Ellie Willard

The girls that I got to help coach were new to the game of basketball. It was really go to help them learn how to play and learn to love the game. I served the students of Collierville Elementary. The girls were excited to have two younger teachers/ student-teachers serve them. I learned how to analyze what the students need and help design a practice to meet these needs. It aligned with my personal beliefs, because I think it is important for young mentors that share beliefs with their mentees. I learned about the different parenting styles and that different parents show up differently for their kids and that I got to help come alongside and support them.

During the Hydration Station, I got to serve the people of memphis, runners from across the US, and the patients at St.Jude. The people were grateful that we were there, it was so cool. They are running the full marathon taking the time to thank us and crack jokes with us. It was a small thing we did for a greater purpose. One skill I had to develop was delegation. There were multiple moving parts going on during this event: filling water cups, cleaning, refilling, hooking the hose up, picking up trash. We had to delegate in order to be successful. My service did align with y beliefs, because I love St.Jude and their mission and want to support the kids that go to St.Jude for treatment. Memphis is good, is what I learned. We had a bad reputation, but there are people here doing GOOD things and it was so important to be reminded by that.

At Memphis Animal Services (MAS), they have a large range of oportunities to get involved with and connect people with animals. This service project allowed me to help the workers at MAS potentially find the animals their home and raise awarness, throughout the Memphis Community. The cool thing about MAS, is when fostered Moira for the day, we were able to talk to the people in our community about fostering, adoption, and foster field trips. I used my marketing skills, to take pictures of Moira, and anyone who stopped to pet her, I mentioned how they can help her! Fostering Moria, did align with my values and beliefs. I love animals, when they get adopted, it helps save their lives! This event raised awarness that even if you are thinking about adopting a dog, fostering is important! It raises awarness and helps market the animals to potential future owners.

Gave a tour to the High School girl scouts and showed them our campus!

I had so much fun rocking the block! The team and the community that were out there eager to give back to this neighborhood, the energy was unmatched. My task was to uproot a sidewalk that had been covered by years of sod, trash, and root over growth. I have never done anything like this and hearing the communities' remarks like "There is sidewalk under there?' made it all worth it.

I got to help serve at a Memphis Wide youth conference. At this event, I had to monitor halls, get supplies, provide directions, and crowd control. I made sure all group leaders were good and knew what was going on. I also helped students know what where to be and what to be doing. I enjoyed this because I got to pour into students and get to know them!

I got to help lead a group of girls! We set up a table and girl scouts came up and filled out this sheet talking about special things about them! We helped them come up with traits and characteristics. Our goal was to encourage them and instill confidence in them! We wanted to be impact them in a way that makes them know who they are and be proud of who they are!

I mentored a group of 12, 6th grade girls for their first quarter of middle school. I went every Wednesday to go through a book with them on adjusting to Middle School and some of the trials they might face. We met every Wednesday for about 1.5 hours. These girls were hilarious and so fun. We definetly had to face some hardships, but it was defintely so worth it. These girls taught me about different ways to handle conflict and how all you can do is point them in the right direction, and love them even when they are hard to work with.

I had the oppurtunity to Foster Peaches this past weekend! She was a diabetic, rescue pup who loves people! Fostering Peaches required giving her insulin shots, feeding her twice a day, lots of playtime, lots of snuggles. She was new resposability that I really enjoyed.