Education - Asha Hope Amanaki

Volunteering as a Social Media Coordinator for AHA

ashahopeamanaki — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 13:09:24 +0000

De’Johne Jones is a volunteer with Asha Hope Amanaki and has been a social media coordinator with the organization for almost a year. She started volunteering with the organization and over time connected with the team and played a pivotal role in managing social media handles of Asha Hope Amanaki.

She is a Sophomore in Psychology and Biology at Jackson State University in Jackson Mississippi with a Major in Pre-Medicine. You can also connect with De’Johne on Instagram and LinkedIn

Hi De’Johne, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

My name is De’Johnes Jones and I am from New Orleans Los Angles California. I am currently completing my degree at Jackson State University in Sophomore Psychology and Biology with a Major in Pre-Medicine.

My hobbies include graphic design, reading, video gaming, and creative writing.

Are you a student volunteer or a corporate volunteer or a community volunteer?

I am a student volunteer with Asha Hope Amanaki.

Could you describe your volunteer role at Asha Hope Amanaki?

My role at AHA was Social Media Coordinator, and I volunteered with AHA for almost a year.

How did you find out about the Volunteer Opportunity?

I found it through our JSU Community Service Portal – GivePulse when I was looking for service opportunities

How was your experience working with Asha Hope Amanaki and the volunteer opportunity in general?

My experience was amazing! I got extremely close with the team I worked with, so everything always ran smoothly!

Did volunteering on community projects help you in your job or career?

Due to the vast accumulation of hours I received at AHA, along with other various community service opportunities, I was able to receive over 200 community service hours, which will assist me in a multitude of disciplines. I also fostered valuable skills, such as social media literacy, graphic design, leadership and communication, etc.

Since you are virtual volunteer, what are your thoughts on Virtual vs InPerson opportunity?

The online format changed my volunteer experience because I was essentially working from home; I was able to provide meaningful impacts on the community without sacrificing my own comfort, and it also allowed me to do service on my own time.

The post Volunteering as a Social Media Coordinator for AHA first appeared on Asha Hope Amanaki.

Volunteering as a Social Media Manager for AHA

ashahopeamanaki — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 07:51:55 +0000

Brendon Bradford is a volunteer with Asha Hope Amanaki and has been a social media volunteer with the organization since January 2023. He has started from simple things such as posting on our social media channels to creating the posts from scratch now. He is also our longest standing social media manager.

He is currently completing his degree at Jackson State University in Jackson Mississippi with a Major in Computer Science . You can also connect with Brendon on Instagram and LinkedIn

Hi Brendon, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

My name is Brendon Bradford and I am from Chicago Illinois. I am currently completing my degree at Jackson State University in Jackson Mississippi and after completing the final year, plan to move back to Chicago.

I used to play baseball so I like playing baseball in my free time. My favorite food would be chicken tenders. One of the things I like about Chicago are the summers! It is an excellent time to be there. I support the Chicago Cubs and catching game during summers is always there in the list.

Are you a student volunteer or a corporate volunteer or a community volunteer?

I am a student volunteer with Asha Hope Amanaki.

Could you describe your volunteer role at Asha Hope Amanaki?

As a social media manager, my primary role was to post regularly on the Social Media Channels such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. I post regularly on Turesday and I have been with the team since January 2023.

How did you find out about the Volunteer Opportunity?

I found it through our JSU Community Service Portal – GivePulse and I liked this opportunity as I thought I could use my skills to help the organization grow.

How was your experience working with Asha Hope Amanaki and the volunteer opportunity in general?

My experience has been great, thanks to social media coordinator Juanita, who had been initially helping us with the captions and now we are doing our own captions too. We get to choose the day to post, one that works for us. We are not forced to post on that day only as things can change during the week.

Did volunteering on community projects help you in your job or career?

It has not yet helped me directly yet, but I expect it to help me in the future as I have gained a lot of experience in Graphic Design and it might help me get an opportunity at another company doing the same work.

Since you are virtual volunteer, what are your thoughts on Virtual vs InPerson opportunity?

Definitely I would love to work online than in person. This summer I completed a virtual internship and it added a lot of flexibility giving me the opportunity to move around, not stuck in one place, deciding my schedules etc. The biggest con is getting distracted as you can easily get comfortable.

