A Volunteer a Day

Danielle Lizarraga
Experiential Passage Proposal
March 6, 2015
Trujillo

I.

Introduction
When my mother and father play My Horse is Bigger Than Your Horse with their brothers,
sisters, cousins, or friends, they will start off every time with the same thing, about how I am very caring
and loving towards others, whether I know them or not. I dont consider myself either of those things,
even if others say I am. People are people and should be cared for and helped when needed. We are
humans and there is not a person on this earth that should not be treated as one, no matter how many
mistakes they've made or awful of a human they are in general. If we went around judging and penalizing
everyone we saw based on their choices in life or how they are awful human beings, that would make us
no different than them and the cycle would continue, one after the other and never end.
For this activity I will be doing "A Volunteer a Day." For 50 days straight I will be volunteering
after school, on the weekends, on cancelled school days, and during breaks. Every single day I will
volunteer. I hope to gain a wider perspective of the volunteering experience and to learn and gain skills
that I could use in the future for any given circumstance. I have small volunteering experience, but it has
not been regularly or for a long period of time and I would like to change that. I want to be more useful to
the community, to make some time of impact, even if its just a small amount working on the sidelines.

II.
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
J.
K.
III.

Learning Objectives
To follow and complete the project
To push every introverted bone in my body
To be more organized
To be able to stay on schedule
To be acquainted with more people
To transfer prior accumulated knowledge into the volunteer workplace
To further learn from the volunteer experience
To be able to recognize perspectives
To be able to investigate the world
To be able to communicate ideas
To be able to use technology efficiently
Timeline
Activities/Work/Task

Learning
Objective

Documentation

Time
Commitment

Task Completion
Date

Write Activity Passage

Proposal

A. C. D.
K.

Have Proposal Written in

Both Digital and Hard
Copy

3 hours

March 4, 2015

Distribute Proposal to
Committee Members

A. B. C.
D. E. J.
K.

Get Proposal Copies to

Committee Members

5 minutes

March 4, 2015

Have Committee
Meeting

A. B. C.
D. E. H.
J.

Have Committee
Members Sign Off on
Activity Approval

1 hour

March 5, 2015

Contact the Downtown

Aquarium

A. B. C.
D. E. J.
K.

Email Record

10 minutes

March 4, 2015

Contact the Denver

Rescue Mission

A. B. C.
D. E. J.
K.

Email Record

10 minutes

March 4, 2015

Contact the Food Bank

of the Rockies

A. B. C.
D. E. J.
K.

Email Record

10 minutes

March 4, 2015

Contact American Red

Cross

A. B. C.
D. E. J.
K.

Email Record

10 minutes

March 5, 2015

Search for More

Volunteer
Opportunities in
Colorado

A. B. C.
K.

Print Home Pages of the

Potential Organizations
and Email Record of the
ones contacted

2 hours

March 6, 2015

Fill Out Necessary

and/or Required
Applications and/or
Information for
Volunteering
Organizations

A. B. C. J. Copy of the Filled Out

K.
Applications and/or
Information

1-2 hours

March 4, 2015 March 7, 2015

Figure Out Schedule

for Volunteering the
First 30 Days

A. C. D.
K.

Print of Schedule and/or

Agenda for the first 30
days

3 hours

March 8, 2015

Create Website for the

Journey

A. C. D.
J. K.

Website Will Be Visible

to All

1 hour

March 8, 2015

Go Volunteer at the
Downtown Aquarium

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience and
Signature Sheets for the
Places Volunteered At

1 hour

Day in Week
March 9, 2015 March 15, 2015

Go Volunteer at the
Denver Rescue Mission

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience and
Signature Sheets for the
Places Volunteered At

2 hours 30
minutes

Day in Week
March 9, 2015 March 15, 2015

Go Volunteer at the
Food Bank of the
Rockies

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience and
Signature Sheets for the
Places Volunteered At

2 hours 30
minutes

Day in Week
March 9, 2015 March 15, 2015

Continue to Volunteer
for the First 30 days

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience Thus Far

75-80 hours

March 9, 2015 April 7, 2015

IV.

