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Civic Engagement Hours (Sophomore Year)

Over the course of my sophomore year, I have been doing civic engagement to help out in my community and earn the service hours needed to graduate high school. For each year at GCE, students are asked to complete 50 hours of civic engagement. In this blog post, I will talk about each of the service opportunities I have done.


Chicago Wildlife Watch

Chicago Wildlife Watch is one of many projects on an online platform utilizing people-powered research. This platform is called Zooniverse. CWW focuses on using trail cameras placed in the Chicago area to identify animals such as squirrels, coyotes, dogs, birds, deer, and more. The website gives you an image and you can search around for any animals. If you find any you can identify it from the list of options which tells you basic information about the animals. This includes what they look like, their size, and where they can be located. These cameras are motion-triggered and are placed at more than 100 sites. Identifying these animals helps determine which species are present and assesses spatial and long-term patterns in wildlife communities. This will help the experts with their studies and know-how to conserve wildlife in the best way possible. Using the data from the cameras, the experts can get an idea of how the different species are doing and if they are in trouble. While I was participating in this, I found many animals that were sometimes alone or in groups. I also identified some humans as well. This is a pretty useful tool to help out because you can do it from your own home and I enjoyed it. Sometimes, the cameras are triggered at night which shows the photo in black and white and it can be difficult to tell animals apart from one another. From the time I have spent, working with CWW, I hope I made a good contribution to their studies. 

Chicago Wildlife Watch website when identifying animals


National Marine Manufacturers Association

My neighbor who works for Human Resources for the NMMA asked if I wanted to help her translate Interview Competencies from a manual onto an online spreadsheet. I agreed and for a period of time, I translated all 38 competencies onto the spreadsheet. This manual consists of multiple qualities an interviewee is questioned on such as people skills, decision making, collaboration, management, and more. Each of these skill sections has positive and negative themes, overuse of qualities, and 10 interview questions associated with the skill. The work wasn't very special but it helps interviewers across the company to have an online copy of the handbook if they didn't have a physical one. Because of the current pandemic, online resources are necessary for business so it is important to have that handy. The NMMA is a trade association for boats, marine engines, and accessory manufacturers. The company hopes to ensure the growth of the recreational boating industry. The company also supports the Chicago Boat Show.


My Neighbor

Another one of my service opportunities was presented by a neighbor asking if I wanted to help her move belongings from her old house to her new one. We took a couple trips back and forth and spent some time organizing belongings that had already been moved over. This included setting up the bedrooms, living room, and kitchen. It was good to help my neighbor out and see the new building they moved into which looks very nice. 

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