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Hi! My name is Savannah and I am a Psychology major with the option in Premed at OSU. My previous volunteer work includes upward bound, which was a program that helped students group together in order to help families in need through food preparation, cleaning out safe house options, putting together activities for families in need. I also volunteered with operation Christmas Child where we put together shoe boxes for children for the Christmas season. I have done volunteer work through my church like Awana Programs and Sunday school teaching. The most exciting work that i have done in volunteering was at the hospital in my hometown where I helped with care for patients in the ICU. All of these volunteer opportunities will help me successfully complete my project. I can benefit from this project by creating a new volunteer opportunity for me that will challenge me and also give my the chance to help someone in need. I am excited to see the volunteer opportunities that are available to me for this term.

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I have volunteered and have done many internships while in the Family and Human services program at the university of Oregon in the past. I have interned in Homeless programs, juvenile detention facilities and more. I also work with children at a high school right now so I hope that will also help me be successful. I also love volunteering and helping out in the community and am glad to be able to do more in this area. I used to get to do a lot of this in the past but now as life has become so busy I don't find time for volunteering as much

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Alissa Chase updated her profile picture.

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Hello class!
Forgive my lateness as I registered late this term!
I am a junior and am an HDFS major. I am looking into a few career fields, one that speaks to me is a orientation and mobility specialist, so I am currently exploring that idea.
I am a single parent of two boys and I work full time as a tax consultant. Despite having a crazy busy life schedule, I am also a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate). We work with foster children and advocate that those foster children receive all of the care they need while living in foster care. Ideally we would like to see families heal and will work with them to make that happen. Many of the families we see live in poverty situations and have a hard time making ends meet. Being an advocate has been a real eye opener. As a CASA, you see all sides of the story in a case and you learn a lot about the social service systems in your community work and don't work. You are submersed into a world that's not easily seen from your regular perspective. It's tough work but it's important work too.
I am excited to see that we have a service learning component in this course! I think its incredibly important we experience this because it gives us another perspective on how the world is, will help us build empathy and compassion, and allow us to maybe continue to make a positive change to others who are in need. I know we often want to stay in our comfort zones, but going out and experience the world in this way can help us grow as a person. Being a CASA has done this for me and I hope it will for all of my classmates too. I look forward to learning a lot this term!

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Hi everyone! My name is Cybil and I am a junior and HDFS major. I am not sure exactly what I want to do, I had thought something social services or social work related, but now I am thinking more of teaching. I have two sons who are 2 years old and 4 years old. I actually went to a high school (ages ago) that emphasized service learning and during that time I was very involved. I went to a National Service Learning Conference as a student delegate and led a workshop about my school's service learning program. We did all sorts of projects and many classes which were traditional (math or science) had elements of service learning in them. For example, a geometry class built a gazebo for a park. Because of that background, I am a huge believer in service learning. I think that having a purpose, like helping someone, is motivating and helps people to achieve their most. I think that in service to others we often find greater satisfaction than in service to self. Looking forward to the term!

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Hello! I'm a Senior HDFS student with a minor in Psychology. I live in Utah with my husband and 3 kids and we're expecting our last in September/October. In the past, I have volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, a donation center, and my church. One big benefit I hope to gain from volunteering is hopefully being able to work somewhere I can take my two older children. I'd like for them to see how fortunate they are. I'm also nervous about the amount of hours we have to do and if that will be doable with my current schedule. I guess we'll find out!

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Hi! I am a sophomore at OSU, and I am Education and HDFS double majors. I hope to become a special education teacher at the high school level. My past volunteer service includes, coaching youth soccer and basketball camps, manager at Play.Fit.Fun sports camp, I have been working with high school students with special needs for almost 3 years now, as well as volunteered for the deaf communities "Christmas Parties." All of these connections and my passion for working with kids will help to complete my service learning hours. I think that being a part of and contributing to  your community is very important and being able to make others happy is a very rewarding aspect of the experience.

