Final thoughts on service experience

The video below explains what I learned from my service experience.

Final Thought on Carnegie Volunteering

My final thoughts on the Carnegie Center are explained in the video above.

Final Thoughts on the Carnegie Center

After three months, my time volunteering at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning has come to an end. Here is a video with some of my final thoughts and reflections on my overall experience with this service site. 

Final Thoughts

Sadly, my time working with the Carnegie Center has come to an end. It was a great semester working some really interesting events there. To conclude my Service Learning experience, I have given some of my final thoughts in the video below.

The Carnegie Center: A Final Reflection

The Carnegie Center Logo

I have volunteered at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning for about three months now. As this experience is drawing to a close, I thought I'd share some thoughts about the center itself and also volunteer organizations in general. Because I have had only limited experience with this organization and indeed with organized volunteer groups in general, I would like to preface my opinion with the confession that I am no expert. This being said, here is my video reflection. 

 I fell in love with the Carnegie Center's building, gifted by Andrew Carnegie. Below is a photo of the gorgeous old building. 

This photo of the Carnegie Center found on University of Kentucky SeeBlue Website. 

Carnegie Center "Fear and Loathing" Fundraising event

A woman dressed in 70's gear talks to a man

 Fear and Loathing 
This event is the Carnegie's biggest fundraiser and it was a lot of fun to work. The best part about this event was seeing everyone's costumes and there wasn't much required of Caitlyn and myself so we were just able to sit back and watch. While the event was interesting it wouldn't be something I would personally sign up to go to. You could tell that the attendants were passionate about their community and the cause but the event was more geared towards older people. 

This is the inside of the venue, as you can see the event had a great
turnout.

This is the lizard room where the band was located guests
spent their time floating throughout the rooms

This is the band performing in the green lizard room. The crowd
seemed to like their authentic 70's sound.

The night ended with a drag show, guests were very
excited for this event

Drag queens take the stage.

Celebrating culture at the Carnegie Center

One of the things that I love most about the Carnegie Center is their acceptance of diversity. Actually, not only do they accept diversity, but they celebrate it. At the most recent event I attended at the Carnegie Center, they made it a point to do just this. We had the tables set up with crafts for the children, some of which were loosely based on thanksgiving, which was coming up soon. When the children came, we gave each of them a piece of construction paper that had been labeled to look like a passport. For each craft that they did, they would get a stamp on their passport. The kids made bracelets, colored, did origami, made head dresses, and made  turkeys out of foam and feathers.

                                     A turkey made by one of the children.

 I think that it would have been more meaningful to match the stamp at each table with a craft that was similar to something done in the place on the stamp to be more consistent with the idea of teaching diversity, but it was neat to watch the children discover different places they didn't know about. It was also interesting how many of them did not know what a passport was. After we did crafts, we watched a performance by “Music Works”, which is a small orchestra consisting of local children. Some of the children said that they had been practicing with their instruments for years, which astonished me because they didn’t look any older than 8 years old. Although I’ve never been into music that much, it was really impressive what those kids could do with instruments I didn’t even know existed when I was their age. Altogether, I enjoyed myself quite a bit more than expected. 

                                                                   A brief description of the events that took place.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

    

Along with several other students from CIS 112, I volunteered at

Hunter Thompson as seen in Rolling Stones

the Carnegie Center's event based on the book Fear and Loathing

in Las Vegas. The book, written by Hunter S. Thompson, is 

mentioned on a Goodreads as, "The best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken." Prior to the event, I volunteered by posting posters advertising the event in local shops around campus and the chevy chase areas.

     I also volunteered at the actual event. The event included music, open bar, drag show, and food. Also, several artists created paintings and drawings inspired by the book.  The event included music, open bar, drag show, and food. Also, several artist created paintings and drawings inspired by the book. 

     Below is the cover of the book, which is illustrated by Ralph Steadman. 

Ralph Steadman was the very skilled illustrator who created all the images in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. 

At the event, guests dressed up in 70's style costumes, drank alot of alcohol and ate a lot of food, and they seemed to be having a great time. There was also a Russian roulette table, at which guests one various small prizes like candy and sunglasses. I was stationed at this table to monitor and hand out prizes. I stayed by the table, which was next to the open bar and donut bar, for the two and a half hours that I worked the shift. It was quite an experience, and I certainly was not expecting it. I did not know anything about the book prior to the event, and honestly I was expecting something much different. However, it was a unique experience, and I am glad I was able to help.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

After months of waiting, the Carnegie's Center for Literacy and Learning finally held their annual fundraiser. This year the theme was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, based on a novel by a Kentucky-raised author, Hunter S. Thompson. In order to make the party resemble the atmosphere of the novel, the entire building was transformed into a 1970's Vegas hotel.

