Finished!

I've finally finished all of my classes and I only have one day left with my internship. I figured the only thing I can do on the last blog post is reflect on what I've learned this semester.

Overall I've learned to understand nonprofit management in a much more intricate way, especially for a nonprofit that is so young. I've learned a ton about communications and media and press releases and how to handle social networking. I've learned about public relations and experienced a great firm in action first hand. I've learned about the immigration process and gotten a look inside the Department of Homeland Security. I've learned how to expand a clientele base and outreach to specific groups using strategic messaging. I've learned the values of networking and how important good connections are. I've learned about the educational value of civic ideals, and about the current status of civic education in the state. To be honest I've even learned the value of reflection, and debriefing my work occasionally using ths blog.

I didn't think I would enjoy writing about what I do on a day to day basis, but even if it hasn't been interesting to anyone else, its been very interesting for me. Going back and reading my posts I am able to recollect details I'm sure I would have forgotten previously. And it helps to analyze and track your progress in a process of learning and growth.

Next steps:
I am a finalist for the Student Regent position and am looking forward to continuing that process.
I have applied for internships with the City of Phoenix, and the Arizona Association of Counties and a job with the City of Chandler, all of which would be exciting experiences.
I have finished my first semester in Grad School and am learning to really like my program, even though I fell into it on accident.
I will be taking some interesting classes over the next few semesters.
I will continue my hobbies and part time jobs and hopefully continue to be successful in them as well.

Overall it was a good semester, but I'm most excited for a well-deserved break!

Next Interns

As my internship is wrapping up, I recently found out that a friend of mine will be taking my place with Citizenship Counts next semester. I'm very excited for her and I know she will do a great job. As far as the transition goes, I'm sure knowing one another will help the process to be smooth and effortless. In past internships I have taken over and had almost little to no information given to me on unfinished projects. The different organizational means and so on, simply made everything very difficult.

Here is a list of things I need to do in order to prepare for the turnover:

1. Collect all computer files in one place
2. Label all computer files using common sense names.
3. List my current unfinished and on going projects and where they are at.
4. Send my blog URL to her.
5. Organize my workspace in a logical way.
6. Throw away all the old and unneeded documents.
7. Make a list of tips and tricks I learned to share with her.


Hopefully if I do all of things the transition will be easier on her, on my boss, and on the company in general. I should look into the ways that other employees transfer information when moving on from an organization, and see if there are official or unofficial rules for doing this in the professional world.

Facebook Fan Page

My current assignment is to create a Fan Page on Facebook for our Founder, in order to handle all of the media requests and popularity she has received with her recent award. Its actually pretty interesting too. I go on facebook fairly often and update my profile when anything major happens in my life. But I've never used facebook to achieve business goals.

I read a post a while back from a fellow intern about the limitations to facebook and I certainly agree. Although it can certainly boost visibility to a degree, and also contribute to general interest, its rare that facebook will actually promote profit or generate business. We previously used a "cause" page on facebook, where we could even receive donations. But this was hardly successful. Facebook users rarely login to spend money, and are more interested in hearing recent news and enjoy wasting time in between projects.

The fan pages are unique however. They have the capability to expand marketing techniques to change format, layout, request donations, provide links, have an online store etc. all through the use of FBML. It is similar to HTML, but is a specific language used and developed by Facebook. This is in the process of being removed in exchange for another language which is more intuitive and a little bt more versatile called iframes. This is certainly a side of facebook I had not encountered before, but found fascinating. It took me a while to get the hang of it, and im certainly no pro, but I was able to adjust the settings of the fan page by inserting and writing some of my own code. In order to make the site really user friendly and appealing however we will need to use a professional writer or a generator of some kind. It sounds like we should maybe invest in Dreamweaver, although I don't think we have the money for it.

