Author: dbrown11

VR Reflection

What did you experience?

I watched the video about Abraham Lincoln going to visit his sons grave. It was very interesting to watch and the ghosts gave it a sort of creepy, sad feeling.

What impact do you think VR will have on Digital Publishing?

I think VR will help make Digital Publishing more interactive for readers. Instead of just reading an article, they can experience the information first hand.

Do you think VR can evoke empathy?

I think it can. VR surrounds you with new circumstances, instead of just reading about it, you are in the same room as the event. Being immersed in that environment can evoke some feelings of empathy.

Volunteer/Donate page

Two asylee seekers smiling and talking to a volunteerA volunteer helping an asylee seeker read a passage from a book

 

Donate Goods tab

Your donations are critical to the success of AWE. We are always in need of general food donations, and office donations. Below is a list of the most useful items, but we will accept other items that are not on the lists.

General items needed:

    • Powdered and condensed milk, cereal, frozen vegetables, cooking oil, spaghetti, rice, tuna, sardines, canned chicken, salt, garlic powder, butter, jelly, peanut butter, eggs, dried beans, potatoes, onions, honey, noodles, yogurt, cheese, flour (wheat, white, yucca, corn).

Office supplies needed:

    • Printer ink (HP Officejet Pro 8610), printer paper, post its, index cards, markers/crayons, colored paper,  large trash bags, paper towels, toilet paper, cleaning supplies, pens, pencils.

If you don’t have these items just lying around and don’t have time to go out and shop, Walmart, Giant, Staples gift cards are also welcome donations.

Umbrellas are also needed for when AWE members go to events around the Baltimore area.

The Run With AWE section is for our annual fundraiser. We recruit people to run the Baltimore Running Festival and they must fundraise for AWE. Perhaps we can put “details coming soon” with the link to the festival? http://www.thebaltimoremarathon.com/  Date of the race is October 21, 2017.

AWE is also in need of clothing donations for our clients who have only the clothes on their back and those who are looking for jobs. To donate money or other goods or to arrange a tour they can contact info@asyleewomen.org

AWE also needs and accepts money donations. To learn more, visit our donate page. (link to Brian’s page)

Two shelving units with cans and other perishable items.  Two young adult volunteers shelving and organizing nonperishable donations.

 

Volunteer tab

We are always in need of volunteers to assist in the daily activities at AWE. If you are looking for a specific position that is not listed, contact Sr. Anne Hefner at ahefner@asyleewomen.org and we will be happy to match your skills, interest, and availability.

To volunteer they can contact Sr. Anne Hefner at ahefner@asyleewomen.org

Volunteer positions

    • Clothing Closet Assistant
      • Sort, wash, and hang donated clothing. Monitor the flow of clothing from donation to the clothing closet. Assist members with selecting the correct size and style appropriate for them.
      • Time commitment: Three hours, twice a week
      • Clothing Closet Assistant Details

A walk in closet with rows of brightly colored shirts

    • Community Activity Leader
      • Facilitate group activities for AWE members. Prepare the activity and gather necessary supplies before hand. Use the activity to help build connections to the community and to other members.
      • Time Commitment: Tuesdays 10 am- 12pm
      • Community Activity Leader Details

An activity leader explaining an activity to a volunteer and asylee seeker.

    • Community Connector
      • Develop a list of free activities and field trip activities in the Baltimore area. Update bulletin board with monthly free events.
      • Time Commitment: 1-2 hours a week, flexible date and times
      • Community Connector Details
    • Garden Caretaker
      • Care and maintain regular maintenance for the AWE Garden. Craft plans to help expand the garden spaces and research and apply for grants to do so. Identify materials needed to help the garden grow.
      • Time Commitment: Flexible hours and days, members are usually available to help on Tuesday mornings
      • Garden Caretaker Details

A young Asylee seeker working in a garden

    • Guest Speaker
      • Meet with the program director in advance to discuss your presentation topic. Prepare a 60-90 minute interactive and engaging presentation on the topic you wish to teach the AWE community members.
      • Time Commitment: 1-2 hours, flexible days and times, Tuesdays are usually best for members
      • Guest Speaker Details

A young man giving a presentation to a group of people

    • Lunch Chefs & Nutrition Promoters
      • Develop lunch menus based on donations received for 10-20 people. Prepare and cook lunches, keep an inventory of spices and needed products. Let the Program Director know when items get low. Open to cooking foods from other countries.
      • Time Commitment: Monday or Wednesday from 10am-12pm
      • Lunch Chefs & Nutrition Promoter Details

A woman’s hand putting greens into a bowl while a young boy helps.

