreciation but in San Francisco and Oakland. Perhaps I could request them to open it in New Orleans as there are many musicians here as well. I see that it's a lot of work to get volunteers to teach music as background checks need to be done! That's a lot of work, which I need to learn more about.

As Sir Ken Robinson had said, the arts should be brought to equal importance to other disciplines. I think that's quite a huge step so I'd rather focus on making it only important enough to schools so that any student in the United States can have access to music education without the hindrance of money.

"  MusicianCorps was the brainchild of Kiff Gallagher,  a singer and songwriter who conceived the idea of a "musical Peace Corps" that would "bring music into public schools and other under-resourced community settings."

      "I know that music is a more powerful force in society than entertainment alone, " said Gallagher,  40,  who was in town recently to promote the program.

      His vision is to use music to teach "21st century skills like perseverance,  discipline and collaboration, " essential elements on the bandstand and beyond,  he said.

      "These are the skills of the musician, " Gallagher said. "They are also the skills you need whether you want to be an engineer,  an architect or an artist."

In addition, I just read about Baykids that creates and produces movies with hospitalized children. That is such an interesting initiative to bring passion to people who need it most. Nothing is more depressing than boredom and lack of ambition and dreams.

I found this blog called http://www.serviceartist.net/ Service Artist. net. Within the site, I found an article of information that does support that music does better not only the education of a child but his or her life.

Music Club in Nola

Now having organized Carrotmob, I'm motivated and feel confident enough to try to work on another project. 

I plan on creating a kind of Music club in New Orleans which would work to connect volunteer musicians to underprivileged kids so that they can learn to play music for free. It would keep kids out of trouble and in school as it found to help give kids a passion as well as something to do rather than doing possibly destructive things. I'm really excited about this so I hope it works out. Rather, I'm quite confident this time as it is something good.

I need to follow the same kind of organization as I had done for Carrotmob. Such as the same kind of marketing to get students to want to volunteer as well but also to get students from schools to sign up. Another thing are instruments. We may require some donations or just the instruments from schools.

I think more than classic piano and guitar should be taught such as singing and even rap. So, I need the connections to those people are talented in those areas as well. So here is a list:

• harmonica
• piano
• guitar
• singing classical, rap, rock, folk

(I'm wondering if I should focus on popular music first and then move on to more classical instruments.)

I should create a sign up linked the instrument and time slots. This is kind of like the Public School.org.

So now to answer the questionnaire on the site:

• We are focusing on music education. 

Club members will be young musicians (even high school students). First I will reach for people within my network and let it spread from there. Afterward, I will start trying to post flyers up or ask music teachers for volunteers. 

I need to think of the officers but that will be after I figure out the whole organization of the club such as the marketing section, finance, volunteer manager, public relations, and communications.

I am told to give younger members leadership roles by dosomething which is good advice as I would need people to take over afterward. Probably the juniors in college as of right now or anyone who is a musician who is younger.

I could try to get this a Loyola program so that it becomes even bigger. It could become a Loyola music program, but I have the feeling that if it's associated with a school, it takes out the fun in the program, so perhaps that would be a stage that I will look into later.

I'm not sure if the club needs an adult advisor, but I were to look for one, it would have to be a music teacher.

A really good idea would be to make a big recruiting push at the beginning of each semester and at the end of each sports season when people will be looking for new things to get involved in.

The question is should I try to invite people on facebook who may be interested to volunteering as a music teacher to a First Big Meeting so that everyone can throw out ideas and brainstorm and at the same time see if they really want to join. Perhaps in one week from now, I could do that. I should create an informational email and a site. In this case, perhaps I do need a professor to back me up.

Things I'm going to have think about are:

• Club name: maybe The Nola Music Do Something Club
• Place to hold meetings: Audubon Park, Coffeeshop, LBC
• How often to hold meetings:
• When is the first meeting?
• Project idea and plan of action 1 + 2:
• Members' emails and leadership titles
• Official Club photo and video

Next thing I'm going to worry about after recruiting people is finding a space for people to teach music. I need to create a facebook page for this.