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Hi my name is Sara Rankin, I live in Oregon, the PNW ( Pacific North West) is my favorite place to be, I was born and raised in a very small town ( you know the kind of town, where my maternal and paternal grandparents and both  my parents all went to the same high school as I graduated from). I am majoring in Human Development and Family Services, and minoring in Psych, with the goal to apply to grad school this summer and get my MS in LMFT, to be a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and run my own practice. I am not the typical student, I am older, already had my first career in Law Enforcement and left that career after ten years to stay home and raise three children. I am married (celebrating 20 years of marriage this summer, YAY!) and we now have three very active teenagers. When my kids all went back to school I decided I would go back to school myself, I am very passionate about being a Marriage/Couples therapist specifically for Public Service workers (Fire, EMS, Police, 911 Dispatchers, Nurses). I grew up in that world with parents working both as public servants, I worked the job myself and am married to someone in the field as well; with my personal life experience I am uniquely qualified to be there for a group of people that don’t often get help soon enough. I also am very interested in communication in relationships and teaching that to our teenagers. I currently volunteer and lead a parent support group for parents with teenagers which I am looking to expand to a bigger forum, I started the group because as parents, there are newborn baby groups, toddler play groups, elementary school groups, but once your child gets to middle school or high school the groups and support for parents kind of falls away, besides your own personal support circle or 'village' you've created. I wanted there to be support for these REALLY tough times of being a parent of teenagers when topics become imperative to talk about. I have learned so many things from this group and look to continue it into bigger sessions due to people asking to come join. I love learning, we love hiking and backpacking for a week each summer all together as a family with no tech, just us walking in the mountains and have done this tradition since the kids could pack their own food and sleeping bag. I have a 1 year old black lab puppy that is my love and goes with me everywhere, I got her last year after I underwent surgery for Cancer and came out fighting : ) I love learning more about families and their special dynamics. 

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Hi my name is Sara Rankin, I live in Oregon, the PNW ( Pacific North West) is my favorite place to be, I was born and raised in a very small town ( you know the kind of town, where my maternal and paternal grandparents and both  my parents all went to the same high school as I graduated from). I am majoring in Human Development and Family Services, and minoring in Psych, with the goal to apply to grad school this summer and get my MS in LMFT, to be a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and run my own practice. I am not the typical student, I am older, already had my first career in Law Enforcement and left that career after ten years to stay home and raise three children. I am married (celebrating 20 years of marriage this summer, YAY!) and we now have three very active teenagers. When my kids all went back to school I decided I would go back to school myself, I am very passionate about being a Marriage/Couples therapist specifically for Public Service workers (Fire, EMS, Police, 911 Dispatchers, Nurses). I grew up in that world with parents working both as public servants, I worked the job myself and am married to someone in the field as well; with my personal life experience I am uniquely qualified to be there for a group of people that don’t often get help soon enough. I also am very interested in communication in relationships and teaching that to our teenagers. I currently volunteer and lead a parent support group for parents with teenagers which I am looking to expand to a bigger forum, I started the group because as parents, there are newborn baby groups, toddler play groups, elementary school groups, but once your child gets to middle school or high school the groups and support for parents kind of falls away, besides your own personal support circle or 'village' you've created. I wanted there to be support for these REALLY tough times of being a parent of teenagers when topics become imperative to talk about. I have learned so many things from this group and look to continue it into bigger sessions due to people asking to come join. I love learning, we love hiking and backpacking for a week each summer all together as a family with no tech, just us walking in the mountains and have done this tradition since the kids could pack their own food and sleeping bag. I have a 1 year old black lab puppy that is my love and goes with me everywhere, I got her last year after I underwent surgery for Cancer and came out fighting : ) I love learning more about families and their special dynamics. 

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Below is my three teenagers, my oldest on the right is going to OSU this fall (for nursing), and believe it or not my son is only 14 (at 6'5"), our youngest is 12 almost 13.

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Hi!! I am a junior at OSU, majoring in education and HDFS. I hope to become an elementary school teacher someday. My past volunteer experience really started when I was a freshman in high school. I started a back to school backpack drive, benefiting foster children in the San Francisco Bay Area (where I am originally from). I worked very closely with an organization called Foster A Dream. This became a passion of mine and I carried this passion, for helping youth, into my college career. I served as Kappa Alpha Theta's philanthropy chair this past year. Our philanthropy benefits CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates. I spend a lot of my free time helping at our local CASA in Corvallis, this connection will help drive my ambition for the service learning project. I think this project is extremely important for all individuals because it gives you a chance to have a deeper connection with the community. It also allows you to serve the community and provide your own resources and knowledge to help others.

