You and the World: Agent of Change

Hello! As you know from my previous blogs, this is my 3rd blog for the You and the World Project. To refresh your memory, my name is Isabella and this is my agent of change blog, as well as my final blog post for this project. For my Agent of Change portion of this experience, I went and helped out with needy families at the Ronald McDonald House on Erie Ave. in Philadelphia. This made me feel great that I was able to help families and made me see what more to life there actually is.  

For my last part of my You and the World Project I baked cupcakes for the Ronald McDonald House. They need things like food, volunteers, and basically anything that could help out, so that’s what I did. When I went to give them the baked goods on April 27, 2013, they actually took the time to give me a tour of the house! I got to see where all the kids play & hang out and found out about more opportunities of ways someone my age can help. They informed me about Pull Tabs. Pull tabs are the little tabs on the top of soda cans that you pull to open the can. When you collect these tabs and give it to the R.M.H., they can get back money in return. When I found out about this, I automatically had to jump on the opportunity. Now, I’m also collecting pull tabs at school for the R.M.H. On May 9th, 2013, I presented a presentation all about my visit to the Ronald McDonald House. It informed my peers about the history, ideas, and main focus of the house.

My process was very long and hard. I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do and how much I wanted to do. My project was all over the place and I ran into many problems. The main problem was my age. You have to be 18 or older to do most of the volunteering at any hospital or place with children that needed help. I had to call many different people and places to see what was available for me to do. I also had to do a lot of research to see if any of what I wanted to do would benefit anyone. I wanted to do some much in so little time. But I realized that my project doesn’t have to stop here. I can do one thing at a time and keep doing it as long as I want to.

This whole project experience has had a HUGE impact on me. I now realize that this stuff is actually interesting. I used to think that volunteering and helping people was dumb and out of my league. At first, I didn’t even want to think about this project, and now I don’t want it to end. When you actually go and help people and you know it’s for a good cause it makes you feel amazing. It makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something great! (which you have!) Especially when you are in the moment, and actually going out into the real world. I am still researching and learning about my topic and wanting to do more with the Ronald McDonald House. I loved the feeling of helping out and knowing people would appreciate it. I felt and still feel like a leader. I took charge and made a change in something I believe in. I will take a lot from this project. It definitely made a change in my attitude and, I feel, made me a better person.

Click here for Blog #1

Click here for Blog #2

Annotated Bibliography