• 
  

Carrotmob!!!

Finally Carrotmob Paris was a success!!! Here is the letter we sent to all those who came to the event or at least those who had wrote Attend on the Facebook page!


"
Bonjour à tous!!

Le carrotmob a été un succès! Nous avons réussi a multiplier le chiffre d'aiffaire du bar par 5,5 ! Les revenus supplémentaires générés par le bar seront utilisés à des fins environnementales :
• Ajout de produits "Commerce Equitable" à la carte du bar
• Renouvellement des lumières du bar avec des ampoules écologiques.

Patientez pour les changements du bar dans environ 3 semaines! Merci de votre présence encore!!!

Cela n'aurait pas été possible sans vous!!!!

-Carrotmob Paris   "


Thanks for those who attended and made this such a successful Carrotmob Event! We will update you guys on the environmental adjustments in about 3 weeks!

Recycle

Next step, elevator pitch.

In order to get anyone to believe in you right away, you must convince them with a purposeful and concise portfolio with legitimate information. I scheduled myself to visit the owner of the bar on Rue Quincompoix, but first I will make a proposal and then prepare an elevator pitch that I learned to do in my Entrepreneurship course.

In an elevator pitch, you must convince someone within one minute to believe in your proposal. I just wrote my elevator pitch, first by writing about myself in order to get a job offer. No matter how awesome whatever you're trying to sell is (in this case you), you can only convince someone to give you a chance by rocking an awesome elevator pitch. First of all, it shows that you've got guts and determination. That's already one big step. Then with the content and persuasiveness of your pitch, you can possibly draw in the person you're talking to (such as a director at a company).

It's about the way you present it.

Don't forget the elevator pitch. I will use that to my advantage when we go talk to businesses about participating in the Carrotmob event. I should also give them ideas that are quite easy to do that will help the environment or promote social awareness and also more difficult ones which I think is not quite as necessary. 

I havent been working. typical.

So, I'm at Centre Pompidou and I didnt spend the whole day here like i was supposed to! I have many things to work on as always. Okay let me work on the businesses I will choose in order to have this Carrotmob! !!! Perhaps I can ask Professeur Philipps advice on which shops to choose!!!!

I need to get back on track really badly.

Yes, I lost track again. It's a terrible thing. Okay; to get back on track, here are my plans for today:
After Operations Management, I will return home and bring my laptop to Centre Pompidou.

There, I will work on Carrotmob such as starting my new Carrotmob blog and then send the link to Alice. Also I will draft the letter to send to businesses as well as ask Alice if she would like to join me. Okay that is my next step.

Enjoy the moment. this moment.

It seems that I can never just appreciate the exact moment that i'm living in. I always want what i don't have and once I have it, i want something else. That makes it so hard for me to ever be happy or satisfied. I want to be more like my Japanese friends who are always appreciative of every little thing. I aspire to be more like them. Therefore, I decide to always say thanks under my breathe for every lttle thing in my life. To check my progress, I'll write everyday what i was thankful for in my little diary.

awwwww. i realized i probably missed lots of cool stuff yesterday!

Last Sunday, I had gone to République and there was such an awesome band of drummers drumming away!!! It was soooo damn cool. But I only stayed à bit since I wanted to go to one if the most wonderful places in the world...canal saint Martin! !!!

O gosh. Lazy Sundays really are lazy Sundays.

It's already 4h30!! Gosh! I haven't done a thing today. I guess it's time to start working. What have I been doing for the past 3-4 hours?!

So, it doesn't seem that Carrotmob looks so good in Paris, but I must not get discouraged. I need to find a way to get French people to do something they don't usually do like support causes for a sustainable future! Perhaps, I should conduct a survey to see what could get them to be interested, as well as people who are quite experienced.

My first step will be something quite simple such as contacting the HQ of Carrotmob. Then I think I will figure out who else would want to work for Carrotmob. Maybe, I can try to recruit them by sending mail. I have to make it as attractive as possible.

My approach: Perhaps it's better if I focus on other types of businesses that should fix themselves? Such as universities but I can't see what could help them.