Libby and I with one of the drag queens.

On Friday, November 6, a group of us went up to the Carnegie Center to begin setting up the decorations and rooms for the party. We set up tables and chairs, decorated prize wheels, organized the bars, and even blew up plastic palm trees and cacti to give the rooms more of a Vegas-feel. Because this was really my first chance to work with the organization, I was not sure what to expect; however, I was pleasantly surprised by how welcoming and warm the workers and other volunteers were. I personally set up with the director of the Carnegie Center and he was very enthusiastic about the organization and the upcoming event. Everyone seemed a little stressed with so much to prepare, but also excited for the event to finally occur. It was a long day of running around and doing whatever task needed to be done, but I could tell how much the workers appreciated having us there to help and was happy to assist in any way I could. 

                      A snapshot I took of the crowded food room at the event. The line was always out into the hall, but the food was well worth the wait.

Saturday, November 7, was the night of the main event and the building was buzzing with enthusiasm and excitement as final preparations were being made. Upon arrival, I discovered that I would be helping out in the food room along with Libby. At first, we were directed to bus tables after guests left and help the caterer with whatever he needed; however, most people cleaned up after themselves and the caterer was pretty much set. We kept an eye over the room and helped out whenever necessary, especially with the older guests. We also were in charge of taking out the trash when the bins got full, which was not the highlight of my night. It was so interesting to simply sit and observe the guests as they mingled and enjoyed the entertainment. I loved looking everyone's 70's outfits because many guests went all out with the theme. 

One of the most interesting parts of the night was definitely the drag show. Around 7:45, guests gathered in the main lobby to watch three drag queens lip sync along to popular songs. I had only seen drag queens in movies so it was very entertaining to finally witness it in person. The guests appeared to love this little show and flocked to the queens for pictures after their performances.

This is a short video of the drag show that occurred. 

Although it was a long wait, I am glad I stuck with the Carnegie Center and helped out with this event. Everyone involved was so passionate about the Carnegie Center and supporting their work which made the event even more exciting. It was also great to see all of our work and effort we put into the set up come to life at the actual event. 

My Final Events

Early in November, we worked to set up the Carnegie Center's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas event. This was a very exciting project, as we played a part in turning the building from its normal library appearance to an atmosphere resembling the 1970's, when the book was set. To add elements from the book, we hung bats and other decorations that were mentioned in the book. We set up prize wheels, hung banners and set up tables in order to give the building into a completely look and feel for the night. Unfortunately, I was unable to work the event. However, I helped put the finishing touches on the preparation work, and the results were magnificent. Complete with a kindly-donated car resembling the one in the book, the building was truly transformed and the excitement was palpable as the event drew nearer. I was told it was a great success, which really vindicated all our efforts. 

The re-decoration of the front desk and the hanging banner were just a few of the new spins we put on the Carnegie Center to help them throw their annual book-themed party.

For my final hours, I worked an event which closely resembled our first one. The first event was dedicated to peace, while this final one was dedicated to Thanksgiving. I noted in September how inspiring it was to see children give their definitions of peace. Similarly, it was humbling to see what these children were thankful for. I saw children write that they were thankful for many things that I think most take for granted, such as warm beds and good food. We simply accept these things, given our relative privilege compared to the rest of the world. However, the children have not yet become cognizant of this privilege and see that these seemingly simply items are more than worthy of our appreciation. 
I truly am happy that I picked the Carnegie Center as my service learning organization. The effects of our contributions include providing children and families with wonderful nights of bonding and togetherness and transformed a library into a classic American novel set. I will always remember these experiences and wish the Carnegie Center the best of successes in their future events.

TED Talk: Why a Good Book is a Secret Door

Mac Barnett, a children's book author, delivered this TED talk in 2014 about the importance of fiction and imagination in a child's life. He begins his talk with an interesting first line that immediately grabs the attention of the audience. He introduces himself as a man with a career that involves lying to children. This opening statement successfully hooks the audience and sets the whole tone for the rest of the TED talk. He then begins explaining his main point he will be presenting throughout the entirety of his speech which is that it is very important to find truth in art, especially as a child. This TED talk is very entertaining due to Mac's comfort in front of a crowd. He constantly engages the audience in laughter with his colorful stories about working with kids as a camp counselor. During his time working at this summer camp, Mac entertained the children with his whimsical stories of his time spent spying for the Queen of England and other imaginary adventures he has embarked on. Mac truly believes in helping children find some truth in fiction that he even went as far to stash a cantaloupe in a garden to follow through with some of his stories. 