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Volunteering with Asha Hope Amanaki: Nurturing Growth and Building Skills

ashahopeamanaki — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 19:34:35 +0000

Juanita Wei, has been a long term volunteer with Asha Hope Amanaki and is probably the first International Volunteer who has stayed with us for more than 6 months and started with a small role of making origami for International Day of Elders and made it all the way to Social Media Manger for Asha Hope Amanaki, handling a team of 3 other volunteers managing Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn for Asha Hope Amanaki.

Alongside her pursuit of a Bachelor’s in of Arts in Sociology, Juanita can be reached out through here social media profiles on Facebook ,Instagram and LinkedIn, welcoming opportunities for further community giving.

Hi Juanita, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers(your town, your hobbies etc)?

My name is Juanita Wei. I was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia and have not lived anywhere else my whole life.

My hobbies include art and writing, and I am particularly keen about media analysis; I also occasionally like to cafe-hop with my friends! I’ve also really liked animals since I was little, and since I never got the chance to have my own pet when I was little, I try to revitalize those childhood dreams today by volunteering for animal shelters; currently I’m a pen cleaner for Vancouver Rabbit Rescue and Advocacy.

There is so much nature in Vancouver and BC in general! If you take the time to venture out of the urban areas and explore Interior BC, you’ll see just how much forests and farmland we are surrounded by, and just how vast these lands stretch. Although it’s quite a disheartening time of year right now since there have been wildfires occurring not just here on the west coast but also in the east coast, I am reminded yet again of how much we must protect and cherish all this beautiful nature around us, especially in regards to mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Could you describe your volunteer role at Asha Hope Amanaki?

I initially started as an off-site volunteer who helped fold around 50 to 60 origami (folded paper-craft) cranes during the summer months for Asha Hope Amanaki as part of their International Day of Older People’s Day Project to gift thank you cards and personable gifts to those in senior homes, and felt like my involved with AHA was way too short-lived, so I decided to help out as a social media manager right after throughout the fall. This includes making videos, making graphics for posts, writing captions, holding volunteer interviews, communicating with others to get the photos and videos we need, and other miscellaneous tasks that help develop and advance our organization’s online presence and operations.

Right now, I have shifted into being a Social Media Coordinator and Marketing Coordinator, helping onboard, train, manage our team of Social Media Managers, in general making sure the whole department is running smoothly as possible. I’ve been here for about 9 or 10 months (since July or August 2022), and have really enjoyed my time here!

How did you find out about the Volunteer Opportunity?

I found the role through VolunteerMatch and took up the role because it was remote and lined up with my interests! What made it stand out from the other roles was its focus on folding origami, something I haven’t done since I was in elementary school, so I had a lot of fun reliving some fond childhood memories through this first experience.

How was your experience working with Asha Hope Amanaki and the volunteer opportunity in general?

I took some time to settle into the role, and at first seriously doubted myself; however, I’ve learned that this kind of apprehension during the start is really quite normal and part of the process of adjusting to a new pursuit–it’s uncomfortable, sure, but it’s a sign you’re learning and developing as a person!
It reminds me a little bit of my first days starting university, and I was quite uptight about following instructions as well as possible, not messing up, putting up a good first impression, both very nerve-wracking experiences. With time, of course, I learned to loosen up and believe in my own abilities, which helped me not be scared and pursue tasks outside of what my position may entail. For example, I made a volunteer orientation document to make the onboarding process more smooth for new volunteers, and that experience allowed me to break down and reconsider my own writing process, as I had to imagine myself as someone who had never used social media or any graphic design tools before, despite my familiarity with these topics.
I also took up video shooting and editing for the first time, and found this an extremely fun process! It’s very tedious to edit a video, and sometimes it feels like one big balancing act where one incorrect click could send the whole video into a new direction, and then I would have to start over, but seeing the finished result makes it all worth it! I’m glad Asha Hope Amanaki allowed me to try on several different hats and broaden my horizons on
a) what helping the community may include and
b) how much hard and soft skills I need to develop to succeed in my role.
Even if I made mistakes, they became learning experiences that I carried into my future actions, and I think that’s fundamental to both my professional and personal growth

Did volunteering on community projects help you in your job or career?

