Service Learning #3

1. Activism: This week was when all the work we had done on the project came together, I collected all of the items I got donated and then we all got together and put the baskets together for the raffle at the basketball tournament. I was able to secure donations from two different restaurants, the Orlando Magic, the Orlando Science Center, and Starbucks. Putting the baskets together was also a lot of hard work but still really fun, it was nice seeing everything come together.
2. Reflection: Marie Wilson stated in her book Closing the Leadership Gap, that “everyone knows at least one women who should be urged to follow her dream, a woman who is utterly capable of being more than she is if only she were given encouragement; don’t wait for the culture to change, change it yourself by helping others to step forward (71). All the work we are doing with the basketball tournament for the LOL Project is encouraging these girls to change the current culture of bullying and also to become advocates for their fellow students.
3. Reciprocity: I feel like this may have been one of the most rewarding service learning projects I’ve worked on because it involved working with an organization that I feel is really important and for a cause that is extremely detrimental to adolescents and is becoming more prevalent in schools and even online. It also made me step out of my comfort zone and do things I may not have been comfortable doing before like calling businesses and asking for donations. I was not able to actually attend the basketball tournament but I heard it went really well, so I was very proud of all the work everyone did on it.
Works Cited:
Wilson, Marie: Closing the Leadership Gap; Add Women, Change Everything. London: Penguin, 2006. Print

Service Learning #2

1. Activism: This week I contacted more businesses to see if they would be able to donate some items for the basketball tournament. I visited The Dessert Lady, Cobb Theaters, and Massage Envy, a few restaurants and I called the Central Florida Zoo and emailed the Science Center. I was successful with some of them and with others I could not get a response but all in all I was able to secure a lot of donations.
2. Reflection: According to Carli and Eagli, female leaders are expected to fulfill the female gender role by being warm and selfless, and on the other hand, they are also expected to fulfill the leadership role by displaying assertiveness and competence (101). In doing my service learning this week I learned this part of female leadership because I had to be assertive and competent when talking to these businesses if I was going to get them to donate to the basketball tournament.
3. Reciprocity: This service learning project is really rewarding because it’s taking me out of my comfort zone in having to go around to businesses and calling and emailing people. This project is helping me find and cultivate skills I didn’t know I had.
Works Cited:
Eagly, Alice, and Linda Carli. Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. Harvard Business School Press, 2007

Service Learning #1

1. Activism: I did my Service Learning in the beginning of the semester with The Slam Dunk for School Safety Basketball tournament, I was responsible for securing donations for the raffle and also for finding food for the event. The first week was when I did a lot of research on various businesses in my area to see who would donate and I also went around to a bunch of places to see if any of them would be interested in donating.
2. Reflection: So far my work on this project definitely correlates with what we are talking about in class, we've been discussing Batliwala's Feminist Leadership forSocial Transformation and she says that, transformative feminist leadership will use the analysis of gender and social discrimination in a particular society, community, or
setting as its starting point, and will attempt to transform the structures or institutions it engages towards a more gender and socially equitable architecture in both formal and informal terms. And of course, this politics must begin at home, from within the organization, movement, or other location from which it is attempting to change the larger reality (51). The Slam Dunk for School Safety Basketball tournament is raising
money for YWLP's LOL Project which is about raising awareness about bullying. So the leadership we are doing for this tournament, this project and with YWLP is attempting to change the social structure of bullying and schools.
3. Reciprocity: This is the first time I have worked with securing donations for a raffle for service learning and it is actually really hard work. I have tabled before and raised money that way but actually going to places and calling trying to secure donations was a very daunting task for me because I can be a little shy when it comes to asking for things. If anything this project gave me a little more courage in asking for things especially when it is for something I believe very strongly in.
Works Cited:
Batliwala, Srilatha. "Feminist Leadership For Social Transformation: Clearing the Conceptual Cloud." Crea (2011): 66. Print.

Media Watch Assignment

One would think that according to the video clip from the GOP that President Obama does not support women and definitely does not support women in political leadership roles but he has appointed Valerie Jarrett as his Senior White House adviser and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison since 2009. In fact she was a key player in his 2008 campaign for President and as well as being a Senior White House advisor, Jarrett is also the chair for the White House’s Council on Women and Girls (washingtonpost.com).

Most of the press about Valerie Jarrett has been good, although I do find that for some reason journalists always tend to write “fluff” pieces about females in leadership positions; for example Ms. Jarrett accidentally mistook a four-star General for a waiter and asked him for a glass of wine at a White House dinner, I guess these articles are meant to make said women more “likeable” and less “hard”. The one article that I thought was really great was an article about an equal pay app that Valerie helped create with the White House administration that helps women answer some difficult questions about equal pay such as; what's the typical salary for someone in your position? Should you be asking for more at the negotiating table? What are your fundamental legal rights, etc. (huffingtonpost.com). Eagli and Carli state that after statistically equalizing male and female characteristics, the wage gap shrinks but is not eliminated and the fact that the gap still remains suggests that discrimination affects wages (70), so having this equal pay app will help women and the White House address this wage gap.

Eagli and Carli state that it is no longer unusual to have women in the presidential cabinet or working as an advisor to the president (23). Valerie Jarrett is a perfect example of this and the articles I read about her support Eagli and Carli’s conclusions about women in positions of power because she is part of the increasing pattern of women getting advanced degrees and more women working in politics. So with all of this being said, I don’t see how the GOP can claim that President Obama is waging a war on women when he signed an executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Children and he works closely with the women who run it.

Word Count: 398

Works Cited
James, Michael. ABCNews.com. 3 February 2011. 10 April 2012 .
Jarrett, Valerie. The Huffington Post. 6 February 2012. 10 April 2012 .
Politics, Post. The Washington Post. n.d. 10 April 2012 .
Eagly, Alice, and Linda Carli. Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders. Harvard Business School Press, 2007.