                  Above is a quote Mac used to introduce his main idea of the potential truth that can be found in art. 

My favorite part of this TED talk though were Mac's stories about his interest in secret doors and how he managed to incorporate these entrances to other worlds into his career. He is very passionate about tutoring children and assisting them with their reading skills so it only makes sense that he continued on into a career surrounding these interests. The first place he worked at was a pirate souvenir shop that led into a tutoring program through a "secret door". Mac described some of the merchandise to further emphasize this idea of an imaginary world. He explained the importance of having children walk through this whimsical setting on their way to study sessions because it really opens their minds to the idea that anything is possible. Reading fiction and telling stories about imaginary worlds allows children to express themselves by escaping into another life while still having a way to find truth in the lies. 

I chose this TED Talk because it discussed some of the similar interests as the Carnegie Center. This talk expressed the importance of books in a child's life which is something the Carnegie Center really focuses on with their work. The Carnegie Center offers similar services to those Mac describes in his talk which really caught my attention when I was listening. Both are equally interested in educating children in the importance of reading and engaging their imaginations whenever possible.


Mac did a wonderful job of connecting with his audience and conveying his idea in a practical, entertaining way. He was very comfortable in the crowd and confidently delivered his message. Although it was a rather long one, I thoroughly enjoyed this TED Talk.

Ted Talk Analysis

     Tim Doner is a polyglot, which is a person who knows and uses several languages. His TED talk happened about two years ago. Two years prior, the New York Times published an article about his talent of language learning, called Adventures of a Teenage Polyglot. He begins by explaining how the media twisted his story, making it essentially a sensational about a neat trick he could do, on a level with "a skate boarding bulldog in a baby suit." 

     Next Doner explains his real interest in language. He claims that, contrary to the popular opinion among linguists, language is very strongly tied to worldview, and thus to culture. He wants to learn about other cultures and world views, and that is one of his major reasons for learning languages. 

     Doner was immersed in language diversity from a very young age, being a child voice actor. His family and friends found that he had a knack for accents and inflections. Next, throughout middle school and high school, he studied Latin, French, and Arabic. But he was having trouble with them. After several years of a language, he was still not comfortable conversing in it. This made language learning frustrating. Essentially, he had only thought of language as lists of rules and grammar. 

     So, he tried a different method. In an effort to learn about the crises in the middle east, he began learning Hebrew. Instead of the usual method, he began watching television in Hebrew. Within a short amount of time, he could converse in Hebrew. This is often called an immersion method, which focuses on learning in the context of conversation. So, his success led him to try another language, and then another, and then another. 

     Another method he used to help him learn used Youtube. He posted videos of him speaking in various languages, and invited comments. Many who already spoke those languages would give him tips and encouragement. Essentially, he found a way to converse with people in languages which he could not usually. 

     Next he went over various methods for keeping vocabulary straight, and basically the logistics of learning languages. As a student of Latin and Greek, this was helpful for me! I really appreciated his tips, but I and the audience were more effected by his main point. He explained that languages are dying. He claimed that every two weeks a language dies, and with it, a culture. This is very sad to any linguist. And he calls the audience, not to fix the dying, but to learn languages as a way to open and expand your worldview. Learning about other cultures makes us good citizens and friends, but it also improves our understanding of the world and ideas around us. 

Doner giving his TED talk. A year ago, he knew twenty languages!

     Moving on! Doner's execution of the speech was excellent. He tastefully included humor, and his audience clearly enjoyed it. He also included an excellent call to action, appealing to the emotions and reason of his audience. The only area I can see for improvement would be that he could benefit from seeming a little more humble. Despite the fact that he has reason to be very proud, humility of speech appeals to audiences more.

     As a lover of languages and of learning about culture, I strongly appreciated this TED talk, and encourage anyone to watch it!

TED Talk Analysis

This TED Talk was given by Geoffrey Canada and focuses on how we can improve our education system. It was delivered in May 2013 at a TED Talk Conference and was delivered in order to inform the audience about the issues with the current education system and to persuade the audience that the design of the education system is currently flawed and that major changes are needed to correct the problem. One of the missions of the Carnegie Center is to help underprivileged children and adults improve their literacy and critical thinking abilities, so I thought that this TED Talk had a relevant link to my service learning organization. He was a very effective speaker.  He incorporated humor well in his talk and also immediately established the relevancy of his topic by appealing to the audience’s emotions. He appealed to their emotions by talking about how the system effectively guarantees children with poor financial background to fail. 

Geoffrey Canada has worked to improve the Harlem Education district for years and has seen firsthand the issues stemming from the current system. He urges the government to review its education system and see what it can do to serve the students more effectively.

