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.