The Spread The Love Project

Short interview done by my Instructor regarding the Spread the Love Project

Intructor: What can I do to help with your project?

JG: I’m glad you asked. I could use some help with editing. In particular, I’m going to write a letter that I give to businesses that will explain the project and ask for permission to sell roses in their establishment.

Intructor: What physical shape will your project take?

JG: There is a presence online.
There will be local campaigns to increase volunteer activity.
There will be a long term campaign that will allow me to go on an international volunteer trip.
I will be meeting people in person and learning about how to motivate people to engage in work that benefits a greater good.
I will have a collection of my writing that will accumulate and build into a larger work.
Joking: My passport will have many stamps and my grandmother will have many postcards.

Intructor:  

JG: Generally, information is shared through the internet by way of posting, blogging, and twittering. I’m using social networking strategies to bolster exposure. I’m also sharing information by word of mouth and face to face meetings. I leave them with a card that directs them to information online.

Intructor: Who is your ideal audience?   

JG: Ideally, I’d like to get people between the ages of 25 and 45 to engage in service work that have never done service work before. Or I’d like to get families to involve children in volunteering to build up that experience in the adults of the future.

According the stats I’m getting online, I’m reaching 60% females and mostly between the ages of 35 and 45.       

Intructor: What research do you have, and what research do you need?
JG: Research topics are in three general categories:

1. Volunteering statistics (what factors that promote or inhibit volunteering?),

2. Motivational theory (what motivates people to take action?)

3. Using technology to communicate (How can I use technology to get the message out in the most effective way?)

I read a lot. It’s not a linear process though. I am also asking people about their thoughts and that provides a lot of interesting information.

Intructor: What are the potential pitfalls?
JG: I may not get the money I need in time to take a trip because I have other obligations I am responsible for that also take up big chunks of time. 

Intructor: Why are you doing this?
JG: I love this quote, “I do what I can because I must” or is it “I do what I must because I can”. I do this because of the joy and it seems to come easy. Here’s another quote “The world owes me nothing and I owe everything to the world”. (Ani Difanco)
I need to do this because the world needs help, people need motivation, and I need to be able to look back on my life with no regrets that I was apathetic to those needs.
Also I want to see the world.

Intructor: How will this project and its process help you develop the mindset of a scholar?
JG: I believe that worldly person that engages in social service and is able to understand the world’s problems with critical thinking skills is a scholar. To understand problems at a deeper level takes a lot of reading and talking with people. I believe a scholar can take this information and present it in a way that is useful for others. This project and the processes do all of this.