Salad Bars 2 Schools in Concrete

So here is a cool thing that my mother-in-law alerted me to. A group called Salad Bars 2 Schools provides grants for schools to upgrade their cafeteria equipment to include a salad bar. The grants are crowd funded, so you can support a school salad bar in your own neighborhood (or my mother-in-law's neighborhood).

Brief platitudes: Nutrition matters, especially during childhood and adolescence. Plenty of evidence connects consumption of vegetables with lower levels of obesity, and the related health and performance problems that come with it. Want kids to be successful at school? Help them get vegetables at school.  You can learn more here.

Go here, look for Concrete School District and make it happen.

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Other updates, Project Save the World needs to take a brief back seat to my latest endeavor: Find a Job! I'll be a free agent come November, but I'm hoping to find something new before then. I apologize if updates get fewer and farther between for a while, but I will continue to update the thermometer. I might need more help from guest bloggers and volunteers/donors in the meantime. Please let me know if you can help! We're so close to the halfway mark!

Donor's Choose Project Funded!

The first of the three Donor's Choose  projects I've highlighted was funded! If you have never had a chance to participate in funding a project, you should totally try it. I backed a project to provide school supplies to a low income Seattle School. For starters, it's pretty righteous to be able to track down your neighbors, and just feel like, yeah, I'm going to help them with this need.  The teacher immediately sent a thank you note to me personally, which makes me feel good. And then when the entire project was funded, she posted this note:

Thank you so much for your donations toward school supplies for my students! Wow, I'm so delighted that my students will have supplies on their desks just for them when they arrive back at school in September. Students will have backpacks for carrying their homework to and from school. Each child will have pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, markers, clipboards, rulers, and a mobile work organizer to organize student work. Thank you everyone for your generous donations!

With gratitude,
Ms. Savage

Remember, this is a high poverty school, where huge numbers of students are on free meals. They aren't going to the store to buy new backpacks and pencils before school starts. Just having these supplies available to them makes the job of all of their teachers that much easier. It's a pretty cool give for a teacher to give to her students, and I'm really pleased I go to participate in it.

It's not too late for you to participate. Schools across the country (even in Seattle and Pittsburgh) are looking for ways to give their students a strong start at the year, and you can step up, help out, and get that really good feeling of helping.

I just donated to support this project: Ms. Ralston want to fill her Pittsburgh Student Achievement Center classroom with pencils, folders, and notebooks so her middle school students have the supplies to get to learning from day 1. 

Guest Post: Austin Partners in Education

From time to time, I' like to hear from the folks I've coerced into helping me with this goal. My big brother was one of the first people to jump on board with this project, and he spent the spring volunteering in Austin public schools as a math tutor/educator. Here are his thoughts on the volunteer experience he has had at Austin Partners in Education.

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My favorite destination for my volunteer money or time has always been education. As near as I can tell, it solves every problem. It lifts people from poverty, helps them make better decisions, opens up opportunities for further growth, and helps build communities in healthy and sustainable ways. It solves energy problems, medical problems, social problems, and even educational problems! It's the best. Education is really just the best. We should do more of it.

Education has also been the first area where I've donated more time than money this year. It's been a long, long time since I volunteered any time, but after looking for a while for a reason to periodically get out of the house, I stumbled upon a volunteer opportunity that was perfect for me. It involved helping teach kids math, one of my favorite and best fields. It was near my work, near lunchtime, and afforded me the opportunity to not only get out of the house for a while, but also work with kids who could really use my help.

The volunteer opportunity I tried was called Austin Partners in Education. It's a pretty big organization, boasting something like 2000 volunteers. Once a week, I would go in and work in very small groups (nearly one-on-one) with kids who were having trouble with math. It was all pretty straightforward stuff, but getting to do teaching, math, and volunteering all at once? Sounded like a great time to me. What they mostly needed from potential volunteers wasn't a lot of crazy experience or anything, mostly just enthusiasm and a willingness to be patient with kids who needed it. I could do that. (Hint: so can you!)

For the most part, it wasn't too bad. I was perfectly willing to give them a lot of patience: my usual math student was less than 2 at the time, and he still hasn't picked up counting yet. The fact that it took the other students a couple of tries to pick complex fractions was a welcome change of pace. Each day we'd do a little more work, sometimes offering encouragement as they worked, sometimes dragging them through the exercises, and sometimes failing even to do that. But you do what you can, and though the kids I was working with were in middle school, and already too cool to appreciate anything, we were continuously reminded by the teachers that they could really see improvement in their students. And the kids did appreciate it, even if they didn't say so with, you know, words. Or actions. Or facial expressions.

