Nonprofit - 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.

The post Volunteering with Asha Hope Amanaki: Nurturing Growth and Building Skills first appeared on Asha Hope Amanaki.

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.

The post Serve the Community as a Student Volunteer 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.

The post Volunteer Experience with Asha Hope Amanaki – Johanna Weiss first appeared on Asha Hope Amanaki.

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.

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Building Social Media capabilities at nonprofits: Interview with Modupe

ashahopeamanaki — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 06:12:29 +0000

Modupe is a Social Media Manager with Asha Hope Amanaki and has been designing social media calendars for us. Often nonprofits have a ton of things that they would like to post about, and it is essential to streamline them to give a great experience to the visitors of our social media platforms.

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

I am a senior Health Science major, theater arts minor attending Howard University. I currently work in the field of communications in all the different aspects

Tell us a little more about the Hubspot and Parker Dewey programs?

Hubspot for nonprofit program lets nonprofits have paid interns who have completed marketing certification, while Hubspot foots the bill for the same. They have tied up with Parker Dewey for the same.

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

My role at Asha Hope Amanaki is that of the Social Media coordinator. I make content calendars for the page and work on increasing outreach!

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

I learned and I am still learning a lot from this position but my favorite part is collaboration with volunteers and their different ideas

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

The biggest advantage of remote working is that I am able to do my work anytime and anywhere event when I am traveling! The biggest disadvantage is the connection between my coworkers, in person interactions always make those better.

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

This is such a great organization and I am excited to keep working with them and help so many communities

The post Building Social Media capabilities at nonprofits: Interview with Modupe first appeared on Asha Hope Amanaki.

Helping nonprofits through tech automation: Interview with Emily

ashahopeamanaki — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 19:39:37 +0000

Emily was a python developer with Asha Hope Amanaki and was working on automating some redundant tasks for us. Often nonprofits have a ton of book keeping work to be done and do not have access to a lot of the resources like at big companies due to budge constraints. Emily’s work is a great example of how volunteer led automation and tools can help nonprofits reduce the time spent on administrative work and focus on improving their programs. Read on to know more about Emily’s experience working on this opportunity

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

I am a software engineer, currently working on a open-source product called INFERNOde.

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

My role during volunteering was that of python developer. I was in charge of building a website for automatically posting volunteer opportunities within Asha Hope Amanaki on three online communities name GivePulse, VolunteerMatch and Idealist. I did this by applying Factory Method Design Pattern using Python as backend

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

I got a mentor helping me along until I finished working. She is very knowledgeable, and friendly. She has a rich working experience from a prestigious tech company. While I independently worked on my project, I also benefited a lot from her detailed suggestions on how to polish my code. So you got a chance to develop your idea and improve on programming as well

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

The biggest advantage of remote working is that you can flexibly arrange your work and life. The biggest disadvantage is you do not have many chances to interact with your colleagues.

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

Asha Hope Amanaki is a great place for building up your volunteer experience. You have a chance to work on what you want to do and make contribution to the community at the same time. There are mentors from other famous tech companies who will give their time and energy to provide the best mentorship you can imagine.

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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How Google Workspace Can Help Organizations Like Yours

ashahopeamanaki — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:18:39 +0000

(image credit)

Google workspace is becoming more and more relevant in today’s organizations. Whether the organization is your school, business, or non-profit, it is becoming more popular in today’s world, and for very good reasons. Not only does an organization get more security and some custom tools, but they can get plenty more benefits that could be helpful to their organization, and makes it much easier to navigate and do their work.

How does Google Workspace Differ from Regular Gmail?

Google Workspace differs from regular gmail in many different ways. One would not only receive additional business-grade services not included in the free gmail accounts, but also receive additional security options like two-factor authentication. Some of the benefits of Google Workspace are unlimited custom emails, such as “name@yourcompany.com,” and twice the amount of cloud storage between your email and Google Drive. The organization can also receive free 24/7 support via phone or email, interoperability with Microsoft Outlook and as mentioned earlier two-factor authentication, amongst many more.

What happens when an organization signs up to Google Workspace?

When an organization signs up for Google Workspace, they get access to several integrated applications that work seamlessly together. One example is, they could get an invite to a gathering and that could be easily converted into Google Calendar. Another example is when someone makes comments on Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides, collaborators get to see others comments and automatically receive email alerts.

Many Google Workspace users have found that they are able to eliminate their current software or softwares and use Google Workspace’s features all-in-one. One can rely on the Google Workspace to create various different files, such as text documents, spreadsheets, and some presentations. One can work on any of these features all in real time with other collaborators and save it to your Google Drive. Unlike traditional desktop applications, there is no software to install. Anyone can access their Google Drive or Workspace from anywhere from a phone, tablet, and desktop. Google is also compatible with Microsoft Office programs. One can also migrate their existing mail to Google Workspace.

