Abby Williams

Throughout the course of this service project, I have learned how to be a better leader and teacher.  I am proud of the work that we have accomplished, and I am especially proud that we were able to overcome so many obstacles and still reach our goals.  I think we definitely made a positive impact on the boys and girls club, 4H group, and the girl scouts.  I look forward to being involved in projects like this more in the future.  I have learned how important consistent communication is.  If we had touched base with our community partners more often and continuously reminded them of the upcoming events we had planned, we possibly could have avoided some of the problems we faced.  Overall, our project had a great turnout and was definitely a success!

Heather Wharton

Throughout the 2011-2012 school year, the biggest impact this project has had on me is the advancement in my ability to communicate.  It was difficult communicating with members of the Springfield community because they were never clear on things.  In addition, it was difficult communicating with my summit group.  It was hard to relay a message to three people and try to keep everyone up-to-date.  Even though it was difficult, I have grown as a leader and I am better at being a member of a team.    

Delaney Sweeney

I have accomplished a lot through this service project. I have grown as a leader and my communication skills have also grown. Sometimes it can be a challenge living with the group of people that you have to accomplish a goal with all year long, but I think we did a really good job getting along after deligating each person jobs for the semester. I became a lot more organized and learned to be more assertive. I think summit is a great idea, but there are some kinks that need to be worked out. It has been a wonderful experience for me. I think it will look good on my resume and I will be able to show how I have continued with community service throughout my college career.

Stephanie Dulany

I have learned so much since the beginning of our community service project. The first and most important thing that I have learned is that it is very rewarding to have responsbilities, more than your own, towards giving to the community. The most rewarding thing that we had the pleasure of being involved with was when we went to the Boys and Girls Club to tell them of the importance of keeping the local water streams clean of pollution. They all came from different places around Springfield, some from worse places than others, but they were all so interested in how they could contribute to keeping the local lakes and rivers clean of trash. They were able to come up with their own ideas of how they could help. In a way, it made them feel important that they, young kids, to contribute to a country-wide program of having clean water. I have definately changed as a person, and as a leader since this project began. It is so easy to get caught up in your own life of school, work, homework, etc. However, when you have the responsibility to teach young children things that you were never taught as a kid, it is eye opening. The only way to keep the entire country's water sources clean is to get as many people involved as possible. This aspect has taught me how to be a leader, and how to step out of my comfort zone and help a project that is bigger than myself and my life.

Delaney Sweeney

I have learned a lot regarding water quality and pollution. I knew it was always important, but after reading the books that our community sponsor sent us I feel as though I have gained much more knowledge one the subject at hand. I also feel like this is a very important matter to the Springfield area. When we applied for summit, there was an article that came out in the newpaper about how the Springfield water was give a C grade for water quality. This really impacted our project because we focused on cleaning up the area water. Also, since all rivers and lakes somehow end up flowing in the ocean, this also relates to our project, because the majority of our project deals with oceanic life and the effects pollution has on them.

Stephanie Dulany

Our project focuses on the aspect of keeping our oceans clean of trash and pollution. It teaches people, mainly children, the importance of clean water as it applies to all different times of sea animals. Our community of Springfield Missouri can learn the aspects of keeping the local lakes and streams clean of pollution. It ties in with the mission of Project Aware because all rivers and streams lead to the ocean, either directly or indirectly. The community does their part of keeping the local streams clean, which will, in turn, result in a cleaner ocean environment. This issue impacts me personally as a citizen of Springfield Missouri because, in the community partnership with Project Aware, I can do my part of keeping our local area streams clean of pollution. This impacts my life in a great way because I have been to the ocean several times on vacation, and I can experience the beauties of it and how important it is to keep it clean for the marine wildlife.

Heather Wharton

I have learned that the bodies of water in the Springfield area are not well-kept.  Even Norfork lake in Arkansas has issues with trash build-up.  This is tied to the mission of our community project because Project Aware's mission is to educate people on the importance of clean water.  This issue affects me personally because eighty-eight percent of the pollution in the ocean comes from run-off sources.  In order to improve society's awareness, we have educated elementary aged students and participated in lake clean ups in the Springfield area. 

April 13th-Abby Williams

Throughout the past year, we have worked with Project Aware to help educate school-aged children about the importance of clean water.  We have improved our communication and educating skills by working with the Boys and Girls clubs in Springfield, local Girl Scout troops, and local 4-H clubs.  I have learned that the youth of this generation are eager to learn and make a difference.  Even though Project Aware's main focus is to stop pollution in the ocean, we have made it our goal to educate others on the importance of keeping local waters clean.  88% of water pollution comes from runoff of smaller waterways.  This is how we have made a connection between our community partners larger goal, and our local community issues on a smaller scale.