Business Travel Reflections

This weekend was a tough trip. Upon arriving in Birmingham I discovered my bag did not make it with me, not to mention I had been delayed by about 2 hours. Finally getting to the hotel at close to 1 am, with nothing more than my laptop and a pack of gum, I collapsed for the few short hours I had to sleep. I woke up the next day and was picked up by a good friend, and Jazz Professor at Samford University, Chip Crotts. We drove to the auditions and I was lucky enough to get to run things for about 2 hours before i had to leave to prepare for my interview. I quickly drove down to a nearby department store and bought a shirt and tie (since I was skyping into the interview I could get away with still wearing jeans and sneakers). I prepared for about half an hour and then did a sound and video check while the committee was eating lunch.

The interview itself went fairly well. I think I was able to answer most of the questions comprehensively and succinctly with only a few ramblings here and there. In all I was left back at the airport exhausted and in need of sleep and a shower. I was able to pick up my bag downstairs from the luggage counter, just in time to walk it upstairs and recheck it for my flight home. I paid $50 for the airlines to ship my bag to and from Alabama,  without ever once even being opened.

I think business travel won't always be this stressful or hectic. But it certainly hasn't given me much hope for the recent future.

Business Travel

This weekend I am traveling to Birmingham to run a clinic for a Drum and Bugle Corps I teach. Alysa is off to Minnesota for some business travel of her own and to continue to improve relations with immigration services there since this is one of our key communities to expand to in the coming months.

I never realized traveling for business could be so boring. I have only done this a few other times, but was always staying with friends. This time I'll be alone in a hotel most of the time. And tomorrow after my clinic I'll be skyping in to an interview for the Student Regent position here in Arizona. It will be a busy weekend, amidst classes and papers and finals, so I hope that everything goes smoothly. From trying to iron clothes in my hotel room, to making good first impressions in uncomfortable environments, there is a lot to experience with traveling for work. I hope I get to keep traveling, but in the future get to see the sights in addition to working, and maybe travel to more exotic places than Birmingham. But who knows, maybe I'll get to sample some great Southern cooking!

Getting Google’s Attention

Apparently one of the rising industries in technology and marketing is expertise in SCO Modules. Basically what this means is that people study and consult companies and organizations about how to get noticed by search engines like Google. These organizations and individuals understand the algorithms that Google uses to pull up results and understand the way to improve these ratings so that your web page can receive increased traffic.

So with the help of our Board Member and Marketing guru Carrie Martz, we had a meeting with an organization called Digital Dogs, who focus exactly on this. With the recent announcement that our founder will be receiving a Presidential Medal of Freedom, we expected to receive some additional web traffic, however this didn’t really happen. Actually, if you search our founder’s name on Google CC doesn’t come up until the 6^th or 7^th page. So Mike from Digital Dogs took a look at our website and gave us some pointers on how to improve this such as:

-Eliminating numerous pages with the same content or copy

-Putting key search terms in as many large places as possible

-Try to link to larger, influential websites, and have them link back to you

-Try to update your website frequently, especially while focusing on those key terms

-And many other complicated website building and html kinds of technicalities

What this means for me is a lot of time on our website putting key phrases in important places and restructuring the site map so that Google more easily understands the links set up on our page.

I never realized how lucrative and important this kind of knowledge was, understanding how Google’s algorithms work. It makes me wonder if I have useful knowledge that I don’t even realize is useful yet, and maybe I should try and find a way to make that impact the success of CC in more ways.

Recruitment Part 2- Pardes Day School

This week Alysa and I had a meeting with the administrators at Pardes Day School, a Jewish school in Scottsdale. As part of our outreach attempts we are trying to implement our program in a variety of environments. I worked earlier in the semester to reach out to home schooled children and their parents and attempt to provide our services to them. Now we are trying to implement our curriculum into schools with a variety of religious backgrounds as well as nonreligious private schools and charter schools.

The meeting went very well. We have a few board and staff connections with the administrators so the initial conversation was very casual and they were incredibly receptive to the idea of hosting their own naturalization ceremony in the spring. They even had ideas about how they could tailor the program to activities they are already doing with the children on a daily basis. They currently have a Jewish immigration section of study for eighth graders and they show a film by MacArthur Grant recipient Meredith Monk.  They promised to speak to the teachers within the next few weeks about implementations and the initial scheduling of dates.

