PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition
Starting this spring, I have had the pleasure of joining the team as Director of Media. The Neighborhood Revitalization Coalition aims to connect UF and Santa Fe students who have an interest in community development with community partners who they can work with, as well as support them in building meaningful, lasting efforts and relationships. While the organization is still focusing on the fundamentals and establishing structure, we have made a lot of progress within the past two months. I worked on endeavors to increase NRC's recognition, such as setting up and operating the Instagram page and Linktree, as well as posting announcements for our monthly GBMs.
These are the posts I created to promote our monthly GBMs incorporating the NRC colors of blue, green, and white. On the right graphic, I included an image of a gator and a Saint Bernard, respective mascots of UF and Santa Fe, with a train, representing Gainesville.
Since each fellow in Path to Purpose had the chance to submit a grant up to $1000, the members of NRC each decided to focus on specific funding categories. Sebastian, Madi, and I drafted a grant proposal that would address different aspects of the NRC and hopefully serve as a fund for expanding the organization during the upcoming school year, with Willie Ortiz, the Community Relations Coordinator for the City of Gainesville, providing invaluable tips and guidance for successful grant writing. I was responsible for drafting the budget for general expenses and operations, as well as generating tangible metrics and timeline that detailed our goals for the next few months related to operations.
Path to Purpose
Through Path to Purpose, I met so many warm, friendly, and passionate people who motivated me to understand the root causes of the social issues I wanted to address and to initiate when there was a project or an organization that interested me. Not only did I learn about the issues and changes around Gainesville, but also about developments within the state, the nation, and even the world. Through various workshops and presentations, I gained insight into contextualizing these issues within the larger system.​
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For a more detailed reflection of my time as a Path to Purpose fellow, click here :
UF Sparks Magazine
I gained invaluable experience creating content and managing social media for Sparks Magazine as part of the PR/publicity team; not only did I have opportunities to propose different ideas for fundraising and social media content, but by being in a team with and learning from more experienced members, my skills in copywriting and graphic design has improved significantly. The constant supportive and open-minded environment also helped me become more confident in sharing and executing my ideas.
Engage Florida
This year, I got to be a part of Engage Florida's UF-GNV Relations team. In meetings and focus groups with community partners, such as the Akwaaba Freedom School and Partnership for Reimagining Gainesville, I pitched ideas on possible programs they could implement as well as potential items they could include in their budget for grants. I also consulted a local business, Life in a Bottle, LLC., on marketing and management strategies, including logo creation, social media management, and copyright, and on the right is a mockup of the logo draft I created on Canva.
SPARC352
As a surveyor within the Sparc2Heart team, I was able to hear
the real-life feedback of the residents in historic East Gainesville neighborhoods. Often, many of the neighborhoods in Gainesville are discussed in general, impersonal terms without regard to the individuals who live in these communities. Through the surveying sessions, I had the chance to interview residents about their specific experiences with the community, noting that many of them had a deep, personal relationship with the neighborhood they were living in, and that no one experience is the same. During community conversations, I also had the opportunity to speak with community members who communicate the social changes they are passionate about, such as reallocation of police resources and policing, addressing gun violence, raising awareness of domestic violence, etc., through various mediums, such as podcasts and skits.
Danielle Hawk for Congress
Through this campaign internship, I became familiar with the campaigning process, organizing and getting involved in grassroots events and working with large amounts of data through tools such as the Voter Information Lookup database; when the information listed in the petition was not legible, I figured out ways to fill in the gaps by looking at public data records. At local events, including the Friends of the Alachua County Public Library book sale and the Gainesville Art Festival, I had been part of a volunteer work event to gather petitions, communicating and collaborating with other interns and members of the community. Through virtual phonebanking sessions, I have had experience in cold calling voters to alert them about the campaign and explain the platform.