He expected the audience to have a reasonable amount of knowledge about the current education system. He uses extended similes and metaphors for the education system (such as comparing the system to a farm that plants its crops at the wrong time) to help the audience understand the logic that he is using. He berates the government for employing the same basic school system as was in place nearly 50 years ago, saying, “If it did not work then, why would it work now?”. Using these similes helps members of the audience who may not know as much about the system understand the faults he sees in the system. 

He was also very animated in terms of nonverbal communication, displaying energy and urgency in his gesticulations and near-constant pacing to show the urgency of the matter. He says we have “run out of time” to delay changing the system and that we are approaching an “education cliff” due to the current system. He proposes that we change the calendar that schools tend to use (August-May) to a year-round schedule. To compensate, Winter and Thanksgiving breaks would be longer and there would be a small break in June that serves as a summer break. He says the three-month break currently used for summer break leads to dramatic regression in students’ abilities. He also encourages the government to actually use the results of their educational studies to improve the system as a whole. 

Overall, he was a very effective and persuasive speaker, appealing to the audience with emotion and logic while providing humorous anecdotes to maintain their attention level.

Ted Talk Blog

Ted Talk Review
By Libby Rose

Click here for Ted Talk on the Importance of ______ In Community Service

To the left is a six minute Ted Talk about the importance of two things when it comes to community service, "warm and fuzziness", and "awkwardness". The speaker is giving this speech on account of her own personal experience of volunteering for something called "Midnight Shifts".

Beginning of the TED talk.

During these midnight shifts a truck full of students goes downtown to homeless people on the street and gives them things like a boxed meal, clothing, and toiletries. The speaker seemed to be passionate about her service work and the cause. She mentioned that midnight runs "aren't permanent solutions" which is something the world needs to realize about service work. No, giving someone a meal and clothes isn't going to get them out of homelessness, but it builds the connections and regular human interaction that they can use to help themselves. Because my Service Learning organization provides books for homeless people through Triangle Park, it relates to the Ted Talk in that both are providing a tangible good for those in need.

In the screen shot to the left, the speaker is focusing on how awkward moments in community service are really valuable in the take aways. I didn't totally agree with this/ thought it could have been said in a different way because I myself have done community service and yes those you are helping might make you feel uncomfortable at times but it's up to you to just ignore the awkwardness and do your job as to not make them feel that they have done something wrong. The speaker talks about compassion and gaining compassion from awkwardness but I believe that if you have compassion that can limit the awkwardness right off the bat.

I also thought that her visuals were a little awkward. She used a picture of a cat and a picture of a pad to demonstrate "warm and fuzzy" and then awkward. While the multi media aspects might have caught the audiences attention I thought they were kind of bizarre. She did however seem well rehearsed and like she knew what she was talking about but use of statistics could have been incorporated to make her point seem more astounding or important.

Ted talk analysis

In 2013, Ken Robinson delivered a TED talk called “How to escape education's death valley” in which he discussed why our education system is failing in the United States.  

              

Ken Robinson (educator) giving his Ted talk.

At the beginning of his talk, Robinson captures the audience’s attention by introducing a humorous stereotype about Americans. He says that when he first arrived in America, he heard from numerous sources outside the U.S. that Americans do not understand irony. Before he loses the interest of the audience, he then relates that stereotype to an act of legislation passed in the United States called “No Child Left Behind”. He said that when he came across this act of legislation, it was evident to him that whoever thought of that title definitely understands irony, because it is actually leaving millions of children behind. In fact, the no child left behind act is doing more damage than it is good.

         He then explains why the no child left behind act doesn’t work, and he does this in a way that is very relatable to the audience. He first asks how many of them have children, which is the vast majority of the crowd. He then asks how many of them have more than one child. Many of the audience members responded even still. He very cleverly pointed out that if you have two children, or even know two different children, then you know that they are very diverse no matter how closely related they are. This is what is wrong with the no child left behind program, because it assumes that all children conform to certain standards, which are measurable by standardized tests. The standardized tests only collect data from a narrow spectrum of abilities; math and reading are the subjects that are primarily focused on. Since the tests do not measure a child’s artistic ability or their physical ability, schools have simply stopped teaching these skills.

A quote about art education from Robinson's talk.

      Since schools have stopped teaching the arts altogether, that brings Robinson to another point. What effect does this have on the children? It can’t be doing any good, because he mentions dropout rates being as high as 60% in some areas of the U.S. More importantly though, the blame is being placed on psychological disorders instead of where it rightfully belongs. In the last decade, there has been what Robinson describes as an “epidemic” of ADHD. He then goes on to explain that there is nothing wrong with the children, they are just not able to sit stationary all day and pay attention as adults do. He adds humor to this by saying “Children are not, for the most part, suffering from a psychological disorder; they are suffering from childhood. I know this because I spent my early life as a child, I went through the whole thing.” Art and physical activity gives children an outlet for their energy and creativity; it has also been proven to improve math scores. So why has it been removed from our education system?