I want to think like a person who takes risks...kind of like a person you would say, "I can't believe he did that, but he did and he succeeded." but for a girl, of course. It just sounds more familiar if I write he. That kind of person would...JUST DO THIS DAMN CARROTMOB!!! Stop overthinking, alice!

Do you remember that line from I, Robot, "Ask the right question." I really want to get advice from others but I really must ask the right questions.

I just watched the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXfnJa0Ui3k which is the Carrotmob done in Madison! It is so awesome. I'm so inspired now. I must do this right!

It is Sunday and there's no Sun!

I'm still in bed and it's hard for me to want to go bak to my reality of doing things! I must go bak to work. Alright, I'll get out of bed. I need to see if anyone else is interested in doing Carrotmob!

Delegating the responsibilities.

This part is a bit tough because I'm supposed to choose different people to play certain roles on the team. The difficult part about this is who to choose and for what role. \

The different roles include:
1. Leadership/organizer-I hope I can fulfill this role usefully and I really like getting people to work together
2. Business Interaction- I think a French person would be the best for this
3. Logistics-I think this role is pretty challenging...maybe I can ask someone I don't know to do this
4. Managing Volunteers and Carrotmob supporters- I'm fearful that Paris doesn't have enough supporters but I must stay positive! I don't know who could do this however
5. Marketing Publicity- this is hard work, but preferably a French person or someone good at French will do this. I think I want to ask Mitchy and Lisa too if they want to do it

Ok, I need to propose this to the others now.

Ok, I'm doing.

I'm starting on my CarrotMob Campaign and I'm uber nervous! What if I do it all wrong? What if it fails and it's all my fault? I need to stop thinking this way because it will prevent me from doing anything. That's why I need to write here to remind myself that I don't need to be scared! It's amazing how our consciousness is so far off from our subconscious or at least how we are truly feeling!

so,
 FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

There's nothing to be afraid of except fear itself....that means not going through with this!

I'm on my first step... Applying to start a campaign! It's nerve-wracking. There are so many choices of what kinds of issues to tackle including what types of businesses. I'm going to try to keep this as simple as possible so that it can at least be done right. I mean, it's my first time, and also the first time in Paris.

So, my the people I know are very encouraging and keep me from falling apart! Alors, I must realize my network of people in Paris. These are who they are:

My Professors---Prof. Philipp, Waller
My classmates---Entrepreneurship Team, Operations Management Team, Erasmus
French people---Andrew's friends, Andrew's mom's friends, Jessy's friends, Charlotte's friends, Anais's friends, Thomas' friends, Delia's friends, Marine's friends, Creativity and the Mind guy, Clement

I think that's pretty good right there.

Now, I have to choose my description. I will look to already-done campaigns for inspiration! OK, seriously for it be as simple as possible, let me just think of the bar Charles works at and just for comparison, the bubble tea place on Rue Quincampoix. Just for simplicity and a hypothetical scenerio, I send to all the bars and restaurants an invitation to do the event and how much they plan to spend with their revenue. Does that I mean I should suggest what they should do first? What should a bar change? Let me look at past campaigns.

I've an idea now. So, for bars to be more sustainable---> I would hope they stop making so much glass waste. Rather, recycle the glass bottles. I think I need to find out more information on what bars use. Here's my list:
 (I can use this as a resource too http://cocktails.about.com/od/stockyourbar/tp/ecofriendly_bar.htm)
Adapt environmentally friendly practices:
1. To deal with waste-recycle and compost
2. Recycling: Beer bottles--See all the beer bottles that are thrown away everyday (in New Orleans, plastic cups are used, but in Paris, glasses are used for tap beer)
3. Water bottles-end the use of them!
4. Conserve water-when washing
5. Ice-conserving the ice left over from the end of the day
6. Ingredients- going to the Farmer's Market, using fair trade products
7. Cleaning supplies- using environmentally-friendly products

Which works the best?
Movement toward Earth-saving practices
Movement toward greener practices
Saving the earth one bar at a time

So, I'm going to post this:

The goal of this campaign is to get a Parisian bar to adapt environmentally-friendly practices into its bar culture. In turn, hopefully, this would influence other bars to do so as well as its customers. 