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Hello, my name is Amanda! I am a junior at OSU and I am a Human Development and Family Sciences major. I live in Hermiston, I am a mother to a little boy, and I also work part-time.
I have not really done any volunteer work since I started school, but I did try to do a lot of volunteering while I was in high school. I used to volunteer to work a lot of the sports concessions and help with local fundraisers. I would also help at the local food shelter to help raise money and collect donated items for those in need. I am hoping to be able to help more in the community once I am done with school. I think that this will give me a deeper insight into the community and be able to see how helping in the community impacts everyone around us. I think that helping in the community is very important because everyone needs to do their part in the community to keep the community thriving. Being able to help others makes me happy and it makes everyone else happy, so I think it will be very beneficial all around.

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Hi, Everyone! I'm Susie. I am a senior at OSU, majoring in Psychology. I live in Salem, where I am a full-time employee of the Salem-Keizer School District. To ensure that I stay busy, I have four daughters. I am an avid volunteer for their running club, ballet studio, and schools.

In my job, the majority of students that I have contact with live in poverty, as my school is a Title I school. I teach math and literacy to students who are below grade level. Additionally, I volunteer at other schools within the district to help make sure that the needs of students from all socio-economic backgrounds have equal opportunities and experiences available to them.

My career goal is to be an elementary school counselor. I am hopeful that this project will assist me in becoming more knowledgeable about services that are available, how to offer them, and how they will assist families in need. While I have some base knowledge, I look forward to learning more. This project will push me outside of my comfort zone, a little, by forcing me to delve deeper into the need in the community that surrounds me. My focus will always be the well-being of children. I intend to focus my service learning project on children.

With my hectic schedule, coffee is life. Coffee isn't just first, it is first, next, and last. All the coffee, all the day long. It is for the safety of others.

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Hello,  My name is Lindsay and I am a Senior at OSU. I will be graduating in June and moving on to Nursing school. Recently I volunteered for a SOLVE clean up project on the coast line but I have not served the community other than that since I was in high school. When I was younger we went to Washington and served in homeless shelters and food banks in Tacoma. The experience was an eye opener. You don't realize how others in the community suffer or live until you serve the homeless community. I left there with a better appreciation for what I had in life and a different love for people in that community.  I am hoping to get back into helping my community and teaching my children, who have given their lunches to homeless people on the corner, how to help their community as well.  Below is a picture of my daughters.

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Hello!!! I am Whitney and am currently a Junior at OSU. I am majoring in HDFS, and plan to go straight into my masters degree in teaching. I hope to eventually teach 1st or 2nd grade, or possibly SPED. I have also thought about going into child services. I feel that It is my passion to work with children and help them in any way I can. I feel strongly that you can make a difference in a child's life, just by showing that you care. I don't have a ton of experience volunteering, but I have spent a good amount of time working with low income families. In these times I have learned to understand the struggles and needs of these families. It has also opened my eyes to many public services that are around, and how useful they can be. Most of these are run on volunteer base, and with out people in the world that care for others, and donate their time and energy, many resources would be unavailable. I recently moved to Redding California and I am looking forward to the service learning project, first of all to get better acquainted with my new community, and also to feel that I have contributed a small part.

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Hi Everyone! I'm Rachael and I am a senior at Oregon State majoring in HDFS. I transferred here from Clackamas Community College two years ago. I've always loved working with kids and hope to become a teacher or something else that allows me to continue being around kids! Two summers ago I volunteered in Ghana where we got to build libraries in schools and build homes in one of the towns there. We spent a lot of time with orphaned children and traveled throughout Ghana getting to talk to the local people and learn about life there. The trip gave me the opportunity to see first hand how extremely different life can be outside the US and showed me that I take a lot of thing for granted - readily available clean drinking water, access to food, the homes we live in, the healthcare we have and so many other basic things that others are far from having. But to see how happy the people there are and remain, and how grateful they can be for everything made me see how lucky I've been to have the life I do. I am excited for volunteering this term because I like that every person comes from a different walk of life and that we can all learn a lot from each other.  I think a lot of insight and perspective can be gained by helping others and learning about them.  I'm looking forward to it and the rest of this class.