          Robinson hypothesizes that in the United States, we treat education like a machine. We think that if we have better ways of measurement, or better information that learning will increase. That is not the way education works. He compares education instead to an organic system, because there are seeds readily available just waiting for the right conditions in order to sprout and grow. The current classroom conditions are causing children to become bored and dislike school. He ends his talk with another memorable quote from Benjamin Franklin "All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." He follows the quote with a call to action by saying that we need to encourage people to move; if we can encourage enough people to move we will then have a movement, and if the movement is strong enough then we will have a revolution. He says that a revolution is what we need, and I believe that he is absolutely right.

Video Reflection

     I have had the privilege of serving an organization designed to educate people. Despite scheduling issues and other difficulties, I am grateful to have an opportunity to serve other people. I am also thankful for Erica Cook, who has been patient and helpful in working things out so that we can fulfill class requirements. Attached above is a video of some of my thoughts about the Center and my experiences with it. 

     One pretty fascinating performance which they had during the International Eating and Reading Night was Capoeira, an African balancing game set to music. The music is intentionally designed to get caught in your head, so fair warning! Above is a clip of the performance. 

     The Carnegie Center is especially oriented around educating children. To this end, they have tutoring, family classes, and also they have authors come in to read their children's books. One child wrote this sweet thank you note, and this was really touching to me. 

Alecia Whitaker is an author originally from Kentucky. She now lives and writes in New York, but the Carnegie Center invited her to visit and read one of her books. 

     All this being said, I think that it would be easier to serve my community if it was not through a class. Without the pressure of class deadlines and confirmations of service, I believe that young people could help the community more effectively. I strongly encourage anyone to volunteer at the Carnegie Center in their free time.

Video Reflection: Setting Up for the Event

Above is my video reflection for the Carnegie Center. I explain what it was like to volunteer for the first time and discuss my feelings towards my service site. I am very pleased with the Carnegie Center and look forward to volunteering again.

Video blog reflection

I am now a little over halfway through this service learning course, and I have to say it is going a lot better than my previous experience with service learning, but there are also some things about it that i'm not so fond of, as I explain in my video reflection. I think that if I had voluntarily chosen to do work with the Carnegie Center, and wasn't trying to squeeze in volunteer hours around my classes and psychology research, that I would have had a much better experience. The experience that I have had so far has been very limited, as I have only attended one event, but it is very evident to me that the Carnegie Center is a great place for children to go if they need help outside of school. They have a passion for helping children and a love for literature that I have never seen before. Unfortunately, I am not able to attend the event they will be hosting this saturday, but if you are viewing this blog out of curiosity and want to see what great work the carnegie center does, I HIGHLY recommend that you check out this event; It should be fantastic, and carnegie classics are only hosted once a year.

Artistic representation of the classic novel "Fear and loathing".

The image above should give you a sense of the aura created by the book, which should be present this saturday at the carnegie center as well. I will be helping turn the inside of the carnegie center into what looks somewhat like the setting of the book. I believe that those who decide to attend this saturday are in for a treat.

Video Reflection

Having worked one event thus far, my experience with the Carnegie Center is far from complete. However, we are also pretty far removed from our orientation and initial event, and this time has given me ample opportunity to reflect on my experience as a whole and prepare for my upcoming experiences with the Carnegie Center. In this video, I share some of my thoughts and opinions on the service learning project and the Carnegie Center specifically.

 Their annual book-themed party is occurring this weekend and preparations will be hectic. .

The novel for this year's event at the Carnegie Center is "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter Thompson. The 70's settings in the novel should make for an interesting and exciting event Saturday night.

This event has been a huge success in years past and I am excited to help continue its success over the next few days. 

Midterm reflection

Although I have only had the opportunity to be a part of one event hosted by the Carnegie Center, it is already evident to me what a large impact the organization has on the Lexington community. Upon entering a service learning class, it is clearly explained to each student how important it is to be involved in the various events that happen on and around campus for the good of the community. At that point in time I knew that my actions in the class would end up being beneficial for others in some way, because that is generally what comes to mind when people think of charity or volunteer work. After having spent a few hours at the Carnegie Center helping children do crafts in honor of national peace day, I now understand that doing volunteer work is not only good for others; it is good for me as well. When looking to learn from an experience, you have to take all the details into consideration. Keeping this in mind, I carefully payed attention to the children as they worked on their peace day projects. I noticed how they shared things, and helped each other by providing useful feedback and ideas that could be used to improve their creations. The children were unknowingly demonstrating the meaning of peace and harmony right in front of me. What was meant to be a lesson for the children had also become a lesson to me.

