Our day was filled with many interesting and exciting Design Thinking activities!!! First, we put the final touches on our improved prototype from yesterday so that they were ready to be seen by others within the community. We placed them in Stokes Hall in order to receive feedback protocol from people outside of the...
Continue readingConfronting the Cafeteria (Design Thinking: Day 1)
Today we officially began the process of Design Thinking through a “Flash Lab,” which is a quick round through the DEEPdt flow. We started the procedure by identifying the DEEPdt acronym, which stands for Discover, Empathize, Experiment, and Produce. We watched various videos that explained each step of the process, and then we presented...
Continue readingCommunity Empowerment Through Service Learning: Final Reflections
This Intensive Learning taught me a lot about the Camden community. Moving forward with my volunteer time going back to Camden is a good possibility. I really enjoyed volunteering at the soup kitchen and seeing all the grateful people and how happy someone can be, despite being in the position they are. I would...
Continue readingFinal Day of Yoga Retreat
Today we woke up early to practice an energizing vinyasa flow. As part of the last practice we were encouraged for one song to let go of everything and to be free as we danced around the room. Afterwards we headed to breakfast to enjoy our last meal together, homemade yogurt and grains and...
Continue readingSouth Jersey Service: Youth Engineering and Science
Exploration: something that everyone desires, but only a few get to grasp. So many people aspire to spend even a fraction of their lives exploring places, ideas, memories, yet barely a handful of them find the lucky key that unlocks the time for exploration. Today, the key was handed to us, as well as...
Continue readingFeeling Accomplished
Unsure of how our partners at the Pinelands Preservation Alliance would receive our proposals this morning, we made some final touches and prepared our presentations for our 9:30 am meeting at their office. At 8:30, everyone packed up their prototypes and rushed to the bus as rain drizzled down. Once on site, we enjoyed a light breakfast...
Continue readingThe Final Day of Blacksmithing
Today, Jack, Christian, and Jakob worked diligently on household utilities such as a fireplace poker and a spatula. Bruce brought the cows over to the forge area to keep us company and to graze new lands. Some brave blacksmiths even went over to confront the animals and became friends. Liz, Robbie, Roman, and Tanay...
Continue readingGYLI: Rock Climbing & Final Reflection
Today was a long day for us at GYLI. We left MFS and went to Elite Climbing for the day. After we had a quick training, everyone was scrambling up the various climbing wall. Although the rock climbing is really challenging because most of us have never tried this, and we were all really...
Continue readingQuilting: A Visit to Olde City Quilts
Wednesday was the third day of Quilting for Intensive Learning, and we went to Olde City Quilts in Burlington to quilt our projects. We used long-arm machines to sew the three layers (the top, the batting, and the backing) of our quilts together and make it more like a complete product. The task looked daunting at first,...
Continue readingQuilting: One Down, Two More to Go
Today Shelby and Jessica completed the first quilt. All of the groups are working incredibly hard to finish their projects. So far the day has been filled with laughter and smiles. I can’t wait to see what’s yet to come for the new quilters....
Continue readingRough Start, Strong Finish
3/28/16 We started our day early by arriving at Moorestown Friends at 5:45 AM to depart for the airport. From there we ate and socialized as the arrival time to Orlando, Florida had been pushed back by an hour due to delays caused by mechanical errors, thunderstorms, and even a 30-minute baggage claim delay. Following...
Continue readingCreating the elements of a totem pole
Today, we spent most of our time working with clay — getting to know how the medium works and then creating elements of our first community artwork. As an opening exercise to awaken our creative spirits, we each formed and imprinted nine clay “pebbles” with our palm prints. We then gathered in Stokes Hall to assemble...
Continue readingExploring the World of Mandala
After our delicious lunch break, we explored the great outdoors, MFS’s backyard. We found natural elements and discards of the modern world (like tennis balls, lots of tennis balls) to use as elements of our art projects this week. We also found it necessary to pick up the trash and waste left outside for a...
Continue readingNicaragua: Building an outdoor classroom at Casa Del Niño
These kids are working hard. We are so proud of them....
Continue reading¡Dia dos en Nicaragua!
We started today off with a plentiful breakfast filled with pancakes, fresh fruit and yogurt! After breakfast we started our journey to a new location three hours away. Along the way we made some meaningful stops and learned mucho information! Our first stop of the day we went to a lake and took a boat...
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