Non-Profit Marketing Immersion: Google Ads

What is it?
It’s provided by Google for Non-Profit Organizations. An organization can receive free marketing tools and advice from students to volunteers certified in Google Ads. They can get help with ad grants sponsored by a volunteer through an advisor. Learn more about program requirements and nonprofit expectations here.The steps towards start the organization off by registering, match them with a volunteer team, and help them launch campaigns with free online account support. This helps both, students or volunteers, and non-profit organizations. It helps students and volunteers by giving them more experience with marketing and they are able to help a cause. Non-profits get use of this and more than likely are able to use their Google Ads Grant or put it to good use.

Google Workspace and Non-Profits

A non-profit gets more validation with their organization’s name behind the “@” symbol. Several sites for non-profits even ask for a non-profit email address to get access to them.

The features and programs that non-profits tend to find more useful are the workspaces and how Google Workspace helps distribute the workload. Anyone can use Google Workspace as a great tool for communication vs other programs out there, and most of all it’s secure.

Perhaps one of the things about Google Workspace that is a bit difficult to use for some non-profits is getting used to the differences between the emails. Once they have their own organization email and their old one, there could be some confusion as to which one to use.

Google As A Whole

All-in-all, Google Workspace, and their features amongst other tools and programs that they have are helpful to non-profit organizations, or anyone with a business. The exception being that if your organization is a for-profit business, the Google Ads Grants, campaigns, and such will not be a benefit available for you, since that is strictly only for non-profit organizations; you are welcome to read all about it on their webpage.

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Interviewing an Outreach Volunteer

Melissa Molina — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 01:17:53 +0000

I had the pleasure of interviewing Micaela about the outreach program in which she’s participated. I gained a lot of insight about the volunteer program, her job tasks, and the overall experience she’s had so far. She provided great advice for any future volunteers who may be interested in similar opportunities in the future.

The outreach consists of creating content for social media. Micaela designs templates for Instagram and other social media sites. She makes content that can be recreated. From this experience, she’s learned that designing content for social media is hard. One of the challenges is anticipating what stakeholders are going to like and she expressed that she often has to worry about that.

When asked how she liked the program so far and how she felt about it, Micaela stated that she enjoys the outreach/volunteer experience. She said it’s exciting but difficult at times. It’s her first time doing a job and there’s pressure as a student. It’s been challenging but interesting to her. She finds challenges in comparison with her culture and schedule. She’s learned a lot from this opportunity.

This experience has made her realize that she enjoys designing templates and overcoming difficulties with her team. The volunteers participating in this outreach are young people. Her co-workers live in different parts of the world. She knows of another volunteer who lives in Santa Cruz (in Bolivia) while she lives in Cochamaba (also in Bolivia). She and her team have learned to collaborate with each other despite their differing living situations.

Micaela revealed she becomes tired at times with having to schedule volunteering around her university education. She didn’t know what she was getting into at first. She does appreciates that this opportunity is related to her career. She believes this experience will help in her career aspirations and future endeavors. She’s gained an understanding in the importance of social media and having pages with content that encourages others to donate. She learned the importance of reaching the youth through social media and other digital mediums. She conveyed how she enjoys social communication.

I asked Micaela what her advice for future volunteers would be. She suggests others not to take this opportunity idly. She discourages engaging in this program for self-gain such as to obtain scholarships. Instead, she advises other volunteers to compromise and to be willing to learn. She encourages others to be respectful to their team and the organization. She also advocates for transparency. Future volunteers who want to join should understand what they want and what they’re good at. They should make it known what their skills are and where they may lack. She believes that communication with their team and the organization is essential.

When asked about the pros of this program, Micaela expressed that she likes that this experience is related to her career. She also finds it interesting learning what people from different parts of the world and other cultures like. She enjoys researching and analyzing the different ways in which to reach people based on their culture. She learned the multiple ways to reach different types of audiences and the type of content each culture may find more engaging. She’s done lots of research to understand these different interests.

As for the cons, she noted that, for some of the volunteers, this experience and their assignments were unrelated to their careers. She stated that this outreach may be difficult for individuals who aren’t into social studies. Engineers and doctors, for instance, may not see the value in these opportunities. There also wasn’t any specific times for meetings, but she acknowledged that it’s difficult to come up with a consistent schedule due to the time differences. She contemplated that perhaps there could be designated times in which co-workers could text each other for better communication. Maybe also a better understanding of what the organization wants. At the beginning there wasn’t much communication, but later the communication got better.

Towards the end of the interview, I asked Micaela if she had any final words or suggestions she wanted to add. She suggests creating space for the organization. Perhaps a virtual space to get to know other volunteers. She’s only spoken with fellow volunteers once. She believes it would be interesting to see others and know who’s in the organization. She also voiced how she and others fear what people from other cultures may think or say about them. In that sense, perhaps seeing other volunteers would alleviate some of those worries.

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