Yes, definitely! I’m hoping to go into digital marketing and communications in the future, and the skills I’ve learned during my time here were a big contributor to that. I also feel like the administrative skills I developed through navigating our content calendar and files also allowed me to expand my hard skills in that area.

What motivated you to volunteer?

I’ve always been interested and fascinated by graphic design skills and thought this would’ve been a great opportunity to sharpen and utilize my skills. Though I did not have much experience with digital marketing prior to this, I have always found myself being gravitated to roles where I could provide more “background”-oriented, foundational, support, and found great satisfaction and joy in being able to let other people’s journeys shine through these efforts. If I had to describe myself, I would also say I’m more of an introvert rather than an extrovert, even though I really like talking to people and learning about their life stories and motivations in life, I like to stray away from spotlight, which is why I think community work really suits my own disposition and personality. Of course, I’m really big on helping people and providing them the support they need to better their lives, and through my volunteer work with AHA, both in regards to our internal and external operations, I really feel like I’m doing that!

How did online format change your volunteer experience?

Since I was doing my school work and interacting with my friends and family mostly or entirely online when I joined Asha Hope Amanaki, it did not feel that different from my daily life at the time, and I didn’t really discern anything significant. However, when schools, organizations, restaurants, parks, etc., started re-opening, health orders started to relax, and we returned back to our “everyday” lives so-to-speak in interacting with others face-to-face, I felt the differences between in-person and virtual interactions more strongly. Because we rarely have as much social info in an online format, such as a person’s expression or their tone or voice (unless you set up a video call), that would help us discern their emotions or attitude, I made sure the way I used my language and addressed people clearly expressed my intents and emotions as best I can my using emojis and punctuation when applicable. I find that I also put more effort into maintaining an active line of communication, something I could do in-person by nodding my head or using a gesture. In this way, it sometimes feels more tiring and tedious to interact like this, but I think it’s a good habit to develop as it tells the other person you’re an active listener.

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Serve the Community as a Student Volunteer

ashahopeamanaki — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 19:22:56 +0000

Nhi Tran is a volunteer with Asha Hope Amanaki and is the only volunteer who has been a part of every single project we had done. She has delivered food to Community Fridges in PDX through our cook and serve program, made and delivered origami to elders on International Day of Elders and of course made cards for Operation HOPE.

In 2022 she completed her Bachelors of Science in Psychology at Portland State University and has been accepted for her Doctorate program for Physical Therapist in Columbus, Ohio. You can also connect with Nhi on Instagram and LinkedIn

Hi Nhi, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

My name is Nhi Tran. I am currently living in Hillsboro, Oregon. I am from San Jose, California. I moved here about 5 years ago. I have been living in Hillsboro ever since. I’ve been going to the gym a lot recently, now that everything is mostly open post COVID. I like to explore foods, so every chance I get I’ll probably go out to the city and maybe try like different foods, or if people have recommendations, then I will do that. I like to try variety of cuisines.

Are you a student volunteer or a corporate volunteer or a community volunteer?

I graduated last with with my Bachelors of Science in Psychology. I will be starting my Doctorate of physical therapist in August from Columbus Ohio. So currently I am just enjoying the summer before school begins.

Could you describe your volunteer role at Asha Hope Amanaki?

I think it has been a little bit over a year since I have been with Asha Hope Amanaki. I have had a few roles. I have done some video editing where I made a video of origamis that I have collected or some of the deliveries I had made to the community fridges in the region. I also made some origami and dropped off at the elderly care facility. So I feel like I have had a couple of hats as a community volunteer.

How did you find out about the Volunteer Opportunity?

For my senior capstone at Portland State University we were tasked to be more involved in our community. So for my project we did volunteer work and I actually found Asha Hope Amanaki through a school website called GivePulse. I reached out to the contact on the position listed and Ashwin just messaged me within hours. That was my beginning at Asha Hope Amanaki.

How was your experience working with Asha Hope Amanaki and the volunteer opportunity in general?

Initially, it was a lot at once because there were just so many projects going on. Once I kind of understood the idea and the visions of it, it became fun. I think because there is so much to do you don’t really find yourself bored or feeling repetitive. You can branch and do something new every time.

