Interns at Cabrini Connections

This blog was started three years ago, by Michael Tam, a student from Hong Kong Baptist University, who spend the summer of 2006 as an Intern at Cabrini Connections. In 2007 Paul Wei (shown at our July 2007 Golf Benefit) continued the blog.

This summer we do not have an intern from Hong Kong Baptist University, but we have had interns from Korea, Brazil, Indiana University and the University of Michigan work with us in the past year.

Below is a list of projects being done by current and former student interns, and volunteers, to support Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection:

Conference Video by June 2008 Korean Interns - flash presentation

Dinner Video by June 2008 Korean Interns - flash presentation

Web quests developed by January 2008 Korea Interns, here and here

Service learning presentation Paul Wei created in 2007 - flash.presentation

Visualization of Tutor/Mentor Strategy done in April 2008 by Indiana University students - Visualization

Interview by our Brazil intern - here

You can review a documentation system web page built by a volunteer in Baltimore, using workers from India, here

You can review a map gallery hosted by a volunteer from Wisconsin, here

And, you can review a Business School Connection vision, posted on a wiki by a Graduate Student from the University of Chicago School of Business at this link.

Meet our Korean interns at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/groups

These all represent efforts by Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection to mobile talent from people in Chicago, and throughout the world, who will help gather and share information, create advertising and on-line education, and innovate other solutions that increase the number of people involved in helping youth living in poverty connect with on-going, volunteer-based adult support systems that expand the network of adults and learning opportunities intended to help these young people move through school and into jobs and careers.

If you are looking for an intern opportunity, or a PhD topic, or are teaching media and communications at a middle school, high school, college or business, and are looking for a real world application for your teaching and learning, consider working with the Tutor/Mentor Connection and apply what you learn to help us in Chicago, and to help youth in the city and country where you live.

Join us at http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com/ or http://www.tutormentorconnection.org/

2008

I am in Hong Kong now and I just enjoyed the Chinese new year(Feb. 7th) with my family in Shanghai.

This lunar new year has been a very special one. Many areas in mainland China suffered from snowstorm, and it had turned to be the most serious one in the past 50 years. Supplies and facilities were damaged, and hundreds of thousand people heading for home for the festival were stuck in train stations in some cities.

I will graduate in one year and start my career soon. The experience with tutor/mentor connection is very helpful to me. I am glad to know that another intern from HK Baptist Univerisity will go to T/MC this summer.

I also checked the two web quests made by the interns from Korea. Personally I like the South Korea Webquest more because it offers an great opportunity to the students to touch eastern culture. It can help them establish a global view. It is very wise to have international interns from time to time working with TM/C.

- by Paul

In Hong Kong

It's been a while that I haven't made post here. Life in the past 2 months was so busy. Assignments and projects just kept coming and I didn't had enough time to see to the flash I worked on. But the semester will end in 3 weeks and there will be some free time after that.

I think the universities in Hong Kong should give students more time to allocate. It is not good for us to spend all day in dealing with the assignments and miss some opportunities of developing in different areas. Actually I heard that some of the universities in HK have planned to extend their 3-year undergraduate courses to 4-year in 2012. I think this is a good news for the freshman in high schools.

The children in Hong Kong are taken good care of but Hong Kong has its own problems. One is, eople here have high pressure from different aspects and the suicide rate, whch is 17.5/100,0000 (2003), is much higher than the average rate of the world(14.5 in 2000) discovered by World Health Organization.

As I expected, I think I really miss the time I had and the nice people I met in the US. I remember them as if the vivid scenes are just in front of me.

--by Paul

Arrived HK

I arrived Hong Kong on Sept. 1st and settled down in my new room.
During the 15 days I vsited Washington DC, NYC, Orlando and LA. The trip was really amazing but it also made me exhausted. After that I flew back to Shanghai to be with my family and stayed for 5 days.
The time I had in the US was so valuable to me and it will have influence on my future life. I will miss all the nice people I met there.
Now I am looking forward to the new semester in my university.
I will discuss with Dan on the flash presentation and continue on it.

