Taking Stock

I was really happy to meet the next group of DASCorps members, if only briefly. One thing that stood out to me was the importance of documenting your achievements. It's helpful in a practical sense, having products that you can show to present and future employers. But its also important for your emotional well being as a VISTA. The year has a lot of ups and downs, and when things seem caught up in the day to day, or when projects are locked in limbo, it can be hard to remember what you've already done. Documenting my projects and accomplishments is something that I didn't do very well last year. I'm going to try to make up for it now.

Last summer/fall: made a video for a local basketball club, MASAE, in order to learn iMovie. Planned the org’s summer retreat. Got acquainted with the organization's yearly youth Symposium, and their community mapping project (they had a grant to develop mapping software). Went through their curriculum archives, and sat in on their Asian American Studies Workshop series.

Winter: reorganized the org's physical library (still in the process of the digital catalogue). Spent a lot of time building up the org's relationships with other Asian American youth groups and nonprofits. Wrote a bunch of grants that failed, and the community mapping project lost steam. Planned the org’s winter retreat.

Spring/Summer: coordinated the launch of a city wide Asian American youth Steering Committee. Got a grant from the city. Got my organization accepted as a summer job site. Tested my own Asian American Studies curriculum. Launched the org’s youtube site.

And all the while, compiling and testing stand alone workshops for high school youth, making flyers, etc.

Comment from Ben Sheldon on September 2, 2010 - 11:00am

Hey neighbor. Be sure to share some of your workshops with us so we can put them in the Artifacts section of our website: http://transmissionproject.org/resources And we'll try not to be strangers and come downstairs sometime. Watch out for new students.