Did volunteering on community projects help you in your job or career?

I will say it did. Part of the interviewing and I guess the process of getting into my program was to have some sort of volunteer work in a field that matters to you. So when I doing my graduate school paperwork and all of the admission process, I was able to talk about my volunteering experience and kind of relate that into my field and show them a little bit about me and what i am interested in and what I want to be doing for the community. So it definitely helped. Especially I think in the health field it is really important to see where everyone is in life and kind of really ground yourself and put yourself in different perspectives.

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Learning STEM through programming

ashahopeamanaki — Thu, 27 Apr 2023 09:41:32 +0000

Drew is a volunteer mentor for Jaden Staten with Asha Hope Amanaki and has mentored a Compute Science at Jackson State University student to develop an automated tool post blogs from Google Sheet. The entire project was developed using Python and Selenium. Drew works as a MET at Intel Hillsboro. Here is a snipped of Drew’s volunteer experience with Asha Hope Amanaki as a part of our STEM Education blog series. You can also connect with Drew on LinkedIn.

Hi Drew, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

My name is Drew Aho. I am a Manufacturing Equipment Technician at Intel, Hillsboro, Oregon. I have been there for about a yaer now, but I have been programming various languages since I was thirteen, so I over a decade-plus of experience in programming.

How did you come to know about the STEM volunteer opportunity?

Intel uses a tool called Benevity, which is a volunteer opportunity posting board. If people have a volunteer opportunity they will post on it and those who are interested within Intel will apply for it. This opportunity fit well with my background in programming and hence I applied for it.

Could you describe your volunteer role at Asha Hope Amanaki?

Asha Hope Amanaki wanted an automated tool that could post blogs for them automatically through a form filled by volunteers. The tool was being developed by Jaden Staten and my responsibility was to provide feedback when the need arose or if he got stuck and provide pointers for improvement. He know what he was doing so it was easy to mentor him on the project.

What was the project that the two of you working on?

Asha Hope Amanaki wanted an automated tool that could post blogs for them automatically . This community project thus involved scarping Google Sheet that contained responses of volunteers to Google Forms sent to them. Using that data we had to create a WordPress post ensuring it is formatted properly ready to be published by the admin. The trickiest part was to ensure the data gets properly formatted to ensure the blog looks nice.

How was your experience working with Asha Hope Amanaki and the volunteer opportunity in general?

This was my first volunteer opportunity, so I had not come with a lot of expectations, however, overall it was positive and pleasant to be able to come in and help resolve issues. There was a new library called Selenium that I have never worked with. It is used to interact with web browser just like a human would to automate tasks. The documentation was good, so it was easy to learn it.

Although you were a STEM Mentor, did you get to learn anything from this experience?

Most certainly Communication! Due to the virtual nature of the opportunity there were challenges discussing issues on the digital screen. I had to be more communicative to ensure i was able to convey my message to Jaden in a way that made sense.

Did volunteering on a STEM project help you in your job or career?

Unfortunately, for my current role, there is no prerequisite for programming whatsoever. Programming right now is more like a hobby. in that sense it did help me think out loud and to solve problems

Why should professionals like you spend their time volunteering on STEM projects?

One thing, its always nice to give back to people especially if it involves something that you are good at. For me at least – I derive a lot from that — plus keeps me sharp

Do you believe you had an impact on the mentee?

When you are working in the real world, you are always going to be working with people and I guess this was good a test as any to work towards a common goal. So in terms of working together I absolutely thing it would have prepared them for a programming job. If we were to work on another project, I definitely see a lot of opportunity for the relationship to grow stronger. Mentorship is a huge part of youth development

How do you think these mentoring opportunities compare to the resources you had when you learned STEM Programming?

When I was in school, I had no mentorship whatsoever. We had to learn from Google. I would have cherished to have a mentorship if I could go back in time.

Finally, what’s next with Asha Hope Amanaki?

Well because of positive experience I had mentoring Jaden, I am going to mentor another student on yet another tool for a college graduate. The new project is more challenging and in a programming language that I have never used before. So I looking forward to working on it!

The post Learning STEM through programming first appeared on Asha Hope Amanaki.