One of the most exciting aspects is their interest in using our online curriculum, which should be up and running within a couple months. We knew this would be popular with many schools that have ample access to technology, but this is the first time someone has actually expressed direct interest since I’ve been with the organization.

They also asked us to look into possible partnerships with an organization called “People to People” which currently runs similar programs to one of our current partners. If the interests seem to align themselves this might serve as another opportunity to team together to receive additional grants and funding.

Evaluating Job and Benefits Offers

I had planned on going to the workshop this afternoon about "Evaluating Job and Benefit Offers" at teh post office at Downtown Campus, however the event was canceled. I was able to get the handouts, and it turns out a couple other students had done the same thing as I had. Maybe some of them are fellow Public Affairs interns!?

Anyway, the information I gathered told me a lot of similar information that I had previously learned in interview workshops. Things like:
-prepare a list of answers to expected questions in advance
-practice negotiating, and have good reason for the things you ask for
-have confidence
-let them make the initial bid
-have an idea in mind of what you should be expecting.

What is most interesting though, is trying to quantify how much I am worth as an employee. If I were to try and put a dollar amount on how much I am worth, I think I would have a hard time doing so. It is hard to do when taking into consideration past experience, education, connections, basic skills, ability to work with others, etc.  Maybe I should evaluate myself compared to my peers and see what they are making? But maybe the economic recession will affect my possibility to earn a good wage? I know it has certainly minimized the number of jobs available.

I recently applied for a job with the City of Chandler and am waiting to hear back about the interview process. Originally I was planning on pitching myself in the interview as a "bargain" employee. Young (so cheap), but still experienced and willing to work hard to prove myself. I'm the most "bang for your buck". But maybe this comes off as desperate and would be looked down upon as being unprofessional.

But to be honest...  maybe I am desperate! hahaha

I sure wish that workshop hadn't have been canceled.

New Dog, Old Tricks

One of the things my internship has recently shown me, is that I have more skills than I had previously recognized. I haven't written in html code since I was in middle school, taking computer classes, but recently I've had to relearn this tool.

Our website is designed by a company called Parsus, and they use the Wordpress software. They are typically involved with creating mobile sites for restaurants, for example when you are able to order Chipotle from your phone. But for us they made an exception since we have personal contacts between the two organizations.

Since we have been having a ton of media hits for the recent announcement that our founder will be receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it has been my job to update all of the news stories to our website. This has meant writing in html code. So sure enough I'm relearning the code and the tricks and hints that go along with it. I'm actually surprised at how quickly it came back to me, and I've been enjoying relearning how it works. I might even keep studying it a little over break and see if I can become proficient enough to be able to put that on my resume as a skill.

School of One

One of my cousins works with a nonprofit education company in New York called School of One that recently won a Robin Hood Heroes award. A Robin Hood Heroes award is given to a few groups or individuals in New York who "have overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles and shown us the resiliency of the human spirit." I thought it was particularly interesting as it relates to my internship because it focuses on a lot of the other education themes I have been posting this semester.

The concept is relatively simple- technological diversification of learning. Instead of trying to teach students in a classroom full of other students their age group, they are able to work independently through a variety of mediums to ensure they are meeting standards as they go along. 150 children are put into one room with 5 teachers, 3 student teachers, and access to private tutors around the country via the internet. An algorithm evaluates the progress of students, both what they are learning, how they are learning, and ways to improve the learning trends that help them learn best. Students rotate around in stations working with teachers in a traditional classroom setting, independently on laptops with the ability to contact a personal tutor via the internet, work in collaborative groups, or have one on one sessions with teachers face to face. At the end of each session they are given a 5 question test where they are immediately evaluated, and the algorithm is able to understand if the student is ready to move on, or if they need to change the medium by which they are trying to learn a concept. In essence is it individualized, hence the name, "School of One".

