February 2nd Post

Last week, I met with FOCUS to see if there is any service opportunities available for them. I thought it would be great if FOUS can bake the dessert for the upcoming Joseph's house trip since we need someone to take over the dessert anyway. I came up with the idea of making oatmeal chocolate chips cookies since we already have a lot of basic ingredients and a lot of oats in our storage box and wouldn't need to buy other ingredients. I gathered volunteers from FOCUS to bake on Friday afternoon. Everything went smoothly- everyone cooperated, got involved, helped each other out, and most importantly the cookies turned out delicious. The cookies were very healthy too. See pictures below.

I also met with Ms Mossop to discuss future Joseph's House trips. There is one in May in which there is no adult chaperone yet and Ms Mossop asks me to see if I can find a club that is willing to do it with their own club advisor. For this trip, I will also use my own recipe and gather all ingredients on my own. I will meet with her again next week to confirm and to show her my progress in the cookbook. During spring break, I will test out some more recipes from my cookbook! 

Pics from FOCUS baking:

February 1st Post

Last week, I worked with the Bridges to make dessert for Joseph's House. Big thanks to Liz Martin for sponsoring all the ingredients and supplies. We baked lemon and raspberry bars in her apartment and they turned out delicious. 3 of the Bridges members also went to Joseph's House on Saturday to cook and serve the homeless. This activity was meaningful and a great opportunity for the Bridges to bond.

I've been working on my cookbook, and have done about 10 recipes now.  Each recipe contains the ingredient list, directions as well as the nutritional value and its budget. I aim to complete 20-25 this year and publish about 40 cookbooks. I met with Ms Obryon from Communications to see if she knows anything about publication. Since she publicizes posters/booklets in mass amount, she doesn't really know what software would be best for my cookbook since I am not printing a lot. Therefore, I did some research and found out that there's a few companies that will print it for you if you submit your book in a PDF or word format. I estimate the cost of the cookbook will be around $15-20. I imagine giving away 10 cookbooks to local food shelters/banks in troy area, and selling the rest to Emma community. I may also do a fundraiser later on this year for the cost of the books if necessary. My family is also more than willing to support the funding and cost.

The club Focus also expressed interest in volunteering in Joseph's House and I will meet with Emily and Beverly soon to discuss opportunities.

Here is a sample page of my cookbook:

January 2nd Post

Wow! It's finally second semester! I think I have accomplished what I had hoped to accomplish last semester. I've organized a Joseph's House trip, which includes hosting an on campus food drive, going Downtown Troy asking owners for donations, hosting a fundraiser, gathering volunteers, and cooking the meal at Joseph's House. I've also created several recipes for my cookbook.

During christmas break, my sister and I actually tried cooking some of my recipes. We baked healthy lemon raspberry bar, banana chocolate oatmeal cookies, mini blueberry muffins, and a few others. They all turned out really successful and delicious! (pictures below) It's very important to try out the recipes or at least ask someone to look over them to make sure the instruction makes sense and is easy to follow.

Part of my signature project is to try include more emma girls to be involved in service. Last semester, I had emma girls help make the dessert for JH as well as helping me in my smoothie fundraiser. Interestingly, my Bridges proctor Lizzie '17 asked me recently if there is a way the Bridges can help out with Joseph House as a service opportunity and bonding activity. I proposed that Bridges can help make the dessert a day or two before the next JH trip. Nghi '18 also asked me if her club, Emma Compassion, can collaborate with me. She wants to help out with fundraising and food drive. It's always nice to see how eager and passionate emma girls are in engaging in service. I am so grateful that they came and asked me about service opportunities.

I met with my mentor Ms Mossop to talk about the next Joseph's House trip which will be on February 11th. We are going to make the Black Bean soup with rice and toppings again as they really enjoyed it last time and it was quite easy to make. Bridges will be making the dessert. Hopefully, Nghi and her club can do a food drive and or a mini sale before feb 11. I am working on my cookbook and continuing to create more healthy recipes!

January 1st Post - Interview

For my interview, I asked Ms Mossop because she is my signature mentor and knows a lot about healthy eating and community service. Ms Mossop has been the Director of Practicum and Independent Study at Emma Willard for over 17 years. Below is my interview with her:

The Interview: 

Q) I understand that your work is about helping students to find and explore things that they like to do outside of Emma. What inspire you to do this?

A) I really enjoy it because my work is always different. It's never the same. I have the opportunity to meet passionate mentors and share with students different exciting opportunities.

Q) You have many connections with community service opportunities. How do you find out about them?

A) Mostly word of mouth, but I will also reach out to people, talk to people, take flyers, and follow up

Q) Why do you think community service is important?

A)  I believe community service allows people, not just Emma girls, to engage with people in need, be involved and learn about the community around them. Getting out of the Emma bubble and knowing other people that have similar problems are very important. 

Q) How do you know about Joseph’s House?

A) The director of Joseph House has a connection with Emma and came to talk with the Emma girls some years ago. There used to be a Joseph House lunch practicum during weekdays. But I know about the JH monthly dinner program through Nadia '19 's mother. She has been doing it with other clubs and organizations so I went with her last year to see how it works. I decided to share this service opportunity with emma girls because I know many of them want to do service during the weekend and this is a great opportunity.

Q) What makes you agree to cook once a month at Joseph’s House?

