This week for Career Mentorship we had Mrs. Julie Biddle and she is the owner of FitSimply Marketing Solutions, LLC. During her time she talked about the keys of a story and how to communicate. In addition, She looked at and reviewed our websites to help us improve them. One thing I took away from her review is that websites are moving to scrolling down pages instead of drop down pages. Over the past several days, I have put a lot of time and effort to work on my website to change the pages scrolling instead of dropping down pages. Overall, the zoom was really helpful for me especially because I need to work on communication. I struggle with grammar so with my college applications and all of the scholarships I applied for I had to work hard and put time into carefully reading over my essays to fix my mistakes. Even though I have gotten better I still have areas to improve. I need to work on slowing down and making sure that I have correct wording. I have learned good writing is a skill I need to have for next year in college and in my job. I hope in the future if I put in more time and effort so I can continue to improve my writing.
Now that we are E-learning for the class proportion of Career Mentorship we are zooming with school district leaders to talk about mindset and different topics. For our first one last week was Sharon Esswin. She co-runs a company called Mindset of Possibility during the zoom she talked about Growing in Grace, Grit, Gratefulness, and Emotional Health. On our second week, Mr. Mark Tremanye, Director of Innovation & Extended Learning, talked about Lattice vs. Ladder: The importance of agility and adaptability on your Journey. One of the biggest things I took away from him was the fact that this moment in history the 2020 Pandemic will probably be an interview question in the future so he advised us to use our time to help and reach out to others. Reflecting on that I feel like I have used my time to write notes to others and personally grow.
Over the past few weeks, our everyone’s normal has changed. In addition to personal growth and reaching out I am babysitting for a manager at the Ohio Department of Health so her husband can work upstairs undisturbed. I found it funny that the zoom meeting was about adaptability and at 7 am (3 hours before the call) I was contacted to go early to babysit so I had to figure out quickly how to make sure I was on the call in order to get the full experience. I have always looked up to Mr. Tremanye as a leader, my freshman year I was doing a leadership assignment where we had to interview a local leader and I chose Mr. Tremanye. I have always appreciated his growth mindset and passion for innovative and empowering others. I think this experience of the 2020 pandemic has helped me with my emotional health and has given me more time to think about my issues and strive to resolve them. As the Stay at Home Order is extended till May 1st. Only essential employees can go into the business and only essential businesses can be open. An essential employee is a person who offers, provision, operate, maintain, repair essential infrastructure. Our frontline workers such as Police, Grocery store workers, health department employees are the most important right now. It is interesting because the most important employee triangle is getting flipped from athletes to now the front line workers. Even though the economy is struggling and many people are furloughed or laid off. Governor Mike DeWine and Dr. Amy Acton is doing all they can to make sure social distancing is being effective so we don’t have a second peak. According to the order, I do agree with the businesses that are deemed essential. The Recreation and Parks department is a part of the city of Hilliard so they aren’t essential since they mainly do events. The community center is closed but they are still working. One project they are doing that I have been able to help with is reaching out to businesses to get the manager name and email so they can email resources to help the business out during this difficult time. The most I think COVID-19 has affected the department is cancelling events and maybe depending on how long the situation last Freedom Fest potentially could get canceled. Since everything has happened it has reaffirms that I want to help people in a nonprofit or a city element because during this crisis nonprofits and the city government are looking out for people and trying to help small businesses.
On March 9, 2020 Ohio Governor Mike DeWine declared a state emergency after three Ohio citizens tested positive for COVID-19. Since then the timeline has progressed quickly at least in Ohio. The COVID-19 (aka the coronavirus) outbreak has developed quickly. From originating in Wuhan, China it has now turned into a pandemic the whole world is trying to combat. It has affected every part of life from our local elections being postponed to absentee ballots to prevent spread by in person voting to businesses becoming carry-out only. The economy has taken a hit, stocks have gone down, and many stores are having to lay off employees to survive.