                                                          Children working together and with parents on crafts
 I can definitely say that this was an eye opening experience, and I can't wait to see what other fun events the Carnegie Center has in store for the remainder of the semester.

Midterm Reflection

Carnegie Center
When Erica, the volunteer coordinator for the Carnegie Center emailed us about the opportunity to work their Literacy and Learning night, I was ecstatic. The Center has one of these nights once  a month. The nights are themed, families in the community are invited, and the center gets ready to host a time dedicated to literacy and fun!

Volunteers assist children in playing with moonsand.

 During literacy nights at Carnegie volunteers work stations for children and parents to interact with others. The theme of this literacy night was peace and children enjoyed making crafts that reflected that. 

Here is an example that I made of the types of bracelets
that children could create.

Our volunteer coordinator, Erica, Gave us options of what stations we wanted to work at and I chose the jewelry making station. At this station kids were making jewelry and incorporating their names with the letter beads and using various shapes to make a design with the beads. It was nice to see the children helping and sharing with each other. Although some of the kids were shy I could see them slowly starting to make friends.

Volunteer pictures on the upper left helps a child
 string beads to make a necklace.

The other volunteer who I was working with was in middle school which was eye opening to me because when I was in middle school rarely would I ever volunteer to do service work. It's great that Carnegie accepts a varying age range of students to help them out.

After the children were finished making crafts, they moved on to the reading room where local Lexington poet and rap artist, "Divine" was giving a talk about respect and peace. This was one of my favorite parts of the night because it was not only for the children but for the parents. in fact this is something that the parents probably got more out of than the children. Parents, especially of lower income, may have trouble keeping the peace in their households. As you can see from the photo to the left, a lot of the parents are mothers, and they could even be single mothers, who have to raise children on their own. This talk you could tell was really engaging.

 

Finally, the night concluded with a  dinner, donated by a local restaurant. During the dinner of salad and pasta, Tasha and I helped served the participants of the Peace Literacy and Learning night. People were very grateful and often came back for seconds. I am glad to have partook in such a nice event put on for the community.

Midterm Reflection

A service-learning class is something I have never participated in before and I was extremely excited to choose my site and begin volunteering as the course began; however, I have unfortunately not been able to volunteer yet and it is already half-way through the semester. Looking through the list of possible sites, I was immediately drawn towards the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I have always enjoyed working with children and have spent the past five summers tutoring a young girl so I knew a site that dealt with education and young children was perfect for me. I was ecstatic when I discovered I was given my first choice and could not wait for my first visit. It was difficult to find a day our whole group could go together because of our conflicting schedules. We eventually found a day four of us could go, but unfortunately, it was the four members of the group without cars. After a long debate of whether we should walk or attempt to figure out the bus system, we decided to try the bus. We managed to miss our first bus and ended up having to walk half-way across campus to get to another bus stop. We waited at least forty minutes in the blazing heat for a bus with no idea if it would actually show up or not.

                                          Waiting for the bus to take us to the Carnegie Center.

The bus eventually pulled up and we all climbed on, eager to escape the heat and finally make it to the Carnegie Center. However, we were greeted with glares and rude comments from the bus passengers. None of us were expecting to get harassed on public transportation that day so we hopped off on the nearest stop and walked the rest of the way. Once we finally made it to the Carnegie Center, we met with Erica, the volunteer coordinator and she explained our roles for the semester. The organization did not really need volunteers until late October and November because that is when they host their main charity event. They expressed how important it was that we were available to volunteer for many hours during those few weeks because there is lots of preparation that goes into this event. After discussing our volunteering roles, Erica gave us a tour of the Carnegie Center. It was very interesting getting to see first-hand how their organization helps children and adults in the community. 

Although we had a difficult time getting there, we were all impressed with the Carnegie Center and were excited to start volunteering. I am very excited to finally get the chance to actually help with the Carnegie Center during the next week by assisting with their charity event. I look forward to finally getting the chance to having a first-hand effect on this wonderful organization. 

My Midterm Service Learning Reflection

My experience thus far at the Carnegie Center has been extremely positive. I have only worked one event so far, but I have been impressed by the sense of community that I feel around this place. Building a true sense of community anywhere can be difficult, but especially so in a place where so many people are strangers to one another. The staff has done an excellent job creating an environment in which strangers can come together, connect and learn from another. They take pride in building a strong community, and their joy is infectious. I also felt a sense of pride and joy knowing that I had been able to contribute to the sense of community that the Carnegie Center creates.

