Volunteering

Mentoring

There are many opportunities to collaborate with local leaders and have a direct impact on your community. One of the ways I did this was to volunteer with Austin Partners In Education. For a period of 11 years I mentored 4th and 5th grade students, often meeting them over my lunch break at their school. The program was offered through the Texas Association of School Boards and I was one of a handful of representatives from the company. We partnered with TA Brown Elementary and I was a regular at the school, making sure I was there at least once a week.

Our goal was to help students improve their social skills, strengthen their communication skills, and build self-confidence. We inspired students to develop new interests, explore learning opportunities, and achieve their personal and academic goals. Mostly however, we were there to provide a positive influence in their lives. We directly contributed to academic outcomes including better attendance, more engagement, and opportunities to better understand their needs and the needs of families.

Positive Change

My efforts extended beyond mentoring to include attending yearly awards banquet ceremonies at the school, providing a way for students to share challenges, and become someone who both they, their teachers, and their parents could rely on.

This benefited the program by helping a variety of students transition to their new school or classroom and gave the students an outlet as they adjusted to their new surroundings. I worked with parents to provide extra curricular activities such as attending the Texas Book Festival, Free Comic Book Day, kite flying, hiking at Barton Springs, museum trips, and other recreational events.

My efforts culminated in being nominated Mentor of the year, for which the principal came to my workplace and handed me a trophy and acknowledged my contributions in front of my peers. The effort was extremely rewarding and, as I often say, helped me stay connected to the mission of the organization more than it helped the children I was assigned to mentor.

For more information on mentoring, contact Austin Partners In Education

Taking Action For Children

Getting Kids Thinking

Thinkery volunteers enhance the organization’s ability to deliver quality programs and visitor experiences. They rely on contributors to share their time, talent and enthusiasm.

Getting together groups of volunteers was something I did as a Community Impact Lead at Advisory Board. The Thinkery was a favorite for its close proximity to the office and the general goodwill it inspired.  We contributed by creating crafts for museum for which guests would build projects. It also meant being there when they hosted events and workshops to support the cause. It’s always gratifying to ensure children have the resources they need to live productive and exciting lives through education and wonder.

As part of my role at Advisory, I also co-produced the Community Impact email newsletter that went out to all employees, highlighting not just volunteer efforts at the Thinkery, but other organizations as well. This provided the company visibility into all of the great work we were doing and helped garner many of us the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

For more information on how to get involved, contact Thinkery Austin