Last day

This is the last day of my internship in Tutor/Mentor Connection. Tomorrow I will fly to Washington to begin a series of trips around the United States.

I have really been having good times here. Yesterday, the colleagues held a very nice lunch for me. It did surprised me that they gave me many meaningful things as gifts. I don't even have had such a good lunch for birthday in the past years! They are very nice persons and I am really happy being with them.

The flash is not 100% completed but it is time to let you have a look at what I have been working on.

click here to view it

There is still a lot of work to do on it as Dan has more ideas to make it better, so I will keep on working on it after the vacation. In addition, I have added another flash presentation of the "No General Goes to War w/o a Map" to the Tutor/Mentor Exchange Institute.

At last, Thank you all for being with me and helping me with everything. I don't want to make it sentimental because this is not an end, and the connections will go on.

Last week

It is August 7th and this is the last week I am in Chicago. It is just like what Michael said - Time flies.

I have been working on the flash animation since last post. I feel like that I am learning a new skill along with working on it and this is very encouraging to me. I always like leaning new things. Let me show you the current progress.

The little figure attached to the track moves along the track and it is just a loop. The 4 colors indicate the 4 diferent phases in the service learning process which is boosted by Tutor/Mentor connection. What I am looking forward to do is to add some interactive things like buttons to make it more user-friendly and easy to understand.

BTW, the idea of "track" to demonstrate the concept was brought up by Dan. He said the idea came up to him when he watched kids playing video games. This is really interesting that we can extract some creative ideas from daily life to help what we are working on.

If anyone of you happen to have some good idea on it, please tell me!

This is not the last post I make here. I will let you know more if I finish the flash later in this week, and I will keep updating after I leave Chicago.

- Paul WEI

No business no gain (3)

On thursday, I went to the golf tournament at highland park country club with the colleagues and some kids. I don't have a younger sister/brother or else like a nephew in Shanghai or Hong Kong, so I had little experience communicating with kids, but this time I spent most of the day with the kids around the field with the golf carts. I had a lot of fun with the kids and they were so energetic.

After the golf game, a silent auction was held along with the dinner. This was the first time I heard of silent auction and I was just there. Dan and other colleagues introduced a lot about the program and everything during the talks with the business men and the speech they delivered. The kids had also given good speeches one by one and Marcus, who was the youngest among them, was a little bit shy, but I think he is a good boy and with cabrini connections he will be a good man in the future.

Last week was really a fulfilled week. I met many nice people from different areas and shared many ideas with them.

What I am working on now is a flash animation simulating the concept of concept of the role of Tutor/Mentor Connection. It is really challenging as I need to find a good way to explain the concept to new comers and this is actually the first time I learn to use Adobe Flash to create animation. I used to ask my friends to handle the flash editing tasks needed to decorate my websites, so this is a good opportunity for me to learn to make flash animations myself. The picture below shows the rough looking of the current progress.



Hope that I can finally make it.

No business no gain (2)

Second day, we went to navy pier after a series of activities at Cabrini Connections. The kids got on ferris wheel but when they got off, some of the kids said it was just OK. The Shanghai Circus was giving performance those days, and I heard some Chinese music play around ferris wheel, so I thought they might be doing rehearsal in the closed theatre beside ferris wheel. It was really good to find something familiar to me in a place oceans away from my hometown.

After that, we walked to Museum of Contemporary Art and took a 20-minute appreciation of the art works there. The art works there were very creative and some of them were even cynical but meaningful.

I like to think about different questions. Education is a hot topic in my mind, because I will be a parent when it just comes to me. Based on my being-a-child memory, I am always trying to figur out questions like what could make a child grow in a positive way, what are important to gain a good upbringing etc.

I think the appreciation of art plays a very important role in influencing a kid's character and talent. The image he or she see will always remain in his or her brain and keep a potential effect. It is really good to offer the kids more opportunities to get in touch with art.

In Mainland China, there is a more and more common trend that parents and schools have given too high priority to acadamic score. Some of them care nothing but the scores their kids get from acadamic examinations and have ignored many other important or even critical qualities which the kids are supposed to have. Every year, the news report that a few students in some of the top universities around the country commit suicide. A few years ago, a student in Sichuan University(a very famous one in China) killed his four roommates with a hammer in campus and this made all people in China shocked and force us to think about what's going on in our education system.

