Hello all,
I apologize dearly for those who followed my progress actively over the summer and then probably wondered what happened over the fall. Rest assured the fellowship work continued, but being a full-time student again and going through senior fall I became pretty swamped with things to do, and unfortunately updating the blog fell off the to-do list. But so here's a brief synopsis of the last 4 months and what is still to come.
So the the general plan for sustainability of my summer work was to basically create a 10hr per week student leadership position within DREAM to replace my full-time role as community liaison over the summer. With all the computer networking infrastructure in place and kinks worked out, the crux of the work boiled down to leading the parent advisory board meetings, and facilitating the communication and contact information between student mentors and the families (i.e. making sure everyone has all the relevant phone numbers and e-mails). Since DREAM works with two separate housing communties, Northwoods and Hollow Drive, and because I obviously needed to recruit an underclassmen to be able to continue the role once I graduate, I decided that we would have two community liaisons, one for each community. The basic responsibilities of each peson were weekly meeting at each location and spending lots of time on e-mail following up with individual mentors.
As such, I recruited a sophomore Bill Gerath '11 to become the second community liaison, and we have been working together since the beginning of the fall. While in the fall it was more of a shadowing role, we are now at the point where we can each work directly with our respective communities for the winter term.
Speaking of the winter term, Bill and I have been meeting quite a bit over the first week of classes to establish our goals and expectations for the winter term. With a fresh group of 15 or so new frehsmen mentors that just joined the program, we want to engage them early this term to capture their enthusiam. Right now it looks like Bill's going to be organizing weekly dinners in the community and I'm going to be coordinating a homework club once a week. More to come on that later.
As far as the fellowship goes in the bigger picture, I've started talking with Jan Tarjan at Tucker and we are going to finalize a plan next week for how to compile a final presentation report of my experience with the fellowship, the learning outcomes I've achieved, the long-term change that will hopefully continue long down the road, etc.
I will plan to keep the blog udpated more frequently this winter, but as always feel free to send me comments or suggestions by e-mail at brian.bensch@dartmouth.edu.
Hope everyone is having a great start to 2009!
Brian
UVSE Fellowship Overview
The *Class of 1982 Upper Valley Social Entrepreneur Fellowship* supports a Dartmouth undergraduate who will devote full time work in one leave-term and part-time work in several academic terms to working with an Upper Valley non-profit organization on social entrepreneurial ventures. Each fellow is selected based on their grant application which presents a plan for innovative and sustainable change in the way the organization serves the local community. This all falls under the umbrella of the Tucker Foundation, whose mission is to help students develop to be "Ethical Leaders and Responsible Citizens" during their four years at Dartmouth.
Brian's Fellowship Project Overview
As the first recipient of the Upper Valley Social Entrepreneurial Fellowship funded by the Dartmouth Class of '82, I am working for DREAM as the the first ever Community Liaison. DREAM is a student-led non-profit 501(c)3 mentoring organization that matches college students with youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods in Vermont. Having been a DREAM mentor for three years and co-chair of the program for about a year, I became aware that one of the biggest issues DREAM has trouble with is that our mentoring efforts have been almost exclusively focused on the children without engaging and reaching out to their parents', who ultimately have the biggest impact on their children's lives. I've therefore started the position of Community Liaison, whose fundamental responsibility is to serve as a liaison for the parents in the communities. By improving parents' access to existing resources which allow them to increase their financial stability and parenting skills, and by facilitating communication between parents and child's mentor, DREAM is better able to make more long-term impact on the children's lives.
I have four specific action plan components of my project. First, I've installed two new computer systems in each of the community centers, to allow everyone in the community, especially parents, access to e-mail, the DREAM Google Calendar, and the infinite ability of the web to network, job search, and troubleshoot daily problems. A second component of my project has been starting up weekly parent meetings in each of the communities. Meetings focus on DREAM's role in the community and how it can be improved, on various community issues such as recycling and proper use of the community center, and often incorporate programs or speakers that give presentations targeted toward needs of the community. The third component of my project involves meeting individually with each parent at least once a week in order to address individual concerns, ranging from financial difficulties to specific problems with their kids, and offering referrals when appropriate. The final component of my project involves simply facilitating the communication between each parent and their child's mentor in order to ensure that each mentor is working in conjunction with individual parents' efforts and disciplinary systems, which allows our mentoring efforts to be much more effective.
The *Class of 1982 Upper Valley Social Entrepreneur Fellowship* supports a Dartmouth undergraduate who will devote full time work in one leave-term and part-time work in several academic terms to working with an Upper Valley non-profit organization on social entrepreneurial ventures. Each fellow is selected based on their grant application which presents a plan for innovative and sustainable change in the way the organization serves the local community. This all falls under the umbrella of the Tucker Foundation, whose mission is to help students develop to be "Ethical Leaders and Responsible Citizens" during their four years at Dartmouth.
Brian's Fellowship Project Overview
As the first recipient of the Upper Valley Social Entrepreneurial Fellowship funded by the Dartmouth Class of '82, I am working for DREAM as the the first ever Community Liaison. DREAM is a student-led non-profit 501(c)3 mentoring organization that matches college students with youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods in Vermont. Having been a DREAM mentor for three years and co-chair of the program for about a year, I became aware that one of the biggest issues DREAM has trouble with is that our mentoring efforts have been almost exclusively focused on the children without engaging and reaching out to their parents', who ultimately have the biggest impact on their children's lives. I've therefore started the position of Community Liaison, whose fundamental responsibility is to serve as a liaison for the parents in the communities. By improving parents' access to existing resources which allow them to increase their financial stability and parenting skills, and by facilitating communication between parents and child's mentor, DREAM is better able to make more long-term impact on the children's lives.
I have four specific action plan components of my project. First, I've installed two new computer systems in each of the community centers, to allow everyone in the community, especially parents, access to e-mail, the DREAM Google Calendar, and the infinite ability of the web to network, job search, and troubleshoot daily problems. A second component of my project has been starting up weekly parent meetings in each of the communities. Meetings focus on DREAM's role in the community and how it can be improved, on various community issues such as recycling and proper use of the community center, and often incorporate programs or speakers that give presentations targeted toward needs of the community. The third component of my project involves meeting individually with each parent at least once a week in order to address individual concerns, ranging from financial difficulties to specific problems with their kids, and offering referrals when appropriate. The final component of my project involves simply facilitating the communication between each parent and their child's mentor in order to ensure that each mentor is working in conjunction with individual parents' efforts and disciplinary systems, which allows our mentoring efforts to be much more effective.
Friday, January 9, 2009
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