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Hi! I am Anna and I am a Junior at OSU. I transferred from Chemeketa after receiving my AAOT in 2015. I took a couple of years off to have a baby though. I have a servants heart and I have many experiences with helping the homeless, elderly, and disabled. My Major is HDFS with a minor in Psychology. I have worked for NW Senior and disability services, volunteered at churches serving food to homeless, and even volunteered for Spanish-speakers in help doing things like applying for services or medical benefits. I am a firm believe in Jesus Christ! I run a small tutu/headband/t-shirt business from my home while going to school full-time and also running a daycare . I am extremely busy but I love it. I have 4 children ages 16, 13, 5, and 2. Oldest are boys and daughter is youngest. I am happily married to my perfect match. I look forward to learning so much in this class and using what I learn in future work or volunteer experiences. (Me and my younger 2 in pic on Easter 2018)

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Hi! I'm Hayden and I am a Junior at Oregon State. My major is HDFS. I went to Central Oregon Community College in Bend before transferring to the OSU-Cascades campus.
I work in the law enforcement field in Oregon and looking to complete my Bachelor's Degree on the side. While this class is required for HDFS, I know the information we learn will be very helpful in my everyday life. I live in a poverty-stricken area and hope to understand more about how it shapes people's lives. I want to gain an insight into struggling families' lives.
I have done quite a bit of volunteering in my community, but not yet in the family services field. It can be very important to donate our spare time to improve our communities. Most non-profits have small amounts of income, so they need volunteers to maximize their effort to help others.
I'm looking forward to meeting other volunteers and creating a plan to help others thrive around me.

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Hello, my name is Jake and I am currently a Junior at OSU studying Business Management.
Since my first year here at OSU I have spent copious amounts of time volunteering at the Corvallis Mens Cold Weather Shelter. The shelter is only open through some of the Fall and Winter months and has a capacity of about 25 men. They run on a first come first served basis until the shelter is full. They offer meals to the men that are staying as well as tests for Hep B which is very common in the homeless community.
Through volunteering with this organization I have had the opportunity to learn a lot of new things form many different people that really gave me a different perspective of life. Many of the men in this shelter grew up with nothing and after hearing their stories it makes you realize how lucky we are to come from the backgrounds that we have.
Im overall excited for this class and cant wait to start learning.

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Hello all,
My name is Grace Safotu and I am originally from Medford, Oregon and here in Corvallis for school. I am currently a senior at OSU majoring in Public Health with a focus in Health Promotion.
Last term I have volunteered for the Healthy Youth Program that is a branch of the Linus Pauling Institute. This program is amazing and I have learned so much. It focuses in providing nutrition advice and cooking classes for children from preschool through high school who are in low-income families. This program is amazing and I plan to volunteer for them again and be involved in the other services that I have not yet participated for that they provide to complete the service-learning project.
Although I have volunteered for the Health Youth Program, I still believe that there is much more to gain and learn from the population in need. In the future, I want to do policy work and improve the policies for individuals and families in need. The policies can be better, and I believe this class will help in providing me information I need to know. I'm very excited about this class!

Here's a picture of my English Bulldog, Roxy, and I! (=

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Hi everybody, my name is Josephine Stark and I am from Merlin, Oregon. Currently I am a senior here at OSU double majoring in Exercise Sports Science and Education. I plan on being a high school teacher for Anatomy and Physiology, but I am also interested in classes like college prep or future forum to give students knowledge and support for life after primary school.

In the past, the only type of volunteer experience I had was working with my local Key Club from my home town. We created projects related towards fundraising for the community and even for others internationally. One year we worked with Adopt-a-Village foundation in Guatemala to support the Mayan people of northwest Guatemala with education, nutrition, and even provide support to ultimately improve the economic conditions of the area. Our key club focused on funding for the scholarships that were provided for students in Guatemala who did not have the funding to complete their education. Our club was able to raise about 2,000 dollars for our chosen student, Diego, who was able to graduate high school with the funding we provided. This project was a great experience for me because I was able to learn management and organizational skills that led to us reaching our scholarship amount goal.

When thinking about my service-learning project for the term, I think about the opportunity I have to further my education. When I say that I mean to see different perspectives of life, understand how it may impact people, and learn what to do with providing support for said people. I have this focus because as a teacher I must be prepared for my students to come from various backgrounds that can influence their behavior in the classroom positively or negatively. In order to me to be prepared, I have to be aware of what the present problems are in my community and learn about the resources that can support students and their families.