Another problem in our education system is about poverty. Many kids in some remote areas get inadequet education resources. Although our law claims a 9-year compulsory education for every kid, some families are just too poor to afford it. The government does have spent a lot effort and resources to help the kids in poverty, but many other problems, like corruption etc., seem to have a greater resistance. The philanthropy in China is also still in period of developing. It has been slowly filtering into people's minds but it still needs a long way to go.

It seems that I have been a bit "critical" and put many problems on table to show, but it is just the reality people have to face. There is no possibility to solve it until we are brave enough to face it.

I am glad to see that some of my friends have gone to Cambodia to help the kids there against the diseases and poverty and they have introduced many experiences they had on their blogs. This is how internet can help us learn where the people need help and what they need and this is internatinal.

Later I will introduce some more on this.

--Paul

No business no gain (1)

It has been a while since last update. Last week I made a great 3-day direct interact with the kids by participating the activities led by the students and teachers from Edgewood College. The 3 days made last week really exhausting but meaningful.

First day, we had a long trip in downtown. We were divided into groups with the kids and worked on some tasks like finding out the average number of french fries in MC Donald or the names of 3 churches we came to. When I was a little boy, my school didn't even have such kind of activities. The funniest activities organized by my school were like just a simple trip to a zoo or a museum.

We also went to the Tribune Freedom Museum. I was a bit confused when I came to the name of the museum. The concept of freedom is a very abstract idea in my country. Common people never talk about it, and when the right of freedom is violated, people don't even notice it. It just seems like the word "freedom" mostly appear in peoms or fictions. I was wondering how a museum would exhibit a intangible concept like freedom, but after I went through the museum, I did gain a new understanding of how Americans care about freedom. According to the previous experience and the materials I read, I think the government of my country has not done a satisfying job on appreciating the right of freedom on some affairs. There may be some difficulties due to objective conditions, but something could have been better if they thought more about it.

This is just a part of what I went through last week. I will post more later.

PS. I have added the blog of Nicole, who is a graduate from Northwestern University and also a new intern in Cabrini Connection, to the links section on the right side, and as Dan mentioned in his comment on Michael's post, another tutor/mentor blog created by John Jenkins is added as well.

Transformation

Hello, I am Paul WEI, the new intern in TM/C from Hong Kong baptist university, and since this post - the first post I make here - I have changed the blog's name from "Michael's blog" to "Interns from HK - created by Michael". Dan, Michael, and I hope to make this blog a place connecting the alumni with TM/C.

It has been 2 weeks since I came to TM/C and I do have been learning a lot here just like Michael did. I also spent nearly a week on understanding what TM/C is contributing to and how it works, and I still keep gaining more understanding through the jobs i work on and discussions i have with Dan. He has many solid ideas on what TM/C is doing. I really appreciate it that he is willing to share these valueble ideas with me very often.

BTW, here is the link of the concept map i worked on last week:
Homework Help Links
Hope that it can help people, especially the kids, find what they need in the sea of information.

I will keep on updating here.


-Paul

Internship again

Life is busy since the beginning of the semester. I just went to the newly-designed homepage of the T/MC. It looks better than the previous one. I like the design very much. Also, I registered again in order to login successfully.

I prepare my honor project and finding jobs. On the other hand, I participate in an internship program organized by my department. It is one of the requirements and assessment criteria of the course. I serve as an part-time intern in an environmental protection organization from September to November. My job duty is to conduct a research related to the side- effects of reclamation and use the result to prepare one set of exhibition boards for the organization to display in primary and secondary schools.

I will keep you all posted.

Report

I notice there are great changes in the T/MC website. I feel sorry to hear that the platform of the site needs to be rebuilt. I hope that everything will be fine.

On the other hand, after returning to Hong Kong, my university asked all interns to submit a written report together with several photos taken in the office and attractions regarding life and working experience in Chicago. It is estimated that the university will publish all reports in November for promoting next year’s internship program.