There are a few questions I have though. How will this compare in the long run, compared to just the short 5 question tests given every day, will standardized tests show improvement as well? How can we afford to hire all of these private instructors and afford to supply all of this technological equipment, especially with continuous budget cuts to education? How might this education format translate to other classes where there may not always be a "right" answer, and evaluation must be more nuanced than a daily 5 question quiz? Can an algorithm really be trusted 100% of the time, or are there ways of analyzing the progress of the algorithm to ensure that it is doing its job?

At CC we are trying to implement a completely online curriculum in the near future. This way teachers and students can access all aspects of our curriculum online, keeping our personal costs down, and allowing for the ability to gather specific data about the ways that our program works in the classroom itself. Certainly we wouldn't need to have a mathematical algorithm to encourage daily growth from students in our curriculum, but technology is a rising trend in education. ASU even has an entire program for studying the technological advancements in education, and students may earn a masters or doctorate in this area specifically. But this was developed back in the 1960's. So why has it taken so long to adapt technology to the classroom, and why does it seem that even when we do diversify schools, the large majority of public institutions are slow to follow?

2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom

Today they announced the Founder of Citizenship Counts, Gerda Weissmann Klein, as one of the 15 recipients of the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Here is the full list of recipients:


Former President George H. W. Bush
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis
Co-founder of the National Resources Defense Council, John H. Adams
Author and poet Maya Angelou­­
Investor, Industrialist and Philanthropist, Warren Buffett
Artist Jasper Johns
Holocaust survivor, author and founder of Citizenship Counts, Gerda Weissmann Klein
Optometrist, Dr. Tom Little
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma
Civil Rights Activist Sylvia Mendez
Hall of Fame first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals, Stan “the Man” Musial
Former Boston Celtics’ Captain, Bill Russell
Founder of VSA—The International Organization on Arts and Disability, Jean Kennedy Smith .
Former President of the ALF-CIO, John J. Sweeney

To have our founder be included in such an incredible list of amazing people really legitimizes the work we do at Citizenship Counts. I hope that this not only gives CC a lot more opportunity to expand our programs, but also allows us to make some powerful connections with these other strong leaders who have given "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Unfortunately by the time Obama holds the awards ceremony, my internship will already be complete with Citizenship Counts, but I'm very excited for what this means for CC in the future!

Changing Education Paradigms

I recently watched a video of a lecture from Education Reformer, Sir Ken Robinson speculating that the education system has been created in order to mimic the modes of production. We educate students in an assembly line that separates them by date of birth, socio-economic status, and only educates them so they serve the purpose of contributing to the capitalist system in which we live.

I honestly think this may be a bit far-fetched. The system is also created so it becomes easy to identify childrens' difficulties and then correct them so they meet agreed-upon standards in an efficient manner. Many of Sir Robinson's suggestions for reform do indeed seem to incentivize more creative personalities, what he calls "divergent thinking". This seems to focus on a different kind of intelligence that our current system is unable to nurture. However the kind of management we would need to control a system like this, the costs involved and even the means by which we make the shift, go ignored. Thats not to say there aren't solutions to these objections that may make it perfectly feasible to adopt his reforms, but he certainly does not offer them within this lecture.

Education is difficult because the ends are not always clear. Is the purpose to let the individual develop into whomever they would like to be, so they feel enlightened and useful? Is the point to create the precise number of workers to fill the job market on all levels? Is it even possible to achieve both of these at the same time? And with increasing cuts to education due to the economic collapse, are any changes like this even feasible at all?

Jury Duty

I finally got called for Jury Duty! It may sound strange but I was actually very excited about this in my life. Next to voting its one of the few moments in your life when you really get to participate in the process as a a civilian. And as CC promotes staying active and involved this was something I was very excited about. Unfortunately the morning of I called the special hotline that tells me my assignment and which courthouse to go to, only to find out I was released. Most people would have been excited, but I was a little disappointed, I almost wanted to show up anyway in case there was something I could do anyway. Oh well, that's the life of a nerd, huh? Maybe next time I will actually get to serve on a jury and get some first-hand experience with the court system as a participant and not just an observant scholar.

