Mid-Week Update

I am posting an update on behalf of the group since I was the first to return to the U.S. Despite the chaos and devastation occurring in Haiti, the Reach Out program is going exceptionally well. We did not even realize that the earthquake had occurred until we had been contacted from home about our well being. When the group left me at the airport this morning, they were on their way to the Child Development Center in San Pedro to continue work begun the afternoon before. Both Monday and Tuesday went well in regards to working with the staff and children at the Child Development Centers. The students are doing an amazing job adapting in their new environment and interacting with the children. The staff from Nazarene Compassionate Ministries has been incredibly receptive and hospitable to us. I am confident that the students will continue to do an excellent job this week as their journey continues. Sincerely, Mary Burnett, Director of International Programs at Ship

Long-Awaited Operations Update

So we can't believe there's only two weeks left in this semester... the time has flown by! Luckily we are all in good shape to present our curriculum plans to the class next week. Hopefully those who are going on the trip to the Dominican Republic will get a better insight to what they can do to help us present the curriculum to the teachers abroad.

We've been working diligently on our English and technology education curriculum plans for the past few weeks. To make the language learning more interesting, we divided up the curriculum into numerous units, such as weather, colors and numbers, home and family, classroom words, body parts, food, and common phrases. It has been fun coming up with creative ideas to teach the Dominican students English in comparison to the traditional ways we learned a second language. Hopefully our hands-on activities and self-correcting learning centers will be very useful as the students attempt to take on the English language. The materials we designed will also be easy on the teachers in the centers, so that they are not expected to lecture on grammatical points but rather have the students put these ideas into practice.

Building technology education has been rough, but the curriculum itself is moving along swiftly. The problem lies in finding compatible software in Spanish (such as computer games or typing programs), which the students can use to enhance their comptuter and typing skills. Right now we are looking into seeking some donations from local companies who may have similar software programs. Hopefully a solution to this problem will come around this week!
While we've only got a short while left to complete all of the aspects of the curriculum for the child development centers, we can't wait to finish and see the results of our hard work for the semester. It will be so rewarding when we finally visit the Dominican Republic, deliver our materials, and really see how our curriculum development will aid childrens' education abroad.

A Look to the Future

As the semester is winding down, the PR group is looking toward promoting our final fundraising events and also the achievements of the project as a whole. So here is what we have coming up!

Our babysitting fundraising event is coming up on December 12th. To promote this event we are giving out fliers to faculty and students, utilizing campus mail for the most part to spread the word. We've also advertised for this event on our website's highlights page and through postings on campus. Click here for more information on this event.

We've had another article appear in the Public Opinion which is quickly spreading the word about our project and our achievements! The article was on the upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic and also results of Dominican Day and the Luhrs school box drive. If you'd like to read the full article, click here.

What we are most excited for is putting together a video about our project. Within the video will be pre-interviews of Honors students that are going on the trip to the Dominican Republic, faculty members associated with our project, and parents of students that will be going on the trip and that have contributed to our project. The video will also include footage from the actual trip to the Dominican Republic and how the students implemented the cirriculum for the children. We will then have interviews from the students after the trip has happened to see what they thought of the country and how the project was carried out while in the country.

Visit our website for updates as all these exciting events occur!

Muchas Gracias A Todos!!!

Dominican Day was a success!!!

We would like to thank members of the Methods class who helped out at the Spanish language table. We would also like to thank Dr. Ricardo for doing a fantastic job teaching merengue. And thank you to Chartwells for providing the food for the evening.

From 3-4 in the afternoon elementary school students attended Dominican Day. The stations were more simplified compared to the evening part of Dominican Day. The kids made masks and learned some simple Spanish words. They also made cards in Spanish to be taken to the childrens centers in the Dominican Republic.

The second part of the evening ran from 7pm-9pm. Over 151 people attended the event. Guests spent time checking out each of the stations which ranged from Spanish language learning to information about the Dominican Republic and Reach Out. The mask-making station was a big hit with the students. The Dominican-inspired food was very popular as well.

Dr. Ricardo of the Spanish department kicked off the 8pm hour with merengue lessons. He broke down the steps to make it easier for everyone to learn. The upbeat music added to the dancing and soon the floor was filled with students.

Overall, Reach Out was extremely pleased with Dominican Day! It was a great night!

