Current Buzz at the Fellowship

Kim Sorrell got my brain ticking.....and I decided to list all the web resources I had found and then used to help Ashley and I create the GLBT display cases. I have listed these resources on our Diversity Fellowship group page on Facebook, under the discussion topic "GLBT Resources." This is a great way to incorporate and encourage group members or net surfers to research this topic further - and I have given them a headstart with the resources I have found.

On another note, Ashley and I have an awesome idea and want to launch it as a project during our time here as Fellows. We discovered that we both were interested in the To Mexico With Love program, and we began to wonder if we could incorporate our Fellowship goals (diversity and librarianship) with this trip to Mexico. I mean, it is a program of cultural immersion, education, experience and service learning. So, we wondered, couldn't we possibly help a library in Cuernavaca as a service learning project?? Yes indeed, I believe we can! We just have to ask the right people and do the research!

So we have begun the initial part of our "project." We contacted the Director of Campus & Community Life at IUPUI (Michelle Verduzco) and we discovered that there will be a new service learning site for the trip next summer.......and guess what it is? They want to help build a library for an elementary school in a rural indigenous community!! Isn't this exciting? Ashley and I can put our new skills to the test and definitely help! Ashley and I are very excited to meet with Michelle this Friday, to learn about this new service learning site and to discuss what we can do in preparation for this trip. I believe that once we are filled in on the planning and preparation that has already been accomplished, we can help by finishing the following steps with them. Like, if they need books Ashley and I can start a book drive or see if we can have books donated by scholarly companies, etc. Also, they will need some type of organization process or cataloging system - Ash and I can be trained on this so that we can do that when we are in Mexico. If there are other sources we need to contact to make this happen, then we can help make the connections before next summer! I definitely want to be a part of this planning process! And I am sure there is much to do before next summer...

Also, Ash has this brilliant idea: Receive training on how to write grant/funding proposals and letters. We learned that the UL External Relations team does a lot of this, along with public relations work. But instead of "stepping on their toes" we can be trained, practice, and then write proposals to see if we can receive funding for this trip (it costs around $2,000 per person). This will be another great opportunity to utilize new skills that we will learn as Fellows.

When Ash and I do go (I am saying "when" instead of "if" because I am going to stay positive about this), we want to record our experiences and activities so that when we return we can use it for our end-of-the-year display/project. (We are supposed to make a project at the end of the year to display what diversity means to us....or what we learned throughout the Fellowship). I think that the pictures, tokens, artifacts, journals, etc. that we bring back will be great resources and assets for our final project.

In the meantime, until Friday....Ash and I have been working on submitting scholarly work to Idea (an IUPUI digital archive) and gathering information for our National American Indian Heritage Month displays......

♥,
Trina