A) The girls really like it. It's a good and valuable experience.

Q) What impact do you think you are creating on Joseph’s House?

A) I would say it's a mutual impact. We cook them delicious food and we receive their appreciation. Student also have the opportunity to learn about homelessness and interact with the homeless.

Q) Why do you think it’s important to cook a healthy meal for Joseph's House?

A) I personally like to eat healthy, and I wouldn't serve food that I wouldn't like. They are just like us, they deserve to eat the food that we get to eat. Plus, Joseph's House serves meals that are not quite nutritious due to a limited budget. So it's great that we can cook them a very nutritious meal.

Q) In your personal life, how do you eat healthy?

A) First, I don't eat meat. Second, I tend to buy local, good quality, and fresh foods and vegetables from farmer markets.

That's it!

Thanks to Ms Mossop for doing this interview with me! 

December Post

So much had happened since I got back from thanksgiving break. I volunteered at CEO food pantry and held a smoothie fundraiser to raise money for buying ingredients for Joseph's House. I thought of selling smoothies to the Emma community because it's something that hadn't been done before and smoothies are healthy and nutritious which relate to the theme of my project. I asked Meredith the house parent to help me in this fundraiser because I know she knows a lot about smoothies. We met up and talked about what kinds of smoothies to make and the budget. We decided to make two different kinds of smoothies - a green smoothie (spinach, orange, banana, coconut water) and a fruit smoothie (strawberry, banana, vanilla yogurt). I then went shopping for the ingredients with Ms Mossop at Hannaford and it was a success as I got everything I needed for a pretty low cost. I then proceeded to ask permission for holding a fundraiser and even though I've got it in the end, I've learnt to plan and communicate with the Signature team earlier so that there won't be any miscommunication. I sent out a pre order link to students and teachers a day before the sale and the spots were filled in less than 3 hours! I was very surprised at the overwhelming support from the Emma community. I sold all the smoothies on Wednesday and made about $120. :)

I also went volunteering at the CEO food bank in downtown Troy. Ms Buinicky's brother manages the food bank and invited me to help pack foods. I packed foods from the food pantry according to the clients' orders and delivered it to them and honestly it was so much fun.  I marked down what kinds of foods the food pantry provides and will try to design menus that uses those foods.  I wish there were more orders and I could stay there for longer.

I will continue on working on my cookbook and can't wait for the next trip to Joseph's House!

 smoothies from the sale

November 1st Post

I made my first ever morning report announcement and who would have thought it was for my signature project!

As mentioned before, I am trying to get the Emma community to be involved in the dinner that we will be making for Joseph's House. Hence, I made an announcement with Helena about a food drive on campus. When I checked the box after the first day of the food drive, there was nothing in it. I was quite surprised, but immediately made a Plan B. Since my Dad recently started a non profit organization, and is related to donations, I could use his money to buy all the ingredients that we still needed, in the form of sponsoring. However, after I sent out a follow up email later that night, I received tons of food the next day. What a surprise!

In addition to the food donations we received from Emma community, Ms Mossop and I also went out to downtown Troy to ask local stores for donations. We first went to Uncle Sam's, and we briefly explained who we are, what we are doing, and showed the manager some photos of previous emma girls cooking at Joseph's House. He promised to give us canned beans, tomatoes, and oil without asking us any further questions! We then went to Placid Baker and Little Pecks and did the same thing - I felt like an entrepreneur haha :) I am also planning to make a website/online platform that lists all the Troy companies that have donated foods to recognize their sponsorships.

I am currently working on my cookbook, and starting a recycling program in the dorms. FOCUS will be helping me out with the recycling program.

November 2nd post

My first trip to Joseph's House was very successful! Shoutout to Ms Buinicky, Mae, Natalie, Yoosong, and Sarah for helping out on Saturday.

We had all the ingredients we needed, and we worked together really well. We communicated with one another about what jobs that would like to do. For example, Sarah knows how to cook rice, so she was responsible for cooking the rice. We finished cooking everything just in time, and were able to serve the food to the people. There was a huge line and a lot of them came back for seconds. (that means our food must be not too bad!) We also saw big smiles on their faces :) I think the recipe that we made (black bean soup with rice and a lot of toppings) was something they don't eat often at Joseph's House. I saw their menu from earlier in the week, and it was mostly pasta, which doesn't have all the nutritional value they need, especially for pregnant mothers. I am so glad we made something that they enjoyed!

During our preparation,  Janet, the volunteer coordinator of Joseph's House, gave us some background as well as a tour of the entire center. We saw some family rooms, single rooms, and storage area. Through this tour, she taught me not to be judgemental towards the people that comes to homeless centers. Some of them are here not because they did something wrong, but because of unfortunate events that were beyond their control. I appreciate Janet so much for all her kind works that she has done in Joseph's House, serving the community unconditionally. 

It was such a memorable experience from getting the Emma community involved, asking local markets for donations, many meetings with Ms Mossop, planning the recipes and to actually cooking it. I am looking forward to my second trip to Joseph's House, which will be sometime in January. 

 The finished meal!

The black bean soup

 Sarah and Yoosong cooking

Sausages donated by Honest Weight Co-op

 Mae serving fresh bread donated by Placid Baker

Apple crisp dessert made by Sam E, Beverly G , and I on campus at Melissa's apt