Preparing for the Nonprofit Summit

This week, I got to teach my first Adult CPR/AED/First Aid class! It still part of my instructor training so I did not set the class up nor was it a youth class. It was nice to use what I had learned the week before to teach the class, but odd to teach adults. That was very new to me. I'm excited to use this learning experience when teaching this class to youth. I'm also excited that this (once meaningless) listing in my brochure is actually possible now! Tomorrow, I decided to work even though the office is closed (well, I realized that today...) - I'm going to teach Scrubby Bear Hand Washing to all of the kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade classes at an elementary school! I have not taught many classes to such big groups - it is a lot different than one classroom at a time. Then this weekend, I have a Girl Scout event. We are helping them to earn their first aid patch. I'm looking forward to having some big groups this weekend!

Next week, I'm traveling to the Iowa Nonprofit Summit! It is part of my AmeriCorps training and I am really looking forward to it! It is a two day event with two keynote speakers, exhibit tables, many breakout sessions, an AmeriCorps social, and a service project to benefit the Blank Children's Hospital. There are a lot of opportunities for those involved with AmeriCorps at the Summit, but nonprofit people all over Iowa are invited and able to participate too. I'm super excited for the sessions that I signed up for, but it was a hard choice! There are so many interested topics offered at the event! Some of my sessions are fulfilling the training requirements for my AmeriCorps Program and others I just thought I would enjoy! Some of the sessions that I'm super excited for are: Developing Quality Volunteer Opportunities, Speaking the Language: Using Social Media for Volunteer Engagement; Poverty Simulation; and Reflecting and Demonstrating Success in your Service-Learning Projects. I'm excited to meet some other people involved in the non-profit industry (yay networking!) as well as meet some other people in my AmeriCorps program! If this event turns out to be half as great as I'm thinking it will be, I will want to find a way to attend next year as well.

Also Katy Perry likes the Red Cross.

Today, I added another job to the "things I might want to be when I grow up" list. I would love to do something with youth and service learning. Like helping youth (probably high school/college students) find and coordinate volunteer opportunities (maybe to fulfill a requirement by the educational institution) as well as work with them on the projects. I would want to hear their thoughts about service and then hear their feedback about their work. I'm not exactly sure what this job would be called (we had something like it at my high school and college), but I'm going to find something like it! I mean I added it in pen to my list so it is pretty serious...