It has impacted me as a high school senior a lot, many of my ceremonies and banquets have gotten cancelled and some of those are things I potentially am not going to get back. My swim banquet and PROM for example if this goes on until I go to college I may never get to celebrate my swim season or get to dress up for PROM. That is something I will never be able to get back and I am really sad and disappointed about that. This has also affected my mentor placement. I mentor at the Hilliard Parks and Recreation Department and they are a city government element so they have to cancel events and shut down their senior lunch program. From my perspective, I don’t think they have been that financially hurt by it like other organizations have. My mentor now works from home and she really can’t do the sponsorship and event planning part of her job because local business are struggling so she can’t really ask for money and for event planning we still don’t know yet if July 4th event is going to happen so she can do some event planning but she really can’t do much at this point. Personally, at first I was frustrated at this because my ceremonies were getting cancelled and it didn’t affect me at that point. Now I think it is important to listen to Dr. Amy Acton and Governor Mike Dewine and stay inside when you are taking care of yourself, you take care of others. From reflecting on this situation, I have tried to use my new time in the best way possible by reaching out to others though sending notes, texts and checking up on my mental health. I know this will only strengthen us as a society and as a senior class. I have expected the fact that things won’t be tradition but we have to adjust and adapt as more opportunities get cancelled. One article that I read that spoke a lot about grit and the development of It was How To Develop Grit When Times Are Tough. It talks about 5 ways to help you grow and develop your grit. One thing I really took away from the article was that no crisis keeps life the same. It challenges you with a change you weren’t expecting. Right now we are all going through a routine and schedule change using grit will help you through this new situation. This unexpected change has made me adapt and adjust and to me change is uncomfortable but it has really made me learn how to be flexible. Unexpected changes happen everyday. My advice to facing this is to focus on your vision and try as best you can be at being to be flexible, patient, and kind to yourself and others around you. Everyone experiences change, knowing how to handle it will help you in any group or team. I personally have had to adjust to my mindset by doing a Self Esteem Journal every night before I go to bed. It helps me look for the positive things in my life. In addition I am currently reading a book called The Happier Approach by Nancy Jane Smith to help me be happier by lowering the volume of my inner critic. I strive to use my extra time in an effective way by completing tasks I have not had time to get to like cleaning my room, scholarships, learning how to cook and basic life skills I will need in college. I want to continue growing my mindset while we are not in school and reach out to people to help them through this difficult time. Learning from my mentor is so much better than being in a classroom. I am able to learn from a real professional and observe and experience what her job entails, not just sitting in a classroom and having someone telling me how to event plan or get sponsorship. I get to make the mistakes and learn from experience. Angela is so helpful and is all about my success so it's easy to ask her questions about any thing I may be struggling with. Overall I am getting the feedback I need, I am able to make mistakes without too many consequences while Angela helps me improve on my skills. In the aspect of Angela’s job there are many things I want to learn. I have found that talking to her and telling her what I want to learn she will do all in her power to help me learn that skill.
I am able to maximize my experience I have made the most time in my schedule. I mentor two times a day at my lunch and during the class.To make sure I get the most out of my time I strive on a daily basis to use my time wisely and hit the top priority items first. Outside the mentor site I am actively trying to keep her updated on emails I receive and the status of quotes from businesses. There are many people throughout my mentorship experience that I have learned something from, including the Hilliard business owners to the city staff. The people who have taught me the most during this experience would have to be the Rec and parks staff more specifically the people in Angela’s office: Rich Myers, Kristan Turner, Hayley Bush, Geoff Dew and Darcy Baxter and Ed Merritt. All of them have taught different things about how the department runs and what it truly means to be a team. Because of each of them I am so excited each and mentor. A professional learning community is an opportunity to learn in an actual environment of your future career. When you are working or interning in a company asking questions, observing and reflecting on what you have learned is how a PLC works. Having a PLC can help you bounce ideas and experiences off of the people in your community. In my office, I see people asking each other about logos, and different ideas to get another perspective. This past week for sponosorship Angela and I met with Bo Jackson and then because of school getting canceled we had to cancel the meeting with Renovo Fitness . As a part of the advice and bouncing ideas in our office Angela and I we met at city hall with the communications team to discuss Hilliard Station Park: Celebration at the Station logo meeting. I really enjoy meeting with the communications team. The meetings are always fun to me and it has taught me a lot about all the work that goes into communications. With the school shut down I plan to work with Angela remotely to help make sure FreedomFest is not behind in any way. The biggest thing the whole COVID-19 has taught is that you adjust and adapt and you continue in a government setting. It is your responsibility to help people.The problems people face don’t stop because school out they just increase. In my future if I want to work for a non-profit I have to be able recognize that. This week I didn’t mentor that much because of college visits but, when I was mentoring I met with a couple of different businesses one was for FreedomFest and the other was for sponsorship. We met with the radio station T100.3 to prep the timeline and plan for July 4th. We made a sponsorship presentation to Ten Pin Alley. I have also helped with creating new sponsorship packets, updating them, and continuing to get quotes. I have learned that information is always changing, and more information is always being added. Angela has had a lot of new information for different events and I get to change the pages out of all the existing sponsorship booklets.
One element of FreedomFest I am helping to plan is a portable water cart called a Quench Buggy. To help with the cost Angela and I are going to find someone to sponsor it. We are also working on a new project: a bowling event with the police force. I am excited to take this project on and plan it. Regarding social media the city and the parks department uses Facebook, twitter and instagram to promote events, meetings and opportunities in the city. The parks department uses social media to promote events, sponsors of the events and how to register for the events. To check out their social media sites you can click on the links: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. To me social media is a helpful tool but I also know there are cons to it as well. The pros I see is you can stay connected to people when they go to college, move or you just don’t see them as much, I also see social media as a great way to brand yourself. The cons of social media is it is easy to get addiction to it, and have a way to live or see a perfect and non messy life. From my perspective as a young professional, social media is a valuable resource you can connect to people personally or professionally and you can build your personal brand. A lot of employers use social media to see if you are a good fit for the company by having a social media page and if you use it right you can set yourself apart. As a high school student I really like social media because it is a way to post about your life and see what others are doing. For a goal to be SMART it has to be Specific, Measure, Attainable, Reasonable and Timely. SMART goals help people have a plan on how to actually accomplish a goal. When coming up with my goals I reflected on what skills I wanted to learn and master in the field of event planning and sponsorship. I decided I wanted to cold call 5 businesses, lead 5 sponsorship meetings, and plan an element of Freedom Fest. I believe all of these skills will be useful to learn, and practice.