Volunteer Experience with Asha Hope Amanaki – Johanna Weiss

ashahopeamanaki — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:43:16 +0000

Johanna was a volunteer software developer (GitHub Repo) with Asha Hope Amanaki and helped us develop a tool to execute our flagship project Operation HOPE. The entire project management tool was was developed using Google Apps Script. Here is the first half of Johanna’s volunteer experience with Asha Hope Amanaki as a part of our Volunteer Spotlight Series. You can also connect with Johanna on LinkedIn.

Hi Johanna, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

My name is Johanna Weiss. I’m from Germany. I am studying data science which is why I starting volunteering with Asha Hope Amanaki. I was doing my degree and I wanted to get some hands-on experience next in my studies. So I was looking for a project that is interesting and where I would learn at the same time.

Are there any interests that you would like to share?

So, I like drawing a lot. I like going outside and enjoying and just listening to some music and sketching a little bit. I enjoy that a lot. But I’m also a very social person, I like hanging out with friends and talking and I read a lot as well. I also like to read books with friends and talk about it and other things like that

Since you like reading a lot, what is your favorite genre?

I read a lot of nonfiction. At the moment, I’m actually reading a book about data analytics. Its not very technical or complicated but rather about applications of Data Science in society and that is very interesting to me.

Moving gears a little bit, can you talk about your current job or profession?

I am just doing my Master’s. I completed all my courses and just did an internship at a Data Science start-up. So I was working there for the last 8 months and I am now writing my thesis about a client project during that internship.

Could you enlighten our readers about your role at Asha Hope Amanaki?

My role was a developer I would say. We were building this small web application to manage a database with data about donations. So it was some front end and some back end; and migrating and automating the existing application, so that it is easier to use and more robust. A lot of different people were using the application and the new version made sure that data cannot be accidentally be deleted or changed.

Were you working alone or did you work in a team? Was it a virtual opportunity or an in person one?

It was all online. But I was working together with one other volunteer, Justin, who did the project with me. It was a bit weird for me because it was my first time volunteering entirely online. It was the period of the pandemic after all, but it was still a nice experience.

How was your experience working remotely?

It was different from my previous volunteering experiences. If you are volunteering in person, there is just way more time to, lets say sit around and chat with your fellow volunteers and you don’t really have that online. Like you have your meeting and that’s it. You don’t really get the chance to spend more time together.

But it was still nice working together on the project. We were having regular calls to talk about the progress and help each other out. So I still had that feeling of working in a team even though it was online.

How was your experience working with the team at Asha Hope Amanaki, the processes, the time you spent with the organization’s members?

Well, one thing that stood out to me is that at Asha Hope Amanaki everything was very organized, like the structure of the project, meetings, and overall planning. From my experience volunteering projects can be a bit messy and disorganized sometimes, but this project went very smoothly. We had weekly meetings and used a messenger for any questions in between.
We worked on the project for about half a year. We were primarily coding in a programming language I didn’t have much experience in, so I learned quite a bit during that time. And it is very rewarding to build something that people are actually using. You see the progress of your work and how it makes other people’s work much easier.

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STEM Projects for Learning programming

ashahopeamanaki — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 17:20:39 +0000

Ammar is a Software Developer with Asha Hope Amanaki and has been developing a tool that helped us keep a database of our volunteers. The entire STEM based project was developed using Google Apps Script. Ammar initially joined us as a inter via Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce. However, his passion for programming kept him going on the project and he finally completed the project that helps us store the information of all our volunteers. We had covered earlier in our series of Volunteer Spotlight, however this conversation was recorded after he has completed his project.

Hi Ammar, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

My name is Ammar Mukadam. I am a junior in high school and I live in Portland Oregon. I really like playing kind of any sport, I really like soccer and basketball. I am actually on the Soccer team

At Asha Hope Amanaki, what were your roles and responsibilities as a volunteer in the team?

So, I started off working with the Hillsboro Works program, so I guess through them I was able to work as sort of an intern into build the database project, and then once the summer was over for that, I switched to being a volunteer and trying to continue the project, so I stayed with the program. I made a volunteer database system so we can input new volunteers and then choose what day they want to volunteer, what activities they want to do, and then once you have a big database so that we can edit any part of them or like any part of their kind of data set of okay now they want to volunteer o Monday and Tuesday instead of Monday and Wednesday or we can delete them from the database and yeah, that’s the whole of

Could you tell us more about the Hillsboro Works Program?