Figure Out Schedule

for Volunteering the
Last 30 Days

A. C. D.
K.

Print of Schedule and/or

Agenda for the last 30
days

3 hours

April 7, 2015

Update Website on the

First Half of the
Journey

A. C. D.
J. K.

Website Will Be Visible

to All

2 hours

April 7, 2015

Go Volunteer at the
Downtown Aquarium

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience and
Signature Sheets for the
Places Volunteered At

1 hour

Day in Week April

8, 2015 - April 12,
2015

Go Volunteer at the
Denver Rescue Mission

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience and
Signature Sheets for the
Places Volunteered At

2 hours 30
minutes

Day in Week April

8, 2015 - April 12,
2015

Go Volunteer at the
Food Bank of the
Rockies

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience and
Signature Sheets for the
Places Volunteered At

2 hours 30
minutes

Day in Week April

8, 2015 - April 12,
2015

Continue to Volunteer
until the End of the 60
Days

A. B. C.
D. E. F.
G. H. I. J.
K.

Pictures and/or Videos of

the Experience and
Signature Sheets for the
Places Volunteered At

75-80 hours

April 7, 2015 May 7, 2015

Update Website on the

End of the Journey

A. C. D.
J. K.

Website Will Be Visible

to All

2 hours

May 7, 2015

Create Master Video

Collage of all Pictures
and Videos Taken
Throughout the
Journey

A. C. D.
J. K.

Will be Posted on
Website and Be Visible
to All

3-4 hours

May 8, 2015

Domains
This passage will address and follow the Global Domains of Take Action, Communicate Ideas,
Investigate the World, and Recognize Perspectives. Take Action will be one of the Global Domains, I will
be volunteering each and everyday in the hopes of making the slightest bit of improvement in the
community or in someones life. Communicating Ideas will also be demonstrated in this passage, I will be
working with organizations and individuals that have expectations of me so I will need to identify,
understand, and meet these expectations to the organizations needs. Investigate the World will also be
demonstrated when volunteering because when I am doing the activity I will need to think about, how is
what Im doing befitting the community, region, or even the world? and because I will be working with
multiple organizations I will be able to develop a position that considers multiple perspectives to draw a

reasonable conclusion on what our community needs, what our region needs, and even what our world
needs and how useful is volunteering to others and oneself? Finally, Recognizing Perspectives will be
demonstrated in this Passage because I will be working with a number of organizations and I will need to
apply their perspective along with my own into the work I will be doing.
V.

Documentation and Final Product

I will be keeping an online journal, my own website, of my experiences and have a hard copy
folder full of all my schedules, agendas, signature sheets, and other miscellaneous notes needed for the
volunteering process. I will take and keep videos and pictures of the whole journey and upload those onto
the website. At the end I will collab all of the videos and photos into a video presentation and present this
while I am presenting my Experiential Passage journey to the student body and faculty. For my final
product, I will have completed the website with an entry each day of what my volunteer experience was
like that day, what skills I gained, and what I learned.

VI.

Anticipated Challenges
Some challenges I believe I will encounter will be organization and time commitment. I am
usually a very organized and consistent person, but now with the year almost coming to an end teachers
are stacking up project, after project, after project, after project, plus the homework and studying I have to
do for my all my classes, especially AP English Language and AP World History. With all of these things
happening at once it will be difficult for me to stay committed to going everyday to volunteer, but I am
looking forward to this strangely. Having to be extra organized and time out every second of everyday is
something that I am actually looking forward to, I like to stay busy.
There is also the worry of not finding places to volunteer at. I already have multiple places where
I can volunteer at, but what if on the rare occasion there are no open spaces for the next day at any
organization? On the same day for all of the organizations there are no openings? What will I do? I know
this will most likely not happen, but I worry that it could potentially happen. I am also anticipating that
there will be at least one or two days where I will not be able to go and volunteer, what then? I am
thinking that if on the rare occasion when I can't volunteer I will have to double up on volunteer work the
next day at two different organizations. I am a positive person so I will not be shaken easily. There are
many worries I have for this activity, but I will take all challenges and solve them. I will complete this
activity no matter what the challenges may be.