Menial Tasks

Sometimes I really enjoy the kind of work interns do. Putting together promotional packets, making copies, running errands- all of these rarely take much concentration or critical thinking. Every day in my other jobs, and in class, I'm always being pushed to think critically, look at the big picture and analyze the way my life interacts with others and creates a larger relationship to the world. But as an intern I don't always have to do this.

My life consists of 3 part-time jobs in order to pay the bills, an unpaid internship to get some good experience and build my resume so I'm competitive after I get my degree, classwork so I can earn my Masters and get a good job in the long run. And then on top of that, I attempt (and often fail) at having a social life, maintaining a relationship and struggling to enjoy myself at times. 

So my internship is actually a nice break from the hectic side of life. I could make copies blindfolded and not be stressed at all. Now all I have to figure out is a way to make work, school, future/experience building and fun all be the same activity, and I'll be set. I can't wait to get a career...

ACSS Conference

For one of the first times in my life I felt like a grown-up. Driving halfway across the valley for a conference of Social Studies educators, I arrived at ASU West on Friday morning with no idea what to expect. After registration, and some free coffee, I was able to hear Barnaby V. Lewis, the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Gila River Indian Community, tell a story in his native language about culture and tradition. Although he would give some commentary in English about what was going on, his narrative character was enough to understand the story and how meaningful it was to him and his culture.

The sessions themselves were a mixture of good and bad. Since I am not an educator, I was not the intended audience for most of the workshops, and they were mainly marketed for teachers to sign up for a longer weekend-long workshop with more specialized organizations. I attended a session on "Global Climate Change in the Southwest" as it pertains to a great deal of graduate work I am doing right now. Although the number of participants were small, we had some good conversation about the state of our environment as it pertains to Arizona specifically. I then attended a workshop from the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education, who actually train teachers in a porogram that really affected me when I was in High School, the We the People program. This specific workshop focused on the implications of the 4th amendment as it related to students’ rights to privacy while on campus.

The award ceremony luncheon was interesting but overall hard for me to feel invested in. I couldn’t necessarily relate to the awards being given and felt detached from the ceremony as a whole. But then I really enjoyed a session concerning “Arizona’s First Civics Camp” and tried to figure out a way to incorporate our program with theirs the next time it comes around.

I also had the opportunity to do quite a bit of networking. I met a number of educators who seemed mildly interested in our program, although it took some persuading to let them know that the workload was completely manageable, and well worth it at that. I also came in contact with the Joe Foss Institute, an organization who runs a similar program to ours, only focusing on getting volunteer veterans to speak in the classroom about civic engagement, instead of the naturalization side that we focus on.

Exhausted from a long day, with my bag filled with pamphlets and swag I left the conference having mixed feelings. It certainly was worth it for me to attend. But I think next year we need to be one of the recruiters holding sessions, as much of the other aspects of the conference are geared towards educators themselves.

Newsletter Draft

I was asked to write an article for our newsletter. Here is the draft, which is currently way too long, but I thought you all might be interested in it:

In August of 2008, financial history was made. Although it wasn’t predicted to happen until 2017, Social Security lost money for the very first time. This turning point was certainly expected to occur at some point, but the combination of the aging Baby Boomer generation and the Great Recession brought on this event much sooner than imagined. As Social Security is running out and we continue to live in an economy that is very slowly recovering, what solutions can we provide?

Regardless of your personal philosophy surrounding federal spending and the size or influence of the national government, something must be done quickly in order to ameliorate this growing problem. The current chair of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has advocated some combination of raising taxes, reforming entitlement programs, and reducing spending in everything from education to defense. But this ignores the many innovative solutions that are being ignored. Curiously enough, one of the solutions being proposed is to encourage immigration to our nation.