As I mentioned in a previous blog my mentor, Angela, goals for this year is to obtain 100,000 dollars in sponsorships by local businesses. Over the past few weeks I have tried to help her achieve this by reaching out to businesses to set up meetings to hopefully gain more sponsorship dollars. While reaching out to businesses I learned that emails only get you so far, I have only emailed companies and now I am having to call to reach businesses without an email. This past week I have really worked to overcome my fear of phone communication. In a step towards eliminating that fear, I have called more businesses not only about sponsorships but also if I need an email to get a quote for an element of FreedomFest. I know the more I practice and actually call people the more I will master it I just need to get over the learning curve and out of my comfort zone. Another goal I have been working towards is planning an element of FreedomFest. This year Angela wants to make FreedomFest bigger and better by adding more elements to it. So elements I am in charge of is a Quench Buggy, Misting Tent, and a Concessionaire. I have been helping her with it by getting quotes from businesses for rentals to find the best price. I have always planned events where I had to have everything for free or on a very reduced cost because I didn’t really have a budget so it’s interesting to be involved with an event where there is a somewhat of budget and money to spend. I am excited to continue planning Freedom Fest and overcoming my fear of phone communication. I know fear now will be mastery later. I feel like I am a natural goal setter but I am really bad at following through with them. I find following through on my goals is challenging because if I am not motivated enough I tend to not complete them. My personal challenge is making and giving the time and the priority to the goals I set. One personal goal is making more time for self-care and finding the things I actually like to do. Some of my professional goals are to develop the appropriate skills and, have experience with them, so when I eventually work for a company ideally a non-profit I can hit the ground running.
Before I started thinking about my goals for the mentorship my first day I was introduced to Angela’s goal of raising 100,000 dollars in sponsorship. I believe in the corporate Sponsorship world and career goals play a huge part because goals gives you a number value to help guide you with purpose and push you to raise more money. So far I have been able to accomplish a couple of things I set out to do. I made a couple of calls, and I have been able to successfully set up meetings with a few local businesses such as Dave and Busters, Ten Pin, and Renovo Fitness. I have been able to lead a meeting with Creative Art Bar, which was a rollercoaster of emotions. Before the meeting I was really nervous even though I have seen Angela give the presentation a thousand times I still had to think and plan out what I was going to say. Once I was in the meeting it was fun, I knew sitting in class I would never get this experience. The Creative Art Bar was probably the best business to start me off withleading the presenation because they were very nice and a tiny business so I was able to get practice just talking. Next week we will start meeting with more businesses that I contacted and set up meetings with. In addition to reaching out to businesses, we met with the new incoming TownePlace Suites, I sat in on a staff meeting, and a Fourth of July communications meeting. The staff meeting was very interesting, it was interesting to see how an organization had an official staff meeting. My biggest take away was the team booster they did, Ed Merritt, the director of the parks department, had notepads and during the meeting everyone could write high fives and then each person read them off. I thought that was a great way to recognize people. I know if I was ever a manager and ran a staff meeting I would want to do something similar. During my mentorship time, Angela and I so far have spent a lot of time contacting or meeting with Hilliard Businesses. The businesses we met with this past week were Scioto Orthodontics, Blue Oak and First Federal. We are mostly finished with meeting our existing sponsors and now spending the majority of our time calling and emailing new sponsors. Our goal is to have all the sponsorship commitments by March 31st so we can start planning and marketing the events. When we are in the office there is downtime, I usually use that time to look up and reached out to businesses that would potentially sponsor. This past week I have accomplished some pretty nerve-racking things. I finally called my first business and successfully set up my first meeting with Enchanted Care Learning Center. I am super proud of myself for overcoming my anxiety and nerves.
In addition to calling businesses, I have sent multiple emails and have been able to set up more meetings! I am super excited about the experience I am gaining working with Angela. I have also had the opportunity to be able to sit in on event planning meetings for the 4th of July Extravaganza: Freedom Fest. In the meetings, I have been able to meet a few city leaders such as Police Chief Robert Fisher and Norwich Fire Chief Jeff Warren. It was really cool to get to meet local leaders. I have always looked up to them as I have attended City Council meetings and now getting to work with them as a high school student is cool. I consider time the most valuable thing in my life, it is one thing you can’t get back. The things I spend my time on are the things I care about. Over this experience, I have had to make sure that I use extra time effectively to ensure I get the important tasks accomplished. With all of the extra-curriculars I have prior experience with time management so this semester I have been able to practice those time management skills and improve on them. I am really enjoying my time at the Hilliard Parks and Recreation Department. |
AuthorHi my name is Margaret Lee and I am a senior at Hilliard Darby. I am interested in Non-Profit. Archives
May 2020
Categories |