Assessing the work

1.  The working relationship with the agency
1. I managed conflict through asking questions and sending follow up emails. Many times I would just write down all of the issues I was having and bring it up the next time I saw the volunteer specialist. It was challenging to find out when they weren't going to have children there due to spring break, etc. because the dates kept changing. I also kept quiet about a few things. For example, I heard a few comments from some of the parents that I didn't agree with. More than that, I didn't always feel comfortable with some of the times they just handed us a small baby but I didn't say anything because I felt like they must trust us and I didn't want to seem ill-equipped to handle what they expected.
2. If I could change some things, I would definitely ask more questions. I wasn't for sure what was going on some of the time or the reasoning for why they were doing what they were doing. I would have stated that sometimes I felt like I could do more to help or asked if I could be more of a part of the parent side of things to see what the professionals were doing with them. Some of the things I would do the same would be doing a variety of tasks with a lot of different groups. I would also continue trying to step out of my comfort zone and interact with the kids to learn how to do it better in the future. 
3. I definitely feel like I could contact the volunteer specialist, Cheryl, again if I needed to about volunteering or other opportunities she knew of. We connected on the fact that she did her undergraduate work at Eastern as well and she was just really nice. I think that after the Baby Power group is over, the new supervisor (the one I met at first doesn't work for the organization anymore) could be a point of contact for me as we worked together for months. Since the rest of my work was so sporadic and kind of unorganized, I unfortunately didn't make any other connections.
4. Overall I got my hours done on time and was able to get in contact when it really mattered. To me, that means that overall I had a pretty good working relationship with the organization and it got better towards the end, especially when I got in contact with the Baby Power coordinator via email. Although there were some confusing times, I was more often than not able to figure out where I was going and what I was able to be doing. I think that part of the difficulty is them being understaffed and having many different tasks on one person.
5. I would say that yes future students should work with them as they are doing really needed work for the community. Children are the future of our society and need to be supported. They should know that part of it is on you to reach out and make sure you are getting what you need out of it and that you are doing what you committed to do in terms of hours and events. I would say don't be afraid to follow up or stop in and ask what is going on.
2.  The final product
1. I am not totally finished with what I started out to do. I do know that they are counting on me to be there every Wednesday because that day they have the least amount of volunteers and I am now familiar with the moms and kids that come that day. I think that does help them out a lot which is what their need is, consistent volunteers. I make sure to fill out their forms to help them get more money for the organization which is another need they have as a nonprofit.
2. I think that it has been pretty successful as I have seen some of the children I interacted with grow in their social and mental development which has been a great progress for some. I think that will continue as the weeks of the baby power move forward and I hope I can see some changes in the moms as well, which is the hope of the program. 
3. The change of supervisors during the programs has shown to be ineffective so far as people are confused and don't know who to contact or what is going on. The overall programs seem effective from what I can see, however, I don't see the long term effects on these families. 
4. Next time, I would have started earlier and tried to be able to spend enough time to be better able to analyze every aspect from start to finish. I also would have been a part of not just the kid side of things and/or seen the kids more often than I did for most of them. I would have asked more questions to find more out about the programs, the families and the workers in charge of their cases. 
3. Overall assessment of the Capstone experience 
1. I learned that I really enjoy working with kids but that I do need to work on patience. I haven't been around kids that often lately and I learned that I do pretty good with them which makes me happy. I realized that I am pretty good at picking up on things during interactions and remembering them for future interactions. I have strengths in figuring things out with little information as well as being reliable and timely. I need to work on speaking up on things and asking more questions so that I am for sure on what is going on. 
2. This placement made me realize the importance of leaders in all settings due to the fact that there seemed to be a lack of leadership at times at this organization. That everyone is a leader in their own right when they make decisions that effect the group and others follow them. I was even able to witness some leadership qualities in the small children I interacted with. There was a little girl who was quite bossy and directive and it made me wonder about leadership development and the impact of traits that might affect her in the future. In terms of followership, it made me realize that when you lack knowledge in an area you are in a way required to follow until you learn the ropes. For example, I didn't know anything about Baby Power so I was unable to take on any leadership role. However, now that I know what it is all about, if we had a new volunteer I could take on a leadership role with that individual. I saw a lot of aspects of team leadership being exhibited during my time there since it was a very collective organization, yet it was still political in nature with the people higher up.
3. It surprised me that many of these individuals had a background in Psychology at least for part of their education. I assumed that most of them would be in the Social Work field. I learned that a Masters is pretty much required to do any of the things that I am interested in, although I knew that before, looking at their job opportunities and minimal qualifications made that much more apparently. I expected to learn more about how individuals got their jobs there, especially the people at the headquarters but never really found out. I also expected to learn more about the curriculum taught or about developmental aspects of children but I was mostly just interacting. I was surprised about how much some of these jobs required in terms of working out of regular hours. 
4. I wish I would have known that I would be limited in what I was able to accomplish because of the lack of volunteers and how busy the professionals are. I thought I'd have more time to talk to the professionals and the work that they do, instead I spent most of my time with people under the age of 10. I also wish I would have known that some of their things would happen late or that date or times were going to change so I could have planned better.
5. My advice would be to be upfront with your requirements, expectations and what you exactly want to do to volunteer. Ask questions, be curious and follow-up with everyone you talk to, to ensure that you are on the same page at all times. Be willing to do things you might not want to do to help out and to drive to their other locations.
6. Overall yes, I think that having this sort of experience as a requirement in the capstone course is extremely important. I like the way that this assignment builds off of the other assignments done in the two other LEAD classes. I think that it is a natural progress due to the first being internal, the second kind of hinting towards volunteering and analyzing an organization and the third being a much deeper exploration of both. I also think that it is helpful to be flexible and make sure that students are getting an experience that directly applies to their future plans, however, I think that maybe doing more research prior would be helpful. Maybe having a one on one meeting with students at the beginning of the semester would be helpful in terms of making sure they pick an experience that is co-curricular. I think that the semester and the other courses build up to reflecting on an experience like this, however, it is hard to create guidelines when people are doing such a wide variety of activities.