College Mentors For Kids - Special Events Director and Publicity Chair - 2007-2008
In 2007 and 2008, I was the special events director for the Butler University chapter of College Mentors For Kids, a program that exposes children to college life and the opportunities it offers by focusing on higher education, community service, culture and diversity. CMFK targets children who may otherwise be unaware of college and its benefits by engaging them in activities with college student "mentors" that take place weekly on 20 Indiana campuses. In central Indianapolis alone, more than 200 children are reached through CMFK.
In my position, I was responsible for planning and coordinating small events for the mentors and their elementary-aged students. These included mentor education days, where I provided a presentation (usually accompanied by an additional guest speaker) to cover new educational opportunities the mentors could implement with their kids and different ways for answering tough questions. I was also in charge of planning and hosting the annual holiday party and year-end awards banquet, inviting parents to come see their child receive an award and learn what their child had learned over the course of the year in CMFK.
As the special events director, I was also responsible for serving as the publicity chair for Butler University during the 7th Annual Walk for Kids. This event encompassed four area universities/colleges in addition to Butler and is an all-day charity walk on the White River Canal for both mentors and community members to help raise money for the organization. As publicity chair, I was in charge of creating flyers, press releases, newspaper advertisements and acquiring sponsors and donations from area businesses to help facilitate the event. Over the course of three months, the publicity work paid off, resulting in a record number of both participants and sponsors.
At the 7th Annual Walk for Kids with the Butler Bulldog!
March 2008
"What are the holidays without a little drama?" Special holiday event with the Indianapolis Opera and Indianapolis Urban League of Young Professionals - 2009
Over the course of a four month time period working on initiating a marketing/communications campaign for the Indianapolis Opera (please see my 2009 marketing campaign tab), we closed the year by advertising and organizing a holiday event for the Indianapolis Opera and the Indianapolis Urban League of Young Professionals. The event was aimed at establishing a relationship between the two organizations by inviting them to converse with IO staff and talent, watch a live performance previewing an upcoming show, and participate in a raffle giving away IO merchandise and recorded music.
As part of a team of seven students and two professors, I was responsible for the menu: finding and confirming caterers, providing menu options to the IO staff, making sure food was delivered on time and to the correct place, and that there was enough food for the expected 200 members. In addition, prior to the event, one other student and myself were tasked with presenting the idea and goals of the event to the IO board of directors and the director of the IULYP.
The event successfully established a new relationship for the IO and increased the potential for greater diversity among Indianapolis Opera attendees. Most in attendance signed up for IO direct mail and enthusiastically responded that they would likely attened an IO performance in the near future.
Panhellenic Recruitment Day Chair
Formal recruitment can be a stressful time for those involved in sorority life on a college campus. It involves a lot of talking and consideration of future members - a time consuming process that involves many women. At Butler University, recruitment lasts over the course of five days, and within each house, each day has a certain theme to help keep members and recruits entertained over the (many) hours.
In 2010, I was responsible for organizing and coordinating day two of recruitment for my sorority house. Designated as a craft day, day two is intended to highlight and explain each house's philanthropy. Over the course of a few months at the end of 2009, I was responsible for compiling a craft idea for the recruits to put together while visiting the house during recruitment (approximately 250 crafts) so that they could better understand the philanthropy supported by my sorority.
Our philanthropy organization is CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) which essentially utilizes court appointed volunteers to serve as a voice in court for abused or neglected children. My craft idea was for the recruits to decorate picture frame magnets during their 30 minute visit to the house. The idea behind the frames was that they would be given to CASA volunteers in Indianapolis, decorated with drawings and 'thank you' notes, and hold a picture of the child that each CASA volunteer was currently sponsoring.
In addition to making all of the blank magnet frames, I planned all table decorations (for a Spanish 'CASA' theme), outlined directions for seating, and created a binder to explain to future chairs exactly what should be done and where things should go both during the event and after clean-up to ensure success. Over years of day chairs, there were no directions for how to get started, so many of us felt lost when first beginning the planning stages. The binder I created during my time in the position will ideally help to keep future day chairs at ease by lessening the stress and outlining the event in all of its accompanying details.
Overall, the day was successful, evidenced in the fact that we had a 100 percent return rate among recruits that were invited back after the craft day.