I will keep you all posted.

Review

Time flies! I left Chicago for several weeks. The new semester will begin on 4 September. It begins my busy life again. I register the subjects that I will take in the coming semester recently.

I keep on watching the website of the Tutor Mentor Connection and Dan's blog. I review my job duties after coming to Hong Kong. I serve as an on- line learning, collaboration and communications intern. Using different forms of Internet collaboration to make peoples around the world understand the Tutor Mentor Connection and connect all volunteers is the strategy that I use. For example, I use this blog to share my understanding of the T/MC concepts and use the T/MC forum to encourage more people to participate in the discussion. I hope I will have the chance to meet the next intern to exchange our experience and ideas by using different kinds of Internet collaboration that I mentioned.

I'm now in H.K.

Hello everyone. After fifteen-hour flight, I am now in Hong Kong. I miss Chicago very much. It is surely an unforgettable experience to me. Though I am not living in Chicago, I can still work for the Tutor Mentor Connection and keep in touch with you all by using Internet. It shows the magic of Internet, which eliminates the geographic barrier between two places.

After telling my relatives and friends about my job duties and the concept of the T/MC, they think that I had a meaningful experience in Chicago. Daniel’s teachings broaden my horizon. I still remember his teachings, which are important to my life.

I will try to find some suitable resources for the T/MC website and keep you all posted.

Volunteers Recruitment & Advertising Skills

Before coming to Chicago, I did not think that I would learn so many new things in my internship. Universities told me that my job duty is to do research by using Internet for a community service organization. After working in the T/MC, I find that I learn some advertising skills and strategies. They are all important to small organizations without too much money.

Some institutions can be employed as our strategies for advertising and achieving T/MC’s mission. University is an example. It nurtures a huge amount of talents each year. Students can use their knowledge to help the kids academically. In fact, our community provides the best place for hands-on learning. Structured community service experiences provide students an opportunity to learn about community needs and enhance their commitment to their community, while developing leadership skills at the same time. Therefore, university and the T/MC can cooperate with each other for the volunteer program. It is beneficial to both institutions.

Apart from volunteer recruitment, our advertising strategy can be achieved by giving students a talk or a series of lectures so that they can understand the T/MC’s concepts. We should make them know such concept can apply to other fields like business and schools.

Hospital is another targeted institution. It plays an important role in a community and assisting our program. Hospitals represent love and care. Their goal is similar to us. In fact, they can help teaching the youths the health knowledge. Recruiting interns for the teens in order to let them exposed to different working environments and lower the cost of the hospitals. Moreover, it lightens our financial burden by sharing their resources

I have been tried my best to share my understanding of the T/MC concepts and advertising strategies with you all in this blog. Potential volunteers and donors can read more at the following website.
http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/

Finally, I would like to express my thanks to Daniel and colleagues for providing a chance for me to be an intern and give me lots of assistance respectively.

Summary

Time flies! It is my last week in Chicago. I have been working in the Tutor Mentor Connection for seven weeks. It’s the right time for me to summarize the experience that I gained during the journey.

It is a valuable and meaningful experience to me indeed. All the things that I learnt here are new to me. It makes me feel satisfied after the journey. I still remember that I have difficulties in understanding the concepts behind the T/MC at the first week of the internship. It is good that Daniel and other colleagues give me lots of help in overcoming that problem.

After several discussions with Dan, I realize such idea is lacking in Hong Kong. I think the thought cannot be rooted because the citizens rely on different kinds of pension and the current social security system very much. The adverse effect is that it increases government’s financial burden. More importantly, it does not mean that these measures can solve the fundamental social problems in the city. Being a business city, most Hong Kong people can access to the Internet easily. In addition to this, the community services can be supported by the business sector financially. There is a huge amount of social workers graduated from universities each year, which provide sufficient workforce in community services. Therefore, the concept of T/MC can be introduced and applied to Hong Kong.

T/MC devotes to cooperating with other related organizations to discuss strategies for solving the common social problems that we are facing now. The organization also believes education saves children from going astray. It further reveals that more volunteers are needed. I hope there will be more interns or volunteers coming from different countries, professions and disciplines. It is hoped that they help spreading the concept within their network.

