Back to School and Back to Work: Community ONE is looking for volunteers and speakers!

Backpacks, school supplies, a new outfit for the first day- all things that remind us it’s about that time for students to go back to school.  Community ONE is ready to get back to work, too, and we need your help!  We are looking for both event volunteers and speakers (or Stars, as we refer to them) to help us with our upcoming speaker series.

Volunteering

If you have been looking for a way to give back to your community, but haven’t quite found the right fit yet, this could be the opportunity for you!  We work hard to expose children to career paths that they may have never considered or seen before at home.  At our events, our volunteers are a critical part of the fun and educational experience we aim to bring to the participants.  As a volunteer you would be responsible for helping to engage the children in discussion with the Star, assist with the overall flow of the program, and participate in the interactive activity.  If all of that isn’t enough to convince you, you get a pretty cool t-shirt too!  

Exhibit A:

A Community ONE Volunteer sports his t-shirt at an event.

Stars

If you would like to take it one step further and you think you have a pretty cool job, you may be our guy (or girl).  What we’re looking for in a speaker is someone that loves what they do, has a good story to tell about his or her journey to the position they have now (including challenges he or she may have faced), and can explain all of this in a kid-friendly manner.  In addition, we will work with you to develop an interactive activity that the students can participate in to get a hands-on sense of what a typical ‘day in the life’ of you might look like.

Do these sound like you?  Let us know if they do!  Send an email to info(at)communityone(dot)org with your name, contact information, and what you would be interested in doing.  We look forward to working with you!

Written by Courtney Battle

What it Takes to do Political Advance: Community One Gives Students the Inside on a Possible Career Path

Wednesday a group of Arlington, VA teens at the Buckingham Youth Brigade had the chance to hear from Community ONE Founder, Jason Wallace about his work as an Advance Site Lead for the White House and other officials.  Working in advance, he often travels ahead of, or with the President (and other officials) and handles all of the details prior to an event to ensure that it runs as smoothly as possible.

The session started out with an ice-breaker activity, and then Wallace jumped right in to explaining his day-to-day duties, how he discovered his career, and even the challenges he had on the way.  From being homeless in the 8th grade to a successful career handling logistics for a Presidential Administration, Wallace conveyed that with hard work and determination, the students could make it happen for themselves too.

The night ended with a fun activity to give students a taste of what preparing for an actual Presidential event is like.  The group was divided into smaller sections that represented the Press Advance, Secret Service, and Staff Advance who had to negotiate with each other to address their specific concerns and still run a seamless event.  In the end, the students realized it wasn’t as easy as they may have thought, and learned about a possible career path in the future.  A win for them and for Community ONE!

 

Written by Courtney Battle