Immigrant-owned businesses generate roughly 11.6% of all business income in the

United States, and Immigrants are 30% more likely to start a business than non-immigrants. In an economy desperate for entrepreneurship and growth in small business, immigrants are often more likely to provide just this. And some of the more modern and sustainable corporations we are able to proudly call American, were cofounded by naturalized citizens, such as Yahoo and Intel.

But even this kind of economic impact from naturalized citizens doesn’t come close to equaling the kind of positive impact that could occur when it comes to solving the Social Security problem. Florida Governor Charlie Crist is currently advocating expanding the path to citizenship so that we can increase the number of citizens paying into Social Security. In order to increase the amount of money coming into Social Security, we must find a way of increasing the workforce, and immigration presents an appealing opportunity.

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and current economics and policy professor at UC Berkeley, claims that the main issue with Social Security is our aging population. Not only are more Baby Boomers reaching retirement age, but they are living longer as well. And this aging population, in conjunction with American families having less children, results in a system that pays more benefits and receives less revenue.

For many reasons the age distribution in the rest of the world tends to be the reverse of what America is experiencing, and these young workers present an economic opportunity that we are not currently taking advantage of.  Entrepreneurship coupled with driving down the age of our workforce could provide an economic booster that would help alleviate the tensions we are currently experiencing with Social Security and even potentially help us to recover from the recession.

 

"Waiting for Superman"- review

Last Friday, instead of going straight to the office, Alysa and I went to see the new movie "Waiting for Superman". The documentary addresses major issues in student retention, teacher evaluation, and quality of instruction here in America and takes a very critical look at the structure of our education system as a whole. Although it is very insightful and is able to offer a clearer picture into some of the more modern educational movements, the movie fails to reflect a completely accurate picture of what is going on.

The movie, although epic in scale, gets its emotional impact from a specific focusing on a select few children who are yearning to leave their public school and enroll in a nearby charter school or similar accelerated learning program. All of these schools have more applicants than open spots, and so as mandated by policy, the spots must be filled using a public lottery. This is the big dramatic moment in the end, as the children, one by one have their educational future determined by numbers drawn out of a hat. This lottery seems to echo real life, as some students simply are luckier than others and are able to attend schools that will offer a more competitive education, while other students, to no fault of their own, are left struggling in public schools which the director calls "drop-out factories". The focus on charter schools and alternate forms of education as an improvement to the public school system, is a consistent element of the movie.

Although the director acknowledges that not all charter schools outperform their public school equivalents, the movie frames them as the only hope for many children who are statistically more likely to end up in prison than college, based on their socio-economic status. What they fail to acknowledge is the kind of socio-economic status and lack of funding for many of these schools. And time and time again, the movie advocates for education to be run more and more like a business. Whether this perspective is correct or not, doesn't matter, because the issues that should be addressed are often ignored.

Although there has already been much criticism surrounding the movie in regards to the attacks on teachers' unions, I feel i should at least say something about it myself. The point made in the movie is that tenure has become one of the biggest failures in education, where teachers are able to do nothing and keep their jobs, letting their students go without an education. However the solution, to evaluate teachers more thoroughly, reward and punish accordingly, may be misguided as well. Evaluating a teacher running a classroom like a manager running a company (which many people advocate for) is not only ineffective, but ignorant of the way a classroom is run. Teachers' performances may not necessarily be directly linked to student test scores. If a manager in a company sees an employee continually under-performing, they are allowed to fire that employee and replace them with someone who is willing to work hard to earn their job. A teacher cannot fire one of their students. And when a handful of students are simply not going to do their homework, or are coming from troubled homes, or simply refuse to put forth effort, teachers may be the ones who end up being punished for their bad performance, regardless of how motivational and informative they may be.

The movie did however serve as a call to arms to save education.  It brought to light the fact that we are nowhere near our foreign friends when it comes to education, in either retention or quality. And many of the questions the movie asked, are important to consider while discussing education reform. Whether the answers provided are correct or not, only time will tell.