I enjoyed it, and being as school is starting up soon I'm planning on volunteering again when the program starts up for the new year. Every year there's a new crew of kids that need help with math, and by Jove! I just might be the incredibly dorky math nerd to help them. If this sounds like the sort of thing you might want to try, here's some little tips you may want to consider:

1. Bring your own pencils and/or pens. The kids often don't have their own, or are willing to fake it so they don't have to work.
2. Bring neat stuff. I got a lot of mileage out of my cool and unique backpack.
3. It's okay to talk about your interests, especially if it's stuff like video games or (hurk) pop music that they can get into as well. You have to let them come out of their shell in their own way.
4. But do remember that you are an authority as well, and it's your main goal to get them to do work. You can't force them to do anything, of course, but you might be surprised how well telling them 'it's time to work' will just make it so.

Now get out there and change some lives!

It's back to school time!

Education is important to me. Education has been a primary theme of my life; In 2011, I graduated from 22nd grade, I currently work as an educator. It's no secret that education matters to me. Education gives students opportunities that matter, that allow them to become productive members of society. Going to school is where students learn not only their core subjects, but also social skills that help them get along with others, connect with mentors who can guide them through the many transitions from childhood to graduation. This is the time of year when all those "Back To School" Ads trigger my desire to support teachers in their classroom. We are going to be talking about education a lot this month.

And while financial support for education in this country remains a complex political problem, it's clear that there are certain things that make it easier for a teacher to teach. No one knows their students better than a teacher, and they are fantastic and identifying the resources that can help students master challenges- whether it's encouragement to read more complex material, or new pencils to facilitate writing. One of my favorite charities of all time is Donor's Choose, a crowd funder that allows you to pick a classroom to support directly. Teachers post their materials lists, and you kick in as much or as little as you like to help them and their students get the year started out right.

Here are a few projects you might consider supporting (based on my estimation of the geography of my current readership), but you can search them all at DonorsChoose.org.


Ms. Savage wants to give her Seattle students backpacks with school supplies they can't afford. Gawd, the thought of teaching students who cannot afford the pencils to learn to write with just chokes me up.

Ms. Milligan's class at the Juneau Charter School wants an iPad for use in their literary workshops. Yes, her 4th and 5th graders publish the school's website.

Ms. Ralston want to fill her Pittsburgh Student Achievement Center classroom with pencils, folders, and notebooks so her middle school students have the supplies to get to learning from day 1.

Please let me know if you end up supporting a project at Donor's Choose. Next time, I may guilt you into it by posting the hand written Thank you Notes I got from a classroom in Pittsburgh last spring.

Cement City 5K

When I started this project, I has some ambitious idea that I would start running charity 5Ks.  This is a cool idea, it combines recreation and philanthropy.  The problem is that I am simply not one of nature's runners.  As I've been figuring out how I might really pull this thing off, I realized I should probably stick to things that aren't any harder then they have to be.  There are plenty of ways to do good that aren't miserably hard.

I also had this idea that I might use my volunteer time to support the projects and efforts of my friends and family, especially those who already give a lot of thier time.  My mother-in-law is a perfect example.  She is retired, and basically spends her time being a pillar of the community.  She volunteers with a lot of organizations.  She was able to talk me out of using people's existing volunteer efforts in my totals because she volunteers WAY more than 900 hours a year. 

When she mentioned that she was going to walk a 5K to support the Concrete Lions Booster Club , I figured, what the heck, I could walk a 5K.  My husband and I got to make a weekend of it, and it was one of those cool events where everyone was cheering everyone before and after the race.  Yay!  Go participants!  I have no doubt that the Boston Marathon Bombing galvanized the sense of community here, and I was grateful to be a part of it.  Especially since my (personal best) 5K time was not that much faster than the walkers- including the 83 year old who did the route with two walking sticks.

But we didn't get sweaty in the rain to make me feel good about my fitness, we went to support the Concrete Lions Booster Club , who in Concrete supports the (rural, poor) schools and students.  Way to be!

Supporting Teachers through Donor's Choose

Sometimes I still take editing contracts.  I had a prolonged job hunt after finishing graduate school, during which time I filled my time, resume and bank account by taking contracts to edit manuscripts for Chinese scientists.  At first, I kept taking contracts because it gave me some sense of job-security (two jobs are better than one?).  But my career interests have quickly diverged, so I can't pretend that correcting bad grammar is going to help me up the career ladder. However, it's a fairly painless way to make some cash, which ends up in a Paypal account I tend not to think about much.