This is the aftermath of a dinner preceded by an event meant to promote peace and community and is an example of one of the many ways in which the Carnegie Center brings people together.

I was unsure of what to expect going into the service learning experience. When I was told that part of what we would be doing may involve transporting books and helping set up for events, I was worried that I would not be able to take much away from the experience. However, after being given the opportunity to interact with the people that come to the Carnegie Center, I have been very pleased with the experience. It was incredible to watch children illustrate through bracelets and art activities their understanding of peace. Their illustrations of peace have served as a reminder to me that peace often comes down to simply respecting who other people are. The children did not care about the ethnicity or background of the people they interacted with and their ability to interact without any sort of prejudice inspired me to reflect upon myself and try to rid myself of any prejudices that I hold. 

These children interacting so freely with one another is a great example of what peace truly is and helped me reflect on how I can follow their examples in my daily life.

Going forward, I intend to use the lessons about peace and community that I have learned through my interaction with these people in my own life. I am excited to go back and help with their upcoming events and hopefully gain more invaluable experiences working in such a genuinely heartwarming environment.

International Eating and Reading Night: Midterm Reflection

    Last week, I attended the International Eating and Reading Night at the Carnegie Center. I volunteered as an event assistant, greeted guests, and helped with cleanup afterwards. Even though I have communicated with Erica, the program consultant at the Center, I had never gotten to visit the building before. It is a beautiful building, and very old. Its high ceiling and chandeliers are particularly elegant. I enjoyed just walking around in the century old building. Below is a picture of the meeting room.

The Carnegie Center holds an International Eating and Reading Night every year, inviting special readers as well as leaving the floor open for any guest to speak.

       I found out that until 1989, the building which now houses the Carnegie Center was actually the Lexington Public Library. According to, the plaque in front of the building, it was "the first Library west of the Alleghenies".  Below is a shot of the sign taken by photographer Vladimir Kopolovich. 

Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist and famous philanthropist, donating millions of dollars toward many charities and programs throughout his career. 

       I love the building, but the Eating and Reading part of the night was intriguing too. The thirty or more guests each brought various dishes from their homelands. There was everything from Turkish Delight to West African dishes. There were plenty of delicious dishes, and eating together is the perfect place to make new friends. 

     After the meal, various speakers read poetry and some prose in their various languages. Between German, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, and many other languages, no one understood the meaning of all the readings. But the sounds were beautiful. The intricacy and grace of language constantly amazes me. What a great way to educate one another! I am excited to serve at many more of such events. 

My First Event as a Carnegie Center Volunteer

     A few weeks ago, I went to the Carnegie Center to work my first event as a volunteer. I admit that I was not terribly excited to go; I had a lot of homework and another commitment of my time was going to affect how much work I could get done. However, I am really glad that I decided to work this event. It was a legitimately fun event to participate in. The event was held to commemorate the International Day of Peace, so we spent most of our time there helping the children that were in attendance with making cards and bracelets that had plenty of peace symbols on them. It was definitely a great experience; it was heartwarming to see the children create items that demonstrated what peace meant to them and proudly show off their creations to equally-proud parents and guardians.
     The kids were clearly having a great time, but I thought the most interesting part was seeing what the Carnegie Center had put together for the adults to do while their children were occupied. They brought in a man named Devine Carama to speak to the adults. Devine is a Lexington-based rapper who tries to preach positive messages to local kids and young adults through music. He also works closely with some local foundations (such as the Carnegie Center) and often speaks at events to spread his message. He had a very interesting method to attract people's attention: he freestyle rapped about the need to spread the message of peace to today's youth. After a few minutes of this, essentially all of the adults and even some of the kids had come to the room where he was speaking and listened to what he had to say. He spoke about how he has witnessed bullying and violence firsthand and was working constantly to put a stop to such actions. His speech was profound, truly heartfelt and clearly having an impact of some of the parents in the audience.

Devine Carama speaking to the adults in attendance about the importance of spreading the message of peace.

     After his speech, the Carnegie Center put together a dinner with the help of some local restaurants. It was a cool experience to see the children proudly donning their new bracelets or showing other children their cards, and it was also interesting to hear some of the parents talk about what they took away from Devine's talk. 

     Overall, this was a very positive first event to work. Everyone was having a nice, relaxed evening and learning a little more about what peace means and how we can spread the message of peace in our everyday lives. This was a great experience and I am looking forward to working another event there in the near future.