Who's Who in Phoenix Public Relations

This morning Alysa and I had a meeting with the Martz Agency in Scottsdale to discuss the Citizenship Counts public image and brand. We are lucky enough to have Carrie Martz, the "hands-on owner/CEO" of the Martz Agency as a member of our Board of Directors. Carrie not only uses her experience in marketing to help Citizenship Counts, but she also has been instrumental in a number of Phoenix non-profits and charitable groups. The meeting was overall incredibly professional and fast-paced.

When you first walk into their office, you are surrounded by twenty foot walls, covered in awards and honors from ceiling to floor. These trophies are not just a credit to the kind of marketing work done in this office, but also to the kind of people who work in the office. From being the force behind Zhu Zhu Pets, one of the hottest toys of 2009, to being the Marketing Co-Chair for Super Bowl XXX, to being named "Business Woman of the Year" by the Phoenix Chamber of Commerc, Carrie Martz has quite a bit of experience under her belt. So when you can imagine my surprise when it was Carrie herself, coffee mug in hand, who met us at the door at 9:30 am.


The meeting was fast-paced, covering topics of overall branding to specific promotional tools. She showed us a professional media kit that made our photocopies of newspaper clippings and Staples-purchased folders look almost silly. She assigned our project to Nicole Cusimano, one of their Account Executives, and she was off and running. By the time we had left, not only had we discussed all aspects of Citizenship Counts' PR strategy, but we had constructed a rough idea of specific promotional materials to create, with short and long-term goals already set. And I have a feeling that even with everything we talked about, the Martz Agency could have kept us busy all day, learning new techniques and developing new ways of reaching out to teachers, donors and partner organizations.

All I know is I now have myself a new understanding of efficient organization, professionalism, and a much longer to do list.

Recruitment- Part 1

Recently we have been focusing on finding schools and groups who want to run our program this school year. The reason I say both schools and "groups" is because we have decided to being branching out from the traditional perspective of education being limited to a classroom in a public institution. Not only do we now try to reach out to charter and private schools, but to after-school clubs and to students who are home-schooled. By looking at the ways that we can adapt our curriculum and our program to fit a greater number of organizations, we hope to continue to expand our impact and hopefully provide a more diverse understanding of citizenship.

I recently have been in contact with numerous home schooling groups in Arizona. When I used to work as an usher at the Tempe Center for the Arts, I would often work with large groups of home-schoolers coming to see performances from Child's Play. I think it is more often than not the case that home-schooled children get together on a regular basis for activities and field trips. Not only does this help create a broader educational experience, but develops social skills as well. Hopefully we can learn to market our program in a way that will incentivize groups of home-schoolers to become interested and work with us in the coming year.

I have also been in contact with administrators at the charter school run by ASU here in Phoenix, and with numerous teachers' associations in the valley. We hope to first get teachers invested so that they really enjoy working with us which will make the program more enjoyable for the students as well. Instead of using a top-down approach through too many administrators and curriculum mandates, we believe that teachers are ultimately are best bet in developing a successful program, and that getting their investment first is crucial to the success of our curriculum.

Inside the Department of Homeland Security

This morning Alysa and I met with Immigration Services to meet our new contact, Cyndi Harper, who is in charge of all naturalization ceremonies in the state of Arizona. When we first arrived we went through some pretty intensive security. Two security officers checked our identification outside and one had to rendezvous with someone inside before even letting us in the building. Then, past the metal detectors,  we were again asked for our id and what business we were there for. I guess security has been quite intensive since SB1070. Apparently when there were marches and gatherings in the recent months, all the employees have been asked to close their windows and were warned about serious security threats. It is certainly nice to see such strong precautions being taken for a building filled with government employees and many immigrants who will soon be America's newest citizens. But at the same time it makes you realize how much immigration has become a serious daily issue for so many here in this state.

Once we had met Mrs. Harper, we realized that she would be fantastic to work with. The office was undergoing one of their four annual audits of every imaginable file in the building, so you can imagine the kind of hectic atmosphere we were walking into. But such are the demands of working in a public institution I suppose. Even among tables stacked high with files, we were able to have a very good first meeting.