Photos of the night will be posted on our website www.ship.edu/honors/reachout so be sure to check them out!

Dominican Day is almost here!!

It's almost here, Dominican Day (November 17th 7-9 PM CUB MPR)s is just around the corner! We have been making many preparations for the day and we as a class are very excited for the turnout we are expecting.

In terms of the PR team we have successfully created flyers and passed them out to the rest of the class and to other members of the campus community. We have also hung up both posters we made (one in the library on campus and one on the Great Wall in the CUB). Lastly, we are printing out a lot of brochures for Dominican Day, both to pass out at the event and also to have at our Hospitality table, which will be the first and last table that people will walk by as they enter and exit.
In the earlier part of the day (3-4PM) we have been able to invite the kids from Grace B. Luhrs Elementary school which we have partnered with to come and enjoy some of the festivities. They will be coming and making cards for the children in the Dominican Republic and they will be able to make crafts in the form of masks that are like the masks that Dominican people wear during Carnival. We are hoping this will be another way that we can connect the children here in Shippensburg Grace B. Luhrs school to the children in the Dominican Republic.

The evening will be our actual Dominican Day.
Here are some of the activities that we are going to be offering:
1) A Full Menu inspired by Dominican foods
2) Crafts in the forms of masks inspired by Dominican Carnival
3) Dominican inspired dancing taught by our own Dr. Ricardo of the Spanish Department
4) Spanish Lessons for beginners
5) A Photo Souvenir for everyone to remember the great time they had
6) Raffles of some great prizes

We will be offering this and more! Already, we are so excited for this event and we are anticipating much participation!
Make sure you come out and support SU Reach Out: Enhancing Education in the Dominican Republic!

Dominican Day
Date: November 17, 2009
Time: 7-9PM
Place: CUB MPR
Donation Accepted

A Great Day for Ship Sports and Project Fundraising

Our ribbon and pom-pom fundraising events at the home football and volleyball games on Saturday, November 7th were a huge success! Between both games, we made approximately $200, which is great! Thank you to all that donated to our cause!

It would be unfair not to also thank the Ship football and volleyball teams for putting on such a fantastic show for the fans this weekend. Congratulations to the football team who beat California University of PA to clinch the 2009 PSAC championship, and to the volleyball team who swept West Chester to receive the number 3 seed in the upcoming PSAC tournament! Way to go Raiders!

Advertisment is Key!

Advertising can make or break your project and the way that PR is moving, we are definitely in the direction of making our project. This week we worked on our many forms of advertising for our project. We have many forms of adverstiment that we plan to distribute.

Our most upcoming event for our project is Dominican Day on November 17th 7- 9PM in the CUB MPR. At Dominican day we are planning to allow people to come and experience Dominican culture. At Dominican Day we are planning to have dance lessons, food and mask-making all centered around Dominican culture. We have made a flyer and have started to hang them up around campus and other areas. Our flyer is one way that we are getting the word out about this event.

At Dominican Day we are planning to wear our T-shirts that we are getting made. We are getting shirts done by ABC Lettering and they will advertise our project and give the public a way to contact us and learn more about our project. On the front will be our logo and on the back will be a way to contact us and learn more about our project. We feel that this is a way to advertise our project in a different manner. Along with our Dominican Day event, we have also partnered with the Grace B. Luhrs Elementary School in Shippensburg. They are holding a school supplies drive. These supplies will be taken down to the Domincian Republic for the children there in the child development centers. At the school, we are giving out stickers to the children who participate in the drive and also to the children who come to Domincan Day. The stickers have our logo on them and are also a creative way to get out the word out about our project.

Lastly, we have taken advantage of the oppurtunities that our campus allows us for advertisement. We are making a poster to hang on the Great Wall in the CUB and we are making a poster to hang in the library. Both of these posters will advertise Dominican Day. These are both places that students frequent a lot of the time and it would be beneficial for us to advertise there. Posters have been started for both of these locations and will be hung for at least a week before Dominican Day.
This week has been all about advertising!

If you would like to request any forms of our advertisement please send us an email at: sureachout@gmail.com
Also, make sure you come and check out our table at the November 7th Football and Volleyball games. Come pick up some pompoms and donate to support our project. And don't forget to come to Dominican Day, November 17th 7-9PM CUB MPR!!