Today I went to check the balance there, and well- it was time to buy up some joy!  I went to my favorite charity, Donor's Choose, and started looking for cool projects to support. First, I did a search for projects in high poverty school nearby me.  It's pretty easy to forget in my cozy suburb that many of our neighbors are struggling; in fact, the project I found was in Bothell (where my grandmother lives). There, a science teacher is trying to implement a science competition for her 3rd and 4th graders.  I gotta say, it makes me feel like some kind of super hero to just fund the rest of her project.

Donor's Choose encourages you to explain why you chose to support a project as a way to encourage teachers and students.  One of the suggestions I say was from someone who was supporting a project where they went to school, and I realized I should check on whether there were any schools looking for projects in the district where I went to school.  Juneau Schools didn't have any projects, but there was a teacher trying to develop reading and math curriculum that are developed with families in Ketchikan.  I stepped up as their first supporter, and I'm hoping my friends and family who have ties to Southeast Alaska will also support the project.

State Science Fair!

I just got back from a great weekend of hanging out with friends and SCIENCE!  This weekend was the state science fair WSSEF in Bremerton, WA.  It's two days of all ages science (K-12).  More than a thousand projects were entered from all around the state, and more than a hundred judges were there to critique and appreciate the work of those students.

Two of those judges were my friend Karen and me.  We saw some great projects, we met some great students, and generally had a good time.  I'll hope to get back to why this type of volunteering matters soon, but I wanted to updated the totals today.

Science fair day is a long day for students.  Anxious enthusiastic students wait for friends, family, and most nerve wrackingly, judges to talk about their projects. The state fair is a two day event, with judges ranking students, then comparing rankings and evening assigning special awards.  I think I talked to 9 projects on Friday, and 12 on Saturday.  This is how Karen and I wracked up nearly 24 volunteer hours over the weekend.

The coolest part about science fair is getting to talk to students to encourage their interest in things they are already enjoying.  It's really impressive how much time and effort parents, teachers and mentors are able to put into this type of event.  When Karen and I left, a dedicated group of volunteers was stuffing award packets- a process that would probably take hours as the night wore on.  It's a great feeling of community, and I'm so glad we got to help out!

Science Fair Judging

Last weekend, I judged my first science fair. 

It might be surprising that I've never done this before: I care about education, about science, about youth having opportunities that ignite their passions... and somehow I've never judged a science fair.  Why, you ask?  High schoolers scare me. I was a real jerk when I was in high school, so it seems fair to assume that high school students just won't be that much fund to hang out with. But, because I need to find some way to get all these volunteer hours, I figured I should do it, even if am killed by uber-cool-kid eye rolls.

I thought the Central Sound Regional Science & Engineering Fair might be a chance to flex my science background a bit and I heard there was free breakfast.  I didn't expect it to be such a great networking opportunity, and I was positively blown away by the student entrants.  But we'll start with the adult experience.  I was on a team of four judges in Molecular and Cellular Biology.  A grad student, a high school science teacher, and a professor/researcher (and me). I was (of course) the only woman, so I immediately felt glad I showed up, since easily half of our students were girls.

While chatting before and after with the other judges, we had a really great chance to share ideas and resources. The teacher was looking for ways to help his students get science fair projects, so we got to brainstorm ideas and resources with him.  And the professor/researcher wanted to know more about my work as a curriculum writer because he is interested in special ed. The point is, the science fair is a cool professional networking venue that really mixes people up across disciplines.

As for the judging, it wasn't hard work.  Talking with students is WAY less mind numbing that your average poster session.  They were excited and nervous to talk to us.  As we were walking through the poster, conveying the very essence of hopelessly lost, students would straighten up as if we might swoop and pepper them with irrationally hard questions at any time. Ha!  The organizers specifically told us to leave all students with a positive impression of their work (you know, to keep them in science).

The students we got to talk to were absurdly sharp. And almost all of them had been performed at one of the research institutes.  This made us skeptical that the students hadn't just shadowed a post-doc for a few weeks and put some mystery figures on a poster.  A few had pretty basic projects, one experiment, n=1 stuff, but frankly not stuff a grad student would suggest. It was clear those students had a lot of ownership in thier projects.  The other were even more sophisticated, stuff that I can say would have been impossible to do in Juneau's science fair.

