Summary Report - Jon

Jon and I worked together for nearly six weeks. In that time, he has shown remarkable progress in his knowledge of the volunteering sector - what it involves, what is expected of the volunteer and the host organization, the societal and personal benefits of volunteering, and how volunteering fits into the community at large. My work with him has helped Jon become more confident in his ability to be independent in the community, and hopefully instilled in him a spirit of volunteering that could lead to not only more volunteering opportunities, but also internships and even paid work in the non-profit sector, as well as excellent references and relevant skills for any future job searches.

My instruction of Jon followed the guidelines set out by Alberta Education for the CTS module Community Care Services (CCS) 1080: Community Volunteerism 1. In this course students learn about volunteering in the community, research volunteering opportunities,  perform volunteering duties, and evaluate and dialogue on their experiences. Through dialogues in ASL, independent online research and written assignments Jon demonstrated understanding and competency in all the topics and learning outcomes expected for a student in CCS 1080. His written work can be found at the following link:
http://jonsummerwork.blogspot.ca

All questions and assignments done by Jon were taken from and adapted from the CCS 1080 curriculum. Most of them were also expanded on in ASL to ensure Jon had complete understanding of what he was to do. While Jon struggles sometimes to understand written work, when translated into ASL and expanded on he is generally able to understand the material quickly and fully.

Jon is a caring and sensitive person by nature, and was prone to easily agreeing to anything I asked of him. I was concerned that he might not have fully thought through things I proposed to him with regards to the time and energy required or the amount of skill and knowledge he would need. However, with a few minor hiccups, Jon never once complained or balked at the duties and expectations put to him by me, my colleagues, or his volunteer supervisors. He demonstrated to me that when he makes a commitment or obligation, he can be trusted to carry it out to the best of his ability. This is THE essential skill of a volunteer, community contributor, or good employee. As a result, I am not overly concerned by Jon's ability to retain any kind of employment or position of responsibility that he manages to obtain. Following his volunteer work at the Heritage Festival for the Edmonton Food Bank, I received a very positive message of thanks and appreciation from his volunteer coordinator including an offer to be considered for other volunteer opportunities within the Food Bank organization.

Based on Jon's work and my evaluations, I would make the following recommendations for him:

- That Jon be recognized as having fulfilled the expectations to obtain credit for completing CCS 1080: Community Volunteerism 1.
- That Jon is prepared to take the next course in the series - CCS 2080: Community Volunteerism 2.
- That Jon follows up on his recent success  and - time permitting - obtain a ongoing volunteer commitment with the Food Bank, either on a regular schedule in their warehouse or as a volunteer during special events they are involved with, as per Jon's preferences and availability. Such opportunities would also aid Jon in completing CCS 2080 as well as earn him valuable skills and experience for his future resume.

Summary Report - Cody

I have worked with Cody for a month now. In that time, he has shown remarkable acuity and ability to quickly grasp and understand all the information I was giving him. He already exhibits natural leadership qualities, and my work with him has helped him conceptualize and define those abilities in concrete terms. My hope is that Cody will be able to better harness his leadership ability and skills with the knowledge he has gained this summer.

I taught Cody according to the program of study of the HSS 1080: Leadership Fundamentals I CTS module that is a recognized for-credit course by Alberta Education. This module is intended to give students the opportunity for self-examination and reflection of their leadership skills, experience and knowledge, supplement those with taught materials, apply them to real-life and hypotheorical leadership situations, and subsequent self-evaluation.

Cody demostrated solid and complete knowledge of all the informative material contained within this module, as is evident from his interactions with me in ASL and his written work found at the following link:
http://codysandersummerwork2013.blogspot.ca/

All questions and assignments are taken from and adapted from the HSS 1080 curriculum.

In addition, Cody was proactive in taking charge of situations that called for leadership, without any prompting from me or anyone else. For instance, he readily assisted his friend in reading and understanding some reading material that was above his friend's reading comprehension comfort level. I am sastified that Cody has sufficient practical experience with utilizing his learned leadership skills for the purposes of this course.

Based on Cody's work and my evaluations, I would make those recommendations for Cody:

- That he be recoginized as officially completing all requirements for HSS 1080, including gaining credit for said work
- That Cody is prepared to take the next course in the leadership series, which is HSS 2080 - Leadership Fundamentals II
- That Cody be strongly encouraged by those around him to take some form of leadership position in his school or community in the short term(ideally in the next few months, before the end of 2013), to both ensure that he has more opportunities for practice applying his knowledge, and to 'imprint' the material in his mind before his knowledge decays over time due to disuse.