    • Pantry Coordinator
      • Track and organize incoming donations. Assist community members with selecting food items each Tuesday and tracking what is taken. Maintain a tracking system for incoming and outgoing food.
      • Time Commitment: Tuesdays from 10am-12pm or 12:30am-2:30pm
      • Pantry Coordinator Details

Two volunteers restocking and organizing the pantry

The Run With AWE section is for our annual fundraiser. We recruit people to run the Baltimore Running Festival and they must fundraise for AWE. http://www.thebaltimoremarathon.com/  Date of the race is October 21, 2017. 

Baltimore Running Festival logo   Run with AWE team posing outside the Baltimore Ravens Stadium

 

 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Before this, I had never seen this play so it was a new experience for me. I really enjoyed how the students made the play their own. First, the director changed the cast from all male to all female, which I thought was an interesting twist. Having an all-female cast did not, in my opinion, affect the play in a negative way. On top of this, they incorporated modern media scattered through the play. At one point, when the donkey made its first appearance, the actress started singing Low by Flo Rida. There were several other instances when they used modern songs to fill that gap in the play, I just can’t remember what songs they were. Having these songs in there broke up the seriousness of the play and broke up the tough language of the play. Overall, I really enjoyed the play.

Annotated Bibliography

Heifer International. Retrieved from the Heifer International site, https://www.heifer.org/. Accessed 28 March 2017.

The author of this website is the Heifer International organization. This organization, founded in 1944, focuses on providing families in need with agricultural training, animals and what they need to remain self-sufficient. The main claims of this website are to work with communities to end world hunger and poverty across the globe. The intended audience for this site are potential donors and volunteers, as well as people looking for ways to help end world hunger.

There is some bias on this website. This website is in favor of ending world hunger, which is obvious in their mission statement. There are a lot of strengths when it comes to this website. The bright yellow and blue colors make the website stand out. The light background across the top with the dark font makes the site appealing to the eye.

Save the Children. (2015, October). Retrieved from Save the Children Web site,  http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm, Accessed 28 March 2017.

The author of this website is the Save the Children Foundation. This Foundation, founded in 1919, was established to improve the lives of children through education, healthcare, and economic opportunities, as well as provide emergency services when needed. The main claims of this website are to protect children from harm and provide them with the opportunity to learn and give them a healthy start. The intended audience for this site are people looking for ways to help children in need and possible donors or volunteers.

There is some bias from the author on this website. There are links on the bottom of the homepage linking to a petition asking Trump to make early education part of his first 100 days in office. There is also a link urging people to sign a petition to oppose the refugee ban. This site has many strengths. Right away, the eye is drawn to the article links that are on the main page. The pictures and bright colors make sure that it is the first thing someone sees. One weakness of this page is the length of the main page. There is a lot of scrolling that has to happen before reaching the information on the bottom. This website offered several good ideas for planning the volunteer page for the Asylee Women Enterprises website.

 

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. (2017). Retrieved from the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants site, http://refugees.org/. Accessed 28 March 2017.

The author of this site is The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. This committee, founded in 1911, is focused on the needs and rights of refugees and immigrants. The authors main claims are to provide leadership and services to communities and refugees who have been uprooted from their homes. The author’s intended audience would be potential donors and volunteers, as well as anyone looking to get involved with an organization like this one.

There is bias on this website. This website is clearly in favor of protecting refugees and providing them with the resources necessary for them to rebuild their lives. This website uses colors and videos to keep the audience interested and keeps them going further into the site. These strengths keep the audience interested in the site. This website provided me with serval ideas for the volunteer page I am trying to create.

 

AWE Elevator pitch

In 2016, 96,874 refugees were welcomed into the United States. However, not all of them have the means for a successful life in the United States. Asylee Women Enterprises (AWE) is a foundation that helps refugees adapt to life in the U.S., including housing, teaching English, and career placement. AWE relies heavily on the support of their volunteers and the Baltimore community, and there are a few ways the community can get involved. The AWE foundation needs volunteers to help them teach refugees the skills they need to live a successful life, drivers to help transport refugees to classes, appointments, and job training sessions. Along with volunteers, AWE needs people to donate clothes, craft items and household items. Monetary donations can be made on their website and volunteer postings are also available.