Some environmentally friendly practices to adopt are:

1. To deal with waste-recycle and compost

2. Recycling: Beer bottles--See all the beer bottles that are thrown away everyday (in New Orleans, plastic cups are used, but in Paris, glasses are used for tap beer), cans----actually, in france i think you can't recycle these...

3. Water bottles-end the use of them!

4. Conserve water-when washing

5. Ice-conserving the ice left over from the end of the day

6. Ingredients- going to the Farmer's Market, using fair trade products

7. Cleaning supplies- using environmentally-friendly products

8. Selling Fair trade products/ more green options on the menu

Please do not hesitate to suggest more ideas. 

Now, that I have this down, I need to translate this into French! It's going to take a while so let me try to do it right now...

Wow, finally did it!!! Took so long. Afterwards, I need Andrew to correct it. hehe

Cette campagne à pour but de adopter des pratiques environnementales dans les bars parisiens en commençant par un bar. Ensuite, avec l’espoir, cet événement influencerait les autres à y faire et les clients aussi.

Des pratiques environnementales de adopter  sont :

1.     Transformer ses déchets –faire composte et recycler

2.     Recycler –des bouteilles des bières, des cannettes

3.     Fini les bouteilles d’eau

4.     Conservation de l’eau

5.     Conservation des glaçons- ils restent beaucoup à la fin de la journée

6.     Les Ingrédients- choisir les marchés locales et des produits équitables

7.     Equipement des nettoyages- choisir ceux-là qui sont bons pour l’environnement

8.     Ajouter les choix équitables et bios dans le menu

N’hésitez pas à me suggérer des idées ! 

I also need to find water bottle alternatives...Maybe I can base a carrotmob off of this.

Fair trade information can be found here http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/products/retail_products/product_browse.aspx?comps=BEER+%26+ALE


So, here's the page, although it's not quite finished yet. http://asnieres-sur-se.carrotmob.org/campaigns/operation_green_up

I lost it already today.

It's à same really. I was so excited to get out of class so I walked to my friend's house that was 2 minutes away. And I watched à movie and slept too for two hours and didn't complete à single thing today! How shameful! I didnt even pay attention in class. I think that's the worst part. Then my friend forced me to sit up straight, close my eyes, and breathe. I haven't meditated in quite some time so it was pretty nice. Tons of thoughts ran through my head as I meditated. I was wondering how come i feel like i have absolutely nothing to do when in fact I have so much to do! and I realised it's because I'm losing my courage and becoming scared again. I need to make my contacts foetus Carrotmob tonight!!

A new ambition brings a new blog.

My new plan as a student is to go the Extra Mile, which is something I have never done. I had to use the word extra because it was my professor who reminded me that the difference between extraordinary and ordinary is the word "extra". I've never really did the extra stuff like extracurricular in high school except Cross Country and Track. (Ooh! Ironic!) I've always wanted to but never did. And that's why, I've finally made the decision to do, rather than just keep all these ideas in my head without ever executing. This blog is about me doing!


So, it's too late to start doing things now even though I'm almost done with my college education (gasp!). I'm going to take small steps to help the world, and the point of this blog really is to reach out to those who are like me who want to do something as well but haven't found the courage yet, like me. Therefore, I hope that I can gain the courage to take steps in doing what I can to help. I'm very vague here but basically I plan to blog about things I learn every day and hopefully things that I do. Well, why in the world would my blog be worth reading? Possibly because everyone in this world lives a different life and experience such different things followed by their own unique perceptions. I want to share mine so that people can take advantage (in French, the verb is profiter) of this and hopefully find motivation and courage here.

I'm Learning

It's all a learning process. That's what I keep hearing, and that is extremely true. I never ever know enough.

KNOWLEDGE----->INNOVATION

Much knowledge about social innovation must be learned before I can even think about founding an organization or creating one that can make an impact. I must learn more.

As my creativity of the mind professor has said, it requires at least 10 years before someone can discover something innovative.