Saving Culture- Initial Reflections

     We live in a culture filled with zombies. We wonder around with our eyes glued on our phone screens and our minds driven about by every advertisement and flashing light. This aimlessness dulls our minds and our hearts. The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning fights this ever increasing trend in our culture. According to its mission statement, the center's main objective is essentially to help people learn about the literary arts and imaginative learning so that they can voice their own thoughts. I believe that this kind of learning is absolutely key in fighting the epidemic our culture is facing. 
     Their programs, centered around writing and literature, include classes in creative, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry writing as well as several language classes. For example, starting on the 30th of this month,  Renia Belmadani, a professor who believes strongly in the power of education, will be holding an Arabic class through the Carnegie Center. 
     There are also writing contests fairly regularly at the Carnegie Center. Below is a picture taken during the Gabehart Prize winner's reading. 

This photo was taken from the Instagram account of a volunteer at the Carnegie Center. 

     I have not yet gone to the center, but I am looking forward to working with such a unique and powerful program. You can learn more about this center through their Facebook, Twitter, and of course their website. 

Initial Written Reflection

The CARNEGIE CENTER

of Lexington Kentucky 

MISSION STATEMENT:

"The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning empowers people to explore and express their voices through imaginative learning and the literary arts."

               
As a center for literacy, Carnegie has created some goals that all their programs incorporate. Promoting learning in all age groups through fun and interactive activities that develop reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and technological skills is what they live by. Not only are community members welcome and encouraged to come gain something from the Carnegie center, but also artists and authors as well, especially local ones. 

The importance of the building itself, pictured below is true to Carnegie as well as it was to the original Lexington public library.

This photo was obtained from the Carnegie Center twitter  page which posts updates about upcoming events and informs followers of news and announcements at the Carnegie Center. It is a great way to see what they have going on currently rather than looking through their website to try to find basic information about current activities of theirs. 

  The Carnegie Center is known for providing rich and prevalent opportunities for writers and most recently they had an event for women's writers called The Yellow Wallpaper Project. This event was pretty simple but powerful and it involved a cork board full of yellow post its with degrading things about female writers that have been said and people were asked to take one down in exchange for something positive and encouraging that accurately depicts female writers. By the end of the week the wall was filled with positive pink notes. This is one example of the great interactive aspects at the Carnegie Center.

Above are Instagram posts from community members who have participated in the various events Carnegie has to offer. Although the Carnegie Center does not have it's own Instagram account, they have a location which is still searchable through the app.

First impression of the Carnegie Center

                The service organization that I am going to be dedicating my time to this semester is the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. I have not yet been able to visit the Carnegie Center, but I look forward to attending my orientation on Thursday, September 17. From what I have gathered online, my volunteer work will consist mainly of organizing bookshelves, helping with crafts, and assisting with an event that will be held at the Carnegie center on November 7^th called “Carnegie Classics: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” inspired by the classic novel written by Hunter S. Thompson in 1971. The event features a band called “The Other Brothers” who will be playing psychedelic rock from the 70’s, a drag show, and other activities inspired by the novel.

The goal of the Carnegie center is to help people grow and expand their knowledge of culture and literacy as well as express themselves through art.  They offer lessons in foreign languages, tutoring, and have numerous groups for writers, book lovers, poetry enthusiasts, artists, and much more. 

 I look forward to my volunteer work at the Carnegie Center because I think it will be a great opportunity to reach out to the Lexington community and get to know some people outside the university. I also think that it is a great way to learn skills that I can use later in my college career that I may not have the ability to learn in a classroom setting.

Initial Impression

The service site I will happily be investing my time into this semester is the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. Although I have not yet gotten the chance to visit, I plan on attending an orientation this Thursday, September 17. Something that really caught my interest when deciding between service sites were the visionary goals of the Carnegie Center which include:

• Encourage active, critical, and creative learning
• Promote the components of literacy, including reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, & technology
• Provide educational opportunities for people of all ages and levels of learning
• Establish partnerships with artists, educators, and community groups
• Support and promote Kentucky writers and artists
• Engage the imagination through literary arts
• Preserve and enhance the historic Carnegie building for the benefit of the community

These goals reflect the Carnegie Center really well and truly expose the focus of this organization. 

 I have studied the website for a glimpse of what I might be helping with and have been pleasantly surprised. It appears that most of my volunteer work will deal with stocking book shelves, helping with arts and crafts, and offering assistance with the Carnegie Classics: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas event that is happening in November. This event offers a night filled with fun entertainment such as an exciting performance by The Other Brothers, a drag show, a Vegas-style buffet and art inspired by cult classic, Hunter S. Thompson. As a volunteer, I would be helping with registration, ushering, serving non-alcoholic drinks, and cleaning. 

I am looking forward to the orientation Thursday and getting a chance to help out the Lexington community in a unique way!