This month my involvement was mostly with the “World Stories Alive” series. A series where we organize speakers to come in and read to children in a different language, sing a song, and make a craft. In the beginning of the month, I assisted with the Korean day. The event went really well, although, we decided some necessary improvements for the future would have to be made. The changes we had in mind were having a louder speaker and creating a craft that is easier for children. Some things that went well were the story itself and the speakers’ engagement while singing the songs with the kids.

Next weekend was my event, Turkish day. Before the event, I enjoyed creating the handout and was able to add elements of my own creativity in with the background images and color. Next, we had to decide on a craft. We eventually agreed to use last year’s craft, the evil eye, but I wanted to find a way to improve the craft so we didn’t run into any difficulty like last week. Because the craft required the children to cut felt, I cut holes in cardboard to create templates for the children to use.

The woman who was reading that day, Merve, was a Global Studies intern from last year, so I enjoyed talking to her. She was very good with kids, which made my job easier. Although attendance was low because the children’s department was closed today for renovations, I believe the children who were there got a lot out of the experience. They were able to sit on carpet squares instead of their parents’ laps so the whole experience was much easier for them to pay attention to. This tactic was better than the previous week, and we will continue to use the carpet squares because it will be easier for the kids to understand a difficult speaker if they are closer up in the future. We encouraged Merve to sing with the children like the speaker the previous week had done, which the children really enjoyed. The children also loved the craft, and the templates really improved their ability to design cut the felt.

Overall, even though attendance was low, the event went really well. I took things away from the previous week that I thought went well and what didn’t go well and applied them to my event. I also really enjoyed the experience of working with children and having the opportunity to combine my public relations skills with an event like this.

Above is a participate with the completed evil eye craft and speaker Merve reading to other participants.