Here is a picture of my aunt, grandmother, mother, and then me holding the bowl (clockwise order). In this picture we are baking our Italian recipes that have been passed down the family for about five generations.

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Hi all,
My name is Hailey Reiten and I am currently a senior here at Oregon State. I am an HDFS major with an option in Early Childhood Development and hope to become a preschool teacher once I graduate this coming Spring. I am currently in a sorority here on campus where we are required to do at least 8+ hours of community service per term so I regularly volunteer throughout Corvallis. Our house's philanthropy supports CARDV, so I volunteer for them quite often. I also worked at a Head-Start preschool program where I worked closely with families that come from low-income backgrounds. It was through this preschool and program that I developed a love for teaching preschool. I am truly looking forward to this class and gaining more experience through volunteer work. I will admit that I am nervous about finding the time to volunteer throughout the term with the heavy course load I have this term. Overall I'm excited to be taking this class and grow both as a student and as a person.

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Hi Everyone,
I just go by Vickie. I am currently a junior majoring in HDFS. I am a distance learner living in Southern California. I am currently Employed as a caregiver to my son through a program called In Home Support Services (IHSS). This has been the sole focus of my life for the last 8 years. Being a caregiver has put me in contact with diverse groups of people in all socioeconomic groups. It has taught me a lot about empathy and that there is no way to truly understand another person until you have heard their "story". I must admit that I do not have any experience as a volunteer. When I was attending junior college a hundred years ago, I worked for the Disabled Students Department. I helped students in class who had difficulties with writing or reading, by either taking notes for them during class or reading tests for them. I loved that job. I was even awarded the Extended Hearts Award while I was there, something I am still very proud of. I hope that all of these experiences will help me to be more open, empathetic, and understanding during my service learning project.

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Hello everyone,
My name is Megayn Lewandowski (Henriquez is my ex-husbands name, I am currently awaiting my name change with the Office of Registrar), and I am a senior E-campus student majoring in Psychology. Aside from being a full-time student I also work full-time as a Psychiatric Technician at an acute inpatient psychiatric hospital in Lansing, Michigan. The service learning project is right up my ally, as I am an active volunteer and advocate for several organizations. Since my recovery from terminal Anorexia Nervosa in April 2012, I have been a volunteer and advocate for the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness NAMI. My role in NEDA and NAMI has been serving as a mentor and assisting with fundraising in the annual NEDA and NAMI Walks programs for Ann Arbor and Lansing, Michigan, respectively. Starting this year, I have decided to join the American Cancer Society and am working on allocating sponsors for the upcoming fundraising event in Saint Johns, Michigan. I am a little nervous about finding the time to manage another organization, but I love giving back to my community and being able to help those in need. I really would like to volunteer at a homeless women’s or domestic abuse shelter, as this is something that is close to my heart. Not everyone is equipped with the resources or support system to survive abuse. I would like to be able to help women by offering a system of support and helping them to regain confidence, independence, and learn to be resilient.

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Hello all, my name is Eric Jacobs-Nicholls, I am a senior at Oregon State working on my degree in HDFS. I am a distance learner in Bend and have been attending online school part time for the past 3 years. I believe much of my work experience will be valuable in my service learning project as I have been working in some social services type of work for the past 11 years working in therapeutic schools and programs. Most directly beneficial would be a short stint as a resident monitor at a local youth homeless shelter and transitional living program. I will benefit from the service learning experience by having more direct experience with a more need based population. It is interesting to see the fine line between struggling and homelessness for those that do not have a strong social support structure in their life and a good reminder to myself the importance of maintaining positive relationships in my own life.

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Hello all, my name is Eric Jacobs-Nicholls, I am a senior at Oregon State working on my degree in HDFS. I am a distance learner in Bend and have been attending online school part time for the past 3 years. I believe much of my work experience will be valuable in my service learning project as I have been working in some social services type of work for the past 11 years working in therapeutic schools and programs. Most directly beneficial would be a short stint as a resident monitor at a local youth homeless shelter and transitional living program. I will benefit from the service learning experience by having more direct experience with a more need based population. It is interesting to see the fine line between struggling and homelessness for those that do not have a strong social support structure in their life and a good reminder to myself the importance of maintaining positive relationships in my own life.