Heather Wharton

My greatest communication strength is that I am a good listener.  I will always take the time to listen to everyone's view on a subject.  My greatest communication weakness is that it is hard for me to understand the way others think.  Although I listen to both sides of an argument, I usually continue to think my ideas are stronger. I respect their opinions, but we just see things differently.  To improve my communcation I can learn to keep an open mind.  My summit groups communication has improved this semester.  We write reminders on our white board and have weekly meetings to prepare for upcoming events.  One thing we could improve on is updates on time issues. We need to respond to texts or emails quicker for weekly meetings because many times they have been cancelled last minute.

Communication and Conflict Resolution

The class on 2/17 was focused on communication and conflict resolution.  This class was very beneficial to me because I am not a very assertive person and learning ways to communicate properly will help me in the future.  My greatest communication strength is that I am a considerate and polite person, so I do not usually offend people.  My greatest strength is that I am not assertive so I will often let things slide or not say things when I'm offended.  I do not have any communication issues with my Summit team because we are all very close and good friends.

Stephanie Dulany

Communication is key when working with a group especially when working on a project. Last class period we had in February, we learned just how important communication was with your fellow peers. Reflecting on that class, my greatest communication strength is the fact that I always want to find a solution right away rather than ignoring the problem. My greatest communication weakness is getting TOO involved when communicating my interests. Some issues do not necessarily need excess aggravation and other factors that my anger plays into. In order for me to communicate with my Summit team better, I need to be patient when I voice my issues and concerns. I also need to be able to listen to their concerns as much as I talk about my own. This improvement could help me be a better leader in the sense that I could possibly be the mediator to help with communication in order to resolve problems quickly and efficiently.

Delaney Sweeney

The communication and conflict resolution class was helpful in certain ways. I had already heard a lot of what the speaker discussed, but it always helps to be reminded. My greatest communication strength is that I listen to all sides and then make a decision. I do not base my decisions upon one story, I like to see the full picture. My greatest weakness is that I hate conflict of all sorts. I never want to get in the middle of an argument, unless is has to deal with some one hurting some one I love. I'd rather just pretend like there was no problem and move on. I think my summit team has done a lot better communicating this semester. We got a white board and write messages on it for each other as reminders and as notes if we can't make it to our weekly meetings. We also do mass texts and emails to one another. I think the only thing we could improve on is reposnse time when getting back to each other. I think I can learn to deal with conflict better so that I can deal with situations that arise more easily. I need to learn to deal with conflict because it happens everywhere, everyday.

Stephanie Dulany

Making connections and diversity are important in life as far as communicating with others around you. The acitivity we did in our last class was called "cross the line." The point of the activity was to watch your peers as they answered serious, private questions by crossing the line in the room. By seeing the individuals answering their questions, and their reactions, I was able to better understand them from a friendship/peer standpoint. This activity showed us how diverse we all were, yet how, on some questions, we had connections with some we may not have thought possible. This activity really opened my mind up to steer clear of judgments and to communicate with one another solely on the task at hand. This outlook will help me to communicate better with our project's affiliates. One of our community partners is Girl Scouts, and this tool of communication is very necessary when trying to work out problems/details, set up meetings to discuss our project, and so forth. You can get involved with ProjectAware by going to www.projectaware.org. We help to try to keep our local water sources clean and share the importance of having clean and safe water. We will try to take a few field trips to local rivers and lakes to clean up, and it is a good way to give back to your community.

Delaney Sweeney

I thought that the speaker was pretty interesting. She did a good job of keeping our attention and making it as comical as she could. I did not like the exercise we did when we had to cross the room; it put people on the spot. Questions were asked that shouldn't have been, especially after one of our summit members dad's just passed away. Our community partner does not have a website, but I will post the national partners website-- PROJECT AWARE.

http://www.projectaware.org/

Project AWARE is a non-profit organization that promotes water quality and education. Others can get involved by joining Project AWARE and doing their part to keep our rivers, lakes, and oceans clean. Anyone can join for free and get information they need to start their own project or to join some one else's.

Abby Williams

On January 27 we had a class session focused on communication.  I think the communication skills we learned were very helpful and will be useful in the future. These will particularly come into play as we communicate with various community partners such as the 4H group and the Girl Scouts.  We also participated in "the line game" and were able to learn things about everyone else in summit park, as well as in our own house.  It was interesting to see who we share opinions or characteristics with that we did not realize before.
We have a lot of exciting projects coming up this semester, so keep checking back with us! We encourage you to get involved with our water clean-ups, learn more about Project Aware, or become a member at: http://www.projectaware.org/

Heather Wharton

The class presentation on making connections and diversity was very interesting.  I found out things about people whom I live with that I did not know before.  I also learned that many of us had the same feelings towards certain subjects.  The activity was not supposed to single anyone out, but many times people were singled out.  It was a little awkward to be part of the smaller group and stare back at the larger group.  The key point I took away is that we all go through the same emotions.  This activity will help me in working with my community partner by being able to express myself in ways that my community partner can understand.  I will also be a better listener in order to understand my community partner.  This semester we are having a lake clean up with the 4H group and a lake clean up with the Girl Scouts!  We want you to keep in mind that our project is to help protect our water sources! If you want to get involved and make a difference go to http://www.projectaware.org/ and sign up today!!