The student we were most impressed with, from abstract, to the 20 minutes of grilling he joyfully tolerated while we tried to probe the question "is this kid for real?" went on to win the science fair.  His project was about developing a human induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived heart tissue.  He had done lots of work, had great experiments and results, and was super excited about what he had done.  He really knew his stuff, how the assay were done, why the assays were done, and how his tests would help inform whether he could build a better heart.  Oh, and he was a freshman AND he had to drive an hour into the city to work at this UW lab twice a week. 

This experience clearly left me excited for the future of science.  It also made me very excited for the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair, April 4 and 5.  If you are around, and want to join in this judging it should be a lot of fun!  You can judge only Friday or only Saturday, if being in Bremerton doesn't work well with your work schedule.

AWIS Scholarship

One of the organizations I have been volunteering with since I moved to Washington is the Seattle Chapter of Association for Women in Science (AWIS). AWIS is a professional organization that works to promote careers of women and girls in science. They have a strong policy arm; our headquarters are in Washington DC.  The advancement of women in science careers and rational science policy are two things I care a lot about, so this organization was a natural fit.  On top of that, everyone I've met through AWIS is fantastic, and I've made some interesting friends and connections. We also host really great events.  I am on the newsletter committee, we put together quarterly updates for members about our events, and issues of importance to the community.  This is where most of my volunteer hours have come from so far. I enjoy being a part of this organization, and I beleive in what they do.

We have several very cool things going this year, including an award for a leading female scientist, and scholarships. I'm very excited about the scholarships.

When I was in college, I had several merit based scholarship.  It means a lot to be recognized for your potential while you are still training.  And I think it it really important that an organization like AWIS, which is predominantly active researchers and professional scientists can give a hand up to trainees.  It says, "You belong," to someone is still trying to earn their way.  Last year we gave 4, $1000 scholarships to local students.  All of them had really great stories, and I was so happy we were able to support these students in their education. We recognize them at an annual event, which this year they will share with a banquet and the award ceremony for an outstanding senior scientist. 

The other really cool part about this scholarship is that the funds are donated by local members and organizations.  We don't have huge endowments; every year there is a fundraising campaign. Every year the membership has to decide, "is diversity in science still an issue? Can I support the training of future women scientists?"  We have about 150 members.  I think we do a pretty awesome job supporting the chapter goals to support women's careers by providing scholarships for these students.

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What to support the scholarship?  Mail a check (yes, we are a bit old fashioned) to:
AWIS Scholarships
5805 16th Ave NE
Seattle, WA Nine Eight One Oh Five
(that a spambot proof zipcode, folks)

(If you support this scholarship, please let me know directly! And also, thank you so much!)

Donor's Choose

I would like to use the blog to describe some of the causes we'll be able to help, and why they are important to support.  I'd love to have guest bloggers share their experience.  This is the first Guest Blog, written by my Dad about a donation he made recently to one of my favorite charities, Donor's Choose.

When Sandlin was a graduate student zeroing in on her dissertation, she was also involved with science education in the surrounding schools system of Pittsburgh.  In exploring the needs of the huge community of Pittsburgh K-12 students, she was introduced to the organization of “Donors Choose”, a place where teachers all over the country could post wish lists of special projects and resource needs that couldn’t be met by their communities.  Interested donors could shop among the various interests, locations, programs and needs to make incremental contributions to a project that appealed to them.  When enough folks got on board with a project, it was funded and completed, sort of like Christmas all year round for straining classroom teachers. We completed several project in honor of her graduation and have now gone back to some of the same teachers to give them another boost  in honor of “30 for my 30th”.  Lots of options, locations, needs, and gratitude from some folks who are doing their best with limited support that we can augment.

Ok, that sounds kind nice, right? Two years ago, we helped provide pencils and a pencil sharpener for a class whose students were too poor to afford their own, which was making it hard for them to learn to write. Ack!  I liked this because, seriously, children need writing utensils, but it also reminded me that my Dad used to send me to school with markers and things for teachers.  Donor's Choose allows people like me and my Dad (and my Mom) respond to specific teacher's needs and feel like we have a direct impact.

So to get my birthday party started, they looked up that teacher in Penssylvania to see if she needed help.  Yes!  She sent back a breathless response that she has just put together a request for tablets, which are a great tool for classrooms with multiple learning levels.  Bam!  It's funded.

You can see her joyous response here.  It makes me so happy to read this!  I hope I get this feeling all year long, it's going to be a great birthday!

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If you want to support Donor's Choose for my birthday (and I love what they do) pick one of the underprivileged science classrooms in my area or find a need that speaks to you.  Let me know what you've donated and we can share this awesome feeling together!