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Hi, I currently am junior at Oregon State, and I'm working on an HDFS and education major with a public health minor. For the past 7 summers I have worked at a kids summer camp that is run through the YMCA at Silver Falls. A few of those summers were volunteer, and others were paid depending on how long I was at camp that summer. I've worked many positions, but I keep going back because I love being able to help people, and being able to help them if they are having a bad day. I have also coached lacrosse at Corvallis High School. I think the service learning project will help me to better understand families, and push me to know more about my surrounding community and how I can help.

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Hi, I'm a senior at Oregon State, so I will be graduating this June, hooray for my last term! I was previously part of a sorority where we spent a lot of time with different organizations and I found myself really enjoying my work with children. I currently work as a swim instructor at the local pool in Corvallis, this has made it so I volunteer to work with kids in after school programs as well. I think that this experience of service learning will push me to see the other organizations I dont have any knowledge about and look more into what specifically with kids I want to do.I think that will also help me understand families dealing with problems that I have never personally dealt with. I'm a little nervous but excited to try something new.

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Hi, I'm now a senior, working on my HDFS degree. I live in Coos Bay, Or. I still volunteer today, but its on a different level. I am part of the Daughters of the American Revolution. It's a lineage society, but we focus on patriotism, preserving history, and education. I also volunteer for Ares/Races in emergency services. I have a ham radio licence (K7GRL) that I use to practice emergency communication in case of a disaster that happens locally. In the past I have volunteered with Search and Rescue, Girl Scouts, and Boy Scouts. As for work, I work in a medical clinic. I do look for things that I can learn from and that has meaning. I know that volunteering always finds a way to teach you something new about yourself that you didn't know was within you. I look forward to the next experience.

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Hi My name is Maribeth Allen! I volunteered a lot in high school and volunteer a lot with my sorority now. My favorite place to volunteer is a place called North West Children's Outreach and its in Portland. We create care bags full of cloths, toys, books etc. for families who are in poverty. I think these volunteer experiences will help with my service project because it allows we to have a lot of connections and ways to be able to volunteer. It also has helped me narrow down what I am most passionate in volunteering for and that will also help me choose that I want to do for my project. I thin this service project will allow me to make more connection and will also give me a better understand of how I can help families and children in need. I want to be a teacher so I think this experience will be humbling and will overlap with what I may encounter as a teacher. This is a picture of me in Spain this summer! I was working with kids on the Navy base in Rota, Spain... It was so fun!!

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Hi My name is Maribeth Allen! I volunteered a lot in high school and volunteer a lot with my sorority now. My favorite place to volunteer is a place called North West Children's Outreach and its in Portland. We create care bags full of cloths, toys, books etc. for families who are in poverty. I think these volunteer experiences will help with my service project because it allows we to have a lot of connections and ways to be able to volunteer. It also has helped me narrow down what I am most passionate in volunteering for and that will also help me choose that I want to do for my project. I thin this service project will allow me to make more connection and will also give me a better understand of how I can help families and children in need. I want to be a teacher so I think this experience will be humbling and will overlap with what I may encounter as a teacher. This is a picture of me in Spain this summer! I was working with kids on the Navy base in Rota, Spain... It was so fun!!

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Hello Classmates, my name is Gerson but prefer going by "Cris" which is my middle name. I've been taking online courses for over three years now and I enjoy it since I work FT and the online systems makes it very easy to access and get work and school work done. I'm also a HDFS major and hopefully getting a minor in Leadership. I'm originally from The Bay area but have been living in Bend, Oregon for the past two years. When I first moved to Bend, Oregon. I had the opportunity to work for DHS in the Self-Sufficiency department. Helping people to see if they qualified for any government resources. Therefore, I've seen both the good and bad side of families in poverty and in need. Therefore, I strongly believe that this particular experience will help me succeed in the service-learning project. I switched careers by joining the tech-industry again because I'm a strong believer of doing more for people than just checking applications to see if he or she qualifies for benefits. So, I'm now considering a career with the Sheriff department in Bend, Oregon.

Besides all of the above, here's a silly picture of me and my dawg "Oso." I enjoy spending time with him, giving him treats, taking him for walks, hikes, and meeting new people with him.