Yeah, so what the Hillsboro Works program is, it’s a bunch of different careers including STEM that they offer high school students to intern in and get more experience on, as well as providing professional development courses on. So, we had a course on how to look at money and how to save money as well as how to advertise yourself, and stuff like that. So, with these meetings, you kind of got more knowledge on how to get a job and maintain a job when you’re older. So, it was really a great experience.

For students interested in participating with us, what would you say, you learnt from this opportunity?

I really liked it. I think that I had like the flexibility to kind of do what I want, but also the mentors were really great and guided me in the direction I needed to go. Like, I think that beyond just volunteering I really learned a lot, so it was really great.

Was there anything particularly helpful that the mentors helped you with or just in general?

I think the biggest thing was often when I got a problem I’d like jump right into it and I wouldn’t really look at the big picture of like “how do I solve this problem”, you know I thought that was wasting time, but really like that was the best solution to think about all the elements of the problem and then I could find a way faster and efficient solution.

What made you want to volunteer, other than it being an extension of the Hillsboro Works program? Was there anything else that motivated you?

I think I really wanted to finish the current project I was on, but I just really liked the experience, so I wanted to continue it, and I was learning a lot, so I thought it was great.

So, did volunteering at Asha Hope Amanaki help you elsewhere or did you anticipate that it would help you elsewhere maybe with college applications or a future job that you might want?

Yeah, I think I’m definitely going to put it on my college applications and hopefully it will help me get into the University of Washington. So, we’ll see.

Since the program was based on a real-world project and is being directly used by Asha Hope Amanaki, were there any challenges executing STEM based projects ?

I think that yeah, it made it feel more real. I think in school sometimes you want to take shortcuts and stuff, but I think knowing that it was really going to be used by the organization made me care more, and really want to make sure that there were no mistakes or nothing wrong with any part of the program.

Since the program was based on a real-world project and is being directly used by Asha Hope Amanaki, ?

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Skill Based Volunteering through corporate volunteering

ashahopeamanaki — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 09:21:47 +0000

Eric is a Software Developer with Asha Hope Amanaki and has been developing a tool that generates Hashtags for us automatically for our social media posts on Facebook Instagram and LinkedIn. Eric joined us a while back and initially helped us fix a ton of issues with the tools that we had developed previously.

Hi Eric, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

I I live in Southern California with my wife and two teenage boys. I enjoy fishing, biking and playing basketball with my boys. I have been a software developer my entire 20+ year career. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-wong-a390431)

At Asha Hope Amanaki, what were your roles and responsibilities as a volunteer in the team?

I helped Asha Hope Amanaki add new features to an existing scheduling tool based on google Sheet that they were using to coordinate their meal distribution. I also went on to create a Hashtag organizing tool for them. For rapid development and deployment, it is also based on Google Sheets augmented with custom programming through Google Apps Script. This new tool allows the social media team to organize hundreds of Hastag based on categories and generates relevant Hashtags on request for use in the social media postings

For students interested in participating with us, what would you say, you learnt from this opportunity?

It has been rewarding helping a nonprofit in their mission.

Since this was a remote opportunity, what would you say were the biggest advantages and disadvantages?

The advantages are being able to help even though we are physically located in different states and working whenever we want.

A disadvantage is not being able to make a human connection that comes from face to face meetings.

The post Skill Based Volunteering through corporate volunteering first appeared on Asha Hope Amanaki.

Encouraging STEM in High School via Paid Summer Internships

ashahopeamanaki — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 16:34:07 +0000

Ammar is a Software Developer with Asha Hope Amanaki and has been developing a tool that helps us keep a track of all the volunteers we have interacted with or have volunteered with us. Ammar came on board through a marvelous program by Washington Chamber of Commerce. Learn more about it in the short interview below

Hi Ammar, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

I am a 11th grader at Westview High School in Beaverton, Oregon. I enjoy playing soccer reading and sleeping

Tell us a little more about the Hillsboro Works Internship?