Mrs. Harper went over her responsibilities with us, and Alysa presented our organization and our curriculum. Everything seemed to mesh incredibly well. Not only are they incredibly supportive and accommodating for our program, but we fulfill some of their goals of community outreach as well. And with a quota of 900 naturalizations a month, on a very low budget, Immigration Services seemed elated that we could help take some of the workload.

One of the goals of the meeting was to discuss the possible outreach opportunities for different schools this year. Expanding our program beyond just charter and public schools, and beyond the phoenix area would be a huge step in the right direction. Mrs. Harper suggested reaching out to children who are home-schooled as well. The only problem here lies with the ceremony event location. One of the stipulations of holding a ceremony is strangely enough, that we must provide chairs for every new citizen. Many community centers and event spaces charge a rental fee for chairs. And since Immigration Services is the only self-funded branch of the Department for Homeland Security, this option isn't possible. In fact, all event locations and chairs must be found at basically 0 cost, or the institution will go over budget. Of all of this "excess fat" that so many politicians continually talk about when referring to public budgets, Immigration Services certainly can't be included. They fund themselves solely and entirely on the fees paid by immigrants going through the naturalization process.

Overall the meeting was absolutely fascinating and I felt lucky to be able to sit in on the building of a relationship that truly does represent the way America should be moving. Creating new and innovative ways of teaching our children about the true responsibilities that come with being a citizen here in America, about the importance of diversity, and the real story behind immigration beyond SB1070 and the media hype is something truly worthwhile.

September Board Meeting

Last week I attended my second board meeting and was lucky enough to get to meet our founder Gerda Klein. She is a woman of extreme sincerity and strength and I was honored that she expressed gratitude for the work that I have been doing and will be doing this semester.

The board meeting itself was fascinating. We began by discussing the most recent National Conference on Citizenship, which is held in Washington DC every year on September 17th, in honor of the ratification of our Constitution. Our Executive Director, Alysa Ullman, went to the conference and held numerous meetings and panels with organizations from across the country that try and promote civic action and awareness of the values and responsibilities of citizenship. Alysa also held meetings with Immigration Services and some other government agencies to discuss new communities that we might begin to reach out to in order to develop new programs. Some of the recommendations include Minnesota, Florida, California, and Nebraska, and so we have begun to develop contacts in these areas to begin to develop programs nationwide.

We also discussed the schools here in Arizona that we will be running programs in in the next semester. We are attempting to reach out to both charter and private schools as we have seen success in public schools already. We are also attempting to run the program as connected to after-school or extra-curricular activities. This way, students can hold the program as part of an honors society, or as a club activity for those clubs that are engaged in civic action and political awareness. We would also like to run a program in southern and northern Arizona, especially since we have some good contacts in the Tucson area.

The meeting ended by dividing up responsibilities among staff and board members for contacting these new schools about our program, and I am excited to see how many schools are interested.

First Post

Welcome to my blog about my internship with Citizenship Counts (CC). CC is a non-profit based in Scottsdale, AZ dedicated to promoting civic education in America. They have created a curriculum which they provide free of charge that culminates in a student-led naturalization ceremony and celebrates the roles and responsibilities of citizenship. Our founder, author, human rights activist, Holocaust survivor and proud naturalized citizen, Gerda Weissmann Klein, began the program after speaking at a student-led naturalization ceremony herself. Our advisory board includes such prominent people as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, current Superintendent of Education Tom Horne, and many other leaders in politics, education and public affairs.We recently just launched a brand new interactive website that features activities for students and teachers as well as information about who we are and what we do. Check it out at www.CitizenshipCounts.org.

My responsibilities range from managing social networks, to adiminstrative and clerical duties, to attending meetings between immigration services and school administrators. Because CC works with Immigration Services, public and private schools as well as separate nonprofits, I am getting a good look at how non-profits interact and work with government agencies. I will continue to update about my work with CC and all my other crazy endeavors as well. Talk soon.