New Videos Show Animation Work Done by Past Interns

A few days ago I posted an article telling that the Flash Animation projects done by interns between 2007 and 2011 were no longer view-able because browsers no longer support that technology.

I found a way to view them, by downloading a swfplayer and opening the projects that way. It works, but I doubt many will do this.

So I also innovated a way to create videos, using my phone's camera, and a $10 tripod, to show what's in these projects. Below is one that I created today that shows the resources in the Tutor/Mentor Connection library.


If you visit this page you will see a video link to other Flash Animation projects.

While this will show the work that was done, and hopefully inspire other students and volunteers to create their own visualizations showing the same projects that past interns have worked on, the fact that these were created before 2011 creates other problems.

Mainly, many links are broken.  

Thus, if you do use the swfplayer to view the project, nearly half the links no longer point to the specific page they are intended to show. I'd love to find a way to go into the programming for these and update the links, but I'm not sure how much benefit that will offer.

For now, this is a work-around solution. I'm sure if you're looking at the videos I've created or the blog article I write at the Tutor/Mentor blog site, you might say "I can do that better."  That's true. And that's an invitation to you and others to do this work yourself.

If you're a student, educator or someone else concerned with problems in your community, and see the need to create greater public involvement in learning about problems and potential solutions, enlisting young people to help attract those who could help would be a good way to start.

That's what I've been trying to do.

Flash Animations by Interns No Longer Easy to View - Workaround Needed

If you browse articles on this blog, dating back to 2007, you'll see a variety of visualizations, like this one, that use Flash animation to communicate a strategy of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (and since 2011 the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC).

Unfortunately, as time goes on older technologies are no longer supported and that includes Adobe Flash.  To view these in the format they were created you need to download a swfplayer which you can find at this link.

I've created a video, which you can see below, to show the project for those who don't want to download the swfplayer. I've also added some comments updating status of Tutor/Mentor Connection.  To see the project shown above, and others, visit this page.


Over the next couple of weeks I plan to record all of the projects created with Flash animation so they remain available to help people understand the strategies I launched in 1994 to help volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs reach youth in all high poverty neighborhoods of a city like Chicago, and to help each program get on-going resources that help them build mentor-rich strategies that help kids who start in these programs when in elementary school, be starting jobs and careers with the help of people they met on their journey through school.

Thank You! to Interns

At the same time, I'm trying to show that students and volunteers from middle school, high school, college and non-school programs in Chicago and other cities could be creating their own visualizations of Tutor/Mentor Connection strategies and share them with leaders in their own communities who need to provide the time, talent and dollars to make mentor-rich programs available.

I've coached interns using this on-line forum on Ning.com.  I invite you to look at the conversations and work done over past years.  As with the changes in technology, Ning moved from being a free site, to a moderate-cost site to a more expensive site over the past few years.  I've not been able to generate consistent revenue to support the Tutor/Mentor Connection via my current Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC structure, so don't know if I will be able to continue the Ning site past this coming year.  The annual fee for 2017-18 is $600. If you'd like to help pay that fee, use the PayPal button on my personal "gofundme" page to send a contribution.

If you're a student, volunteer or educator who might want to help with this work, introduce yourselve via the comment box or connect with me on Twitter or Facebook.

Introduction to Tutor/Mentor Exchange Web Site and Strategy

During her Jan-Feb 2015 internship with Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC, Wona Chang created two visualizations using Prezi. In one she showed a "learning path" that guides visitors through the different strategies and resources offered by the T/MI and Tutor/Mentor Connection. In the second, she showed different sections of the T/MI web site.

Below is the "learning path" video:



Below is the introduction to the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web site at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net

Hopefully these will be used by thousands of people who are looking for ways to help high quality, constantly-improving tutor/mentor programs grow in big cities like Chicago.

I wrote this article focused on deeper learning in 2012. It emphasizes the many hours of reading and reflection needed to understand issues before being able to lead and innovate solutions. The work Wona and other interns have done illustrates a learning strategy that could be duplicated in many places. Spend time browsing information related to an issue that is important to you, then create your own visualization to guide others through the same information.

If more people do this for many years we can change the way we solve problems in the world.  As I've said in the past, I think youth in high schools, college and other non-school tutor/mentor programs could be doing the same type of work as Wona and past interns have done, helping others in their community find and use ideas that help great programs grow in ALL of the places where kids need extra help.

If you're doing this work, or want to do it with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC please introduce yourself.

Simplifying Complex Ideas - Role of Interns

This is a graphic introduced a few months ago on the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC blog via this article. Most people looking at this will be overwhelmed and won't dig deeper to understand how it relates to their own involvement with helping youth through school and into jobs.

Since 2005 interns from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Hong Kong Baptist, Northwestern, Loyola and many other universities have been spending time reading articles like this, then creating their own interpretations, in an effort to help more people view, understand, then apply the ideas.

The video below was launched today. It was created by SUNJOONG YOO, who is one of two students from South Korea working with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC since Jan 20.

Once you've looked at the video do you understand it's message better than before? If so, please share it with leaders in business, colleges, politics, etc. so others will understand and apply the ideas. Youth from many schools, youth organizations and cities could be creating visualizations like this as part of a citywide effort to transform the way youth are supported. If you'd like to help make this happen we'd like to hear from you.

New PSA for Tutor/Mentor

This is one of four short videos created by SUNJOONG YOO, and intern from South Korea and IIT, to encourage more viewers to look at ideas shared on Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC web sites. Take a look!
 