The intended audience for this foundation would be people looking to assist refugees in need by donating money, clothes, or household items. The audience could also be people looking for a way to volunteer their time to help the AWE foundation. To reach this audience, a page on the AWE website will connect people to volunteer and donation opportunities. This page will include ways to get involved with the foundation, donated goods that are in high demand, how to contribute your time or money, links to social media pages, how to sign up for a monthly newsletter, and upcoming events (links to the calendar/ news tab). This information is critical to continuing the legacy of AWE via volunteers and donations. Having this information written clearly on the website can lead to increased volunteer retention and donation rates, and by doing so, increase the longevity and success of Asylee Women Enterprises.

Some of the media that should be included on this webpage would be videos or pictures of volunteers working with the refugees, links to the social media accounts, pictures of any volunteers who ran or helped with the Baltimore Running Festival that will be advertised, and other pictures of the AWE location. These forms of media will help engage the audience and will make reading the website easier. The pictures will help break up blocks of text, spreading out the information in a way that flows better on the webpage.

5 Questions for Asylee

  1. Out of the three websites we analysed, refugees.org, Heifer.org, and savethechildren.org, which did you like the most and what did you like about it?
  2. Are there specific items on your website now that you would like to keep? Any specific information?
  3. Do volunteers have to have any specific skills? What are you looking for in volunteers?
  4. What kind of programs do you run for refugees?
  5. What kind of donation site do you use? PayPal? or something else?

Rhetorical Analysis

 

Heifer International

The Heifer International organization was founded by Dan West with the mission to provide relief for those in poverty. Dan West found a way to gift families with not just rations of food but whole, live animals that can sustain them for much longer than a simple ration of food. His organization empowers families to turn poverty and hunger into prosperity (heifer.org/about). The Heifer website is simple and easy to follow. By having a simple site, Heifer makes it easy to understand their message and their organization.

The intended audience for this website are people who are interested in helping end hunger and poverty around the world and people who want to learn more about the company and what they do. The secondary audience for this site could be sponsors/ partners or companies looking into sponsoring this organization. The intention of this website is to inform the audience of who the company is, how they conduct their work, and how the audience can help them. The company also wants to collect donations from their readers, in the form of money or gifts for families in poverty. They want to work with communities to end hunger and care for the earth. By allowing people to buy livestock, they are reassuring their audience that the money won’t be wasted, while providing a family in need with a valuable resource. The medium for this information is a website. I think the author chose this platform because it’s an easy way to get a lot of information across to a wide audience. This website can be read at a glance to get all the information or an be explored in great detail for a long period of time. We are now an online generation so having an interactive website is a great way to reach a very wide range of people. The author of this is the Heifer organization. The author of this website comes across as knowledgeable and trustworthy. They seem to know a lot about their topic and have a great understanding of their program. The author provides the information is a lot of detail and makes sure to explain everything in a way everyone can understand.

The general colors of the website are simple and not overwhelming. The colors are not overly vibrant. The main task bar is a simple blue color with a light grey bar at the top. The yellow box is a good way to highlight the area where the viewers of the site can donate money and other gifts.  As we get farther down the main page of the website, the background shifts to white, allowing the other links to pop out of the page, drawing your attention to them.

The bright colors in the pictures draw your attention, and make sure you can see more ways of helping/ giving. The white background helps highlight the light blue donation button along with the other donation ads.

Below this area, we have a bar with bright red lettering, advertising the organizations social media accounts. Highlighting this section in red draws your attention and encourages you to follow their pages and help spread their message. The red text draws your eye, and encourages the audience to follow them on social media which would help them spread their message to people who might not know about their organization

The font is consistent throughout the whole site and isn’t constantly changing from page to page. It’s an easy to read font at a reasonable size. The size of the font changes depending on whether the text is a headline or a passage of information.  The headlines are big enough to be eye catching but not too big that they take up the whole page. The bigger text of the headline calls your attention to the article, while the smaller text makes reading the information easier.

Overall, this website is easy to interact with and full of positive information about the company and their mission. The authors make sure to get their information across in a very quick, easy to understand way. By having several bright pictures of families and kids on the first page, they encourage sympathy for their cause and make donating to them very easy and accessible. This website is full of interesting fats and information, overall I think it does a very good job of catching the readers eye and encouraging their help.

The tool I used to capture the above images was JING. I chose this tool because it was easy to download and easy to use. This tool allowed me to take screenshots of which ever section of the website I needed for my analysis. Having the images to go along with my description gives the reader a reference to go off of throughout the analysis. To create this analysis, I made sure to go through every page on the Heifer website before writing. I decided to focus mainly on the main page and the about page for my analysis because those are the two main pages that readers will see first. By focusing on only two pages, I know I limit my analysis but I thought it would be easier to analyze the main pages that the audience would see first.