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Hi everyone! My name is Paige. My last name on the course is Owens but that is because the school has not finalized the change back to Smith. I am currently a senior at OSU majoring in HDFS and minoring in psychology. I wish that I could say that I am graduating soon but in reality I have just changed my major too many times and have an abundance of credits placing me in the senior status. The picture that I chose is of me, my daughter, and my boyfriend on vacation. I chose this picture because it represents me. I am really big on family and no matter how busy I am, I will always find time for them. I volunteered with a program called Parents in Crisis for approximately two years and we helped families with CPS cases reunite, taught offending parents coping skills and parenting skills, and offered classes to the general public on parenting and child development. It was wonderful seeing the change in people and watching them grow and reunite with their children. I helped lead a children's class and managed all of the paperwork. I think that working with them helped me decide on my HDFS major and I think that it will help me be successful in the service-learning project because I know the work that is needed in volunteering with something that impacts the life of others. I think that I will benefit from the service- learning project by getting the life experience and learning about people in various situations. I am hopeful that my compassion and empathy will continue to grow throughout the project.

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Hi everyone! My name is Melanie. I'm currently a Junior, and majoring in HDFS with a focus on Child Development. Poverty has a profound impact on developing children, and I think it's crucial to find ways to counteract the negative effects as early as possible. My volunteer experience is pretty limited, but I do have a little experience. Mostly, I volunteered to help train officers on how to handle belligerent people, which was a lot of fun. I also participated in a town-wide effort to clean up our river banks. For this class, I'm hoping to make some connections and learn about new organizations to help out children in need. I'm an aspiring High School Counselor, so I really feel that this could be a valuable experience, and provide me with a good base to be able to help future students and families who are struggling.
P.S- Here is a picture of me, with the bonus of my dog, Otis, barking.

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Hi Everyone. My name is Amanda Chistman, but I go by my middle name, Kraelyn. I live in Bend, OR where I am an HDFS student at the OSU Cascades. Below is a picture of my husband and I and our three dogs, Clifford, Winston, and Boone.
In the past, I have volunteered for my local 4-H program. Conducting workshops, being a 4-H leader, and being a guest speaker at 4-H meetings are a few of the things that I have done with this specific program.
I have also completed two internships, one in a elementary school and one in a preschool. In these school settings, I was able to work one on one with students of all backgrounds and abilities.
All of these experiences have continued to fuel my passion for teaching children and have encouraged me to be a positive person in my community.
I am excited for this service learning experience because I think it will help me develop a better understanding of the current needs in my community. I also hope that my compassion will grow for people in different types of situations.

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Hello all! My name is Jessica, and I live up in Poulsbo, Washington. My experience is very lacking, so I'm not bring much to the table other than my skills. I'm a really patient person, and enjoy listening to people, as well as simply being around them. Helping people is one of my favorite things in life. I'm really looking forward to the service-learning project, as I was already planning on volunteering. I'd really like to get more insight in the field and just be able to help people. We are all living on this planet together, and I think that we all need to help one another when we can. Seeing other people smile and be happy is something I really enjoy, so that's another factor I'm looking forward to getting out of the project. Making someone else's day can make yours.

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Hello everyone! My name is Kaylin and I am married with two children, boys 7 and 2. I used to volunteer at my oldest son's school, and I absolutely loved it. I haven't been able to since I started taking classes again, but I loved interacting with children all of SES's, and I really look forward to getting a similar experience again. I myself came from a poor, single parent household. Although I was lucky and our situation improved when I was 9, I still very much remember what it was to grow up in poverty. I really look forward to finding a volunteer experience where I can provide something for children who were in a similar situation.

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Hi everyone. My name is Kim Bolen and I live in Eastern Oregon with my husband and two kids. Some of my work that I think will help me be successful with the service learning project is the work I have done at Family Building Blocks in Salem. My work there consisted of working with children and families who were at risk of child abuse and neglect. I was providing care for the kids as well as support to the parents. I have also done a lot of work with children and families as a teacher. For my service learning project I am going to volunteer as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) I think my prior work, education, and foster care experience will help me a great deal as a CASA and I think this service learning project will increase my knowledge of how to better serve families in need. This is something I have wanted to do for a while because it is work that I think is so important. I am looking forward to having the opportunity to critically think and apply the concepts we will be learning in this class to my work as a CASA. I'm looking forward to getting to know you all of you more this term.

This is a picture of my family, including our two foster children that lived with us last year.