These are the four short 45 second PSA videos.

* Shoppers Guide - click here
* Virtual Corporate Office - click here
* Planning Cycle - War on Poverty - click here
* Problem Solving - 4  Part Strategy - click here

The Power of Small Change

This video was created over the past two weeks by SunjoongYoo, who is a winter 2014 intern of Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC in Chicago.



This is one of many visualizations created by interns since 2005. It's also an example of the type of project students from many place could be doing in an on-going effort to create more and better non-school learning, mentoring and job training opportunities for youth living in high poverty neighborhoods.

Business recognizes girls as formidable new force

This week's article of Crain's Chicago Business features a story showing how girls are becoming high powered social activists.

I have written several articles in the past showing how young people can take on activist roles, motivating adults to do more than what they do now to help kids have safe places, good schools, and access to jobs and careers.

All of the graphics and videos shown on this blog, and this page, were done by college interns. However, these could have been done by middle school and high school students.

Let's recruit more young people to create and lead campaigns that make mentor rich youth programs available in all of the high poverty neighborhoods where the are needed.

New Video Shows Planning Strategy Needed in War on Poverty

Kyungryul Kim, an intern from South Korea, has created a new video to communicate the ideas in this PDF essay, which shows strategies needed to build and sustain a wide range of youth serving organizations reaching k-12 kids in high poverty areas of Chicago and other cities.


This are a few of many presentations created by interns since 2005. View more in this blog and on this page.

How YOU can make a difference! New Video by Intern

This is a new video for Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC), created by Kyungryul Kim from South Korea. He is in an internship with T/MC in Chicago. Kyngryul looked at a past presentation about Tutor/Mentor connection, and made this video to communicate the ideas in a new way.



As you browse through articles posted on this blog for the past several years you can see work done by many other interns. Or goal is that hundreds, or even thousands, of young people in cities across the world become involved in this project, using their own talents to share ideas and mobilize volunteers and donors to support youth-serving programs in places where they are most needed.

If you want to get involved subscribe to the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum and join this group.

Videos Created By Interns

Since 2005 interns from Korea, China and local universities have been creating visualizations and videos to communicate the ideas and strategies of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and to draw volunteers and donors to programs like Cabrini Connections.

This page was created to serve as a library of these. I hope you'll visit and share these ideas. I also hope that youth from high schools, collages, non-school tutor/mentor programs and other organizations will create their own videos, with the same ideas and call-to-action, drawing volunteers and donors to youth organizations in every part of Chicago, and every city in the country.

Mentoring offers Hope and Opportunity

This graphic is from an animation, which was created by Song Mi Lee during the six week internship she just completed with the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.  View it on this Ning.com page.  Read article by Song Me Lee - click here

Our interns are part of a partnership with Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. Students come from Korea and China for a semester and spend the last six weeks in an internship with a local business or non profit. The video below is another project that Song Mi completed on her final day with us.



Another heart shape project is shown here. This was animated, and you can find it in this video.

 The work space for these projects is in the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum. Visit and you can see work for the past few years.

This wiki page describes our goal of recruiting students from many high schools and colleges to do this work. This page shows how students doing this work can be acting as the research team for universities trying to build a better understanding of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.

Thank you to Song Mi and Sung Hee for their work this winter. If you'd like to become involved just join the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum and introduce yourself.

Introduction to Tutor/Mentor Connection

This video was created by Song Hee Jung and Song Mi Lee, interns from IIT and Korea who have just completed a six week internship with the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC.



Follow the intern project on the Tutor/Mentor Connection forum.

Volunteer Recruitment Video

Minsub Lee, a 2011 intern from IIT and Korea, created this video to support volunteer recruitment. The link on the video points to this page on the Tutor/Mentor Connection web site where people from Chicago and other cities can get ideas for mobilizing volunteers.

During the summer we invite teens and volunteers from other programs to submit videos that they create to promote volunteer and donor involvement in tutor/mentor programs. We'll share links to those that do the most to bring these resources to all programs in a geographic area, in addition to the host program.

What can sports stars do?

This graphic is from a new animated video was created by an intern from Korea working with the Tutor/Mentor Connection during May/June 2011. It was created from the ideas in this pdf and these blog articles. Play video.

Our goal is to teach athletes who already have set up foundations and support youth programs to go one step further and use their visibility to motivate fans to support tutor/mentor programs throughout the city where they play sports. If enough athletes do this, and if some use their web sites and blogs to create their own versions of these videos, we can fill the stands with many more volunteers, donors and fans helping tutor/mentor programs reach inner city kids.

Interns tell story in Chinese and Korean

Today is the last day of a seven-week internship for Jenny and Willow, who came to us through a program with Hong Kong Baptist University. Earlier this spring, two students from Korea, via IIT, were interns.

One of the ways this year's interns have helped us is by creating videos, in Chinese and Korean, to translate our message to people who don't speak English.

Jenny/Willow Video


Chuck/Mingsang Video

Find more videos like this on Tutor/Mentor Connection


We'd like to recruit interns and volunteers with Spanish, French and German language skills, and more volunteers from Korea and China. If we can convert Tutor/Mentor Connection ideas into different languages, more people will be able to use them, and more people from different parts of the world will add their own support to creating and implementing these strategies.

Thank you Willow, Jenny, Chuck and Mingsang!