Network

Traditional community service organizations take care of the problems in their own community or nation. Cooperation was lacking. The result is just as Daniel said, “every program does their own thing”. The limited resources thus cannot be utilized effectively. It is difficult for us to solve some serious and common problems like poverty if we continue to arrange our programs in this pattern.

We can use Internet for mentoring, advertising and discussion. Discussion means volunteers, who have different backgrounds, can participate in the discussion. They can use their professional knowledge to give some strategies for advertising and “e-mentoring”. Such brainstorming acts as a useful tool to further improve our existing program and enhance our cooperation without any constraints.

On the other hand, people may not understand the idea of tutoring and mentoring. Volunteers, who are serving in different professions, can help explaining this idea within their network. It just like priests went to places around the world for preaching. The difference is we use Internet and our own network to “preach” such idea.

Advertising and Marketing

The three-day self-awareness workshop has been finished last week. There were lots of activities organized for students. Activities include sharing, games and so on. After the workshop, I understand much more about the operation of the T/MC. Also, I strongly feel that volunteers’ commitment to the program and it is essential to the development of the program. Therefore, the recruitment of volunteers is one of the prerequisite for the success of the program.

Traditionally, advertising confines to television and press. It is believed that they are the most effective way for promotion. Advertising is one of the main parts of any marketing program. College programs in marketing, such as those found on this college marketing degree site routinely cover the benefits of advertising. A majority of careers in marketing will also have a heavy involvement with advertising. However, they are expensive and not economical to small-scaled organizations. In order to attract more people to be involved in the T/MC and understand its concept, Internet is a useful tool for mentoring that I mentioned last time and advertising. Internet provides another channel for those organizations, which have little money but want to promote their services or products.

Blogs, forums are some tools, which can be utilized by us to promote our program. In addition to this, we can exchange our ideas regarding the tutoring and mentoring program so as to enhance our understanding and the quality of our community services.

Idea

Before going to Chicago, I think community services confine to paying visits to the needy’s home, organizing some activities for the aged and poor children only. It is difficult to imagine that Internet can be one of the methods to help the needy.

Traditionally, interaction between tutor/mentor and students operates on a face-to-face basis. With the invention of Internet, charities should grasp the gist of such trend, because teenagers interested in it and it provides an opportunity for the charities to expend their services in a larger scale because Internet was an effective and flexible tool that it does not restricted by time and geographical differences. It signifies that more people can be benefited. Moreover, discussion forum on the Internet makes T/MC formed another community or family where friendships were built.

I think the T/MC works best if more former students or alumni can be tutors or mentors to teach the new generation upon graduation. The alumni, who share the same background with our students, can share their learning and working experience.

Reflection

Hi, I am Michael. I have been working here for three weeks. I enjoy my life and cherish my experience in Chicago. Being encouraged by Daniel, I started writing journal weekly, reflecting my experience and feeling when I am working in the T/MC. I think it is a good way to provide a channel for us to share our ideas, views on the programe.

Learning the concept of the T/MC is the first thing that I have to do before starting my job. They are new to me. With the help of Daniel and Ariane, I understand more about the operation of the program after reading “Be a volunteer” at http://www.cabriniconnections.net/beavolunteer.html. It presented how to be a volunteer in a systematic way. All potential volunteers are cordially encouraged to read this first before participation. U all can go to FAQ section for understanding more about our programme.

There are some differences between the situation of Hong Kong and Chicago. Most of the community services provided by charities are very much depended on government’s support. After discussing with Daniel, I understand T/MC helps to relieve the burden of the government and the poor by recruiting volunteers to help those who need help. I think it is our responsibility to share their burdens and this concept can be applied to Hong Kong in a large scale where community services are still lacking.

To ensure the integrity of the system, I check the links in the LINKS section are workable. Also, I prepare to help to add links and update the information in the Program Locator.
I feel happy as I know what I am doing is meaningful. As there will be more students to come to join our programme, we need more volunteers to join us. We appreciate your help.