Hillboro Chamber of Commerce program lets nonprofits have paid interns who are high school students between 16-24. The nonprofits host the students and also provide them with a mentor who can meet with the students on regular basis to help them grow in their role at the nonprofit.

At Asha Hope Amanaki, what were your roles and responsibilities as a volunteer in the team?

I have worked as an intern for Asha Hope Amanaki during summer and currently volunteer for them to develop and internal database system for keeping track of volunteers that have either interacted with or volunteered with Asha Hope Amanaki.

For students interested in participating with us, what would you say, you learnt from this opportunity?

I learned a lot from this opportunity with Asha Hope Amanaki, from a new language in google apps script, to how to solve coding problems by effectively planning and how to utilize resources on the internet. Additionally, I understood how to effectively communicate with my mentors and stay accountable for my work even if I were busy.

Since this was a remote opportunity, what would you say were the biggest advantages and disadvantages?

The biggest advantage for me was being able to work around my schedule, which allowed me to effectively plan and take part in lots of different activities without having to compromise.

The biggest disadvantage was that being remote made it easy to get distracted and off-task at times. Additionally, it made it difficult to interact with my mentors as much as I would have liked.

Are there any final thoughts you would like to share with our audience?

I have had a great time working with Asha Hope Amanaki and have learned a lot from the incredible mentors they have. it is very rewarding to know the incredible charity work that is going on and to have a small part in all of the great work that is taking place.

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Volunteer with Tech Skills for NonProfits

ashahopeamanaki — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 10:37:16 +0000

Peoples Place Things (PPT) is a nonprofit based our of Portland Oregon that works with Ciudad Mundo, an organization based in Bolivia, and the US Embassy in Bolivia to put on a program called AccessPlus. The program is a virtual program for young people in Bolivia to get cultural, work, and language experiences as well as coaching, and workshops to develop their professional and leadership capacities.

One of the volunteers from PPT with an experience in Web Developed helped Asha Hope Amanaki upgrade the website and enable features that inactive thus improving the experience of visitors on the website. We interviewed Josoe Ichuta, and tried to understand their journey through this partnership. Follow on to learn more about the experience.

Hi Josoe, Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Tell us a little about yourself to our readers?

I am an Electronic Engineer, currently working as a software developer in a government institution (Servicio de Impuestos Nacionales de Bolivia). I also belong to a telecommunications research amateur group.

Tell us more about AccessPlus and how it helps you with professional development?

The Access Plus volunteer program was oriented to discover our abilities to work as a team, to always give the best of ourselves and also it helps us to create a network with national and international organizations.

At Asha Hope Amanaki, what were your roles and responsibilities as a volunteer in the team?

My role during the internship was the facilitator, I was in charge of gathering all the ideas and advice of the team to perform the requirements of the organization. At the beginning we started to learn how to create and edit a WordPress website, so after that we updated some functionalities, adjusted and improved some styles of Asha Hope Amanaki’s website.

For students interested in participating with us, what would you say, you learnt from this opportunity?

I did learn how to face a problem from different points of view and combine ideas from all of the group to obtain a much better solution. I also learn a lot from the expertise and abilities of my team Daniela and Angela, they are great friends. Now I can say that we can create our own WordPress website to share our hobbies and knowledge on the internet.

Since this was a remote opportunity, what would you say were the biggest advantages and disadvantages?

Since all of us were from different Time Zones, including the team at Asha Hope Amanaki, sometimes it was difficult to coordinate our meetings. We had to find a means of communication that worked for all and we created a Whatsapp group to streamline communications.

As this was an opportunity with an organization based in the United States, it gave us an opportunity to communicate in English and practice our communications skills as we presented our findings and corresponding solutions. We were connected to people from different parts of the world and since we all had to work in a team, it provided great experience to work together as team.

Are there any final thoughts you would like to share with our audience?

This opportunity helped me to grow in my career and I’m sure it will help to find new opportunities outside of my country. Finally I want to thank Srilekhya, who was our mentor, for being with us during the internship and helping us to accomplish all the requirements of the organizations in a timely manner.

If you liked reading this, checkout the experience of another volunteer from PPT who volunteered as a Social Media Manager with Asha Hope Amanaki. To know more about other volunteer opportunities, check the volunteer section.

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