Wow, I'm so sorry I dropped the ball on updating this past week. To tell you the truth, it was just a crazy busy week, and not all of it was related to GSE (gasp!). Much of it was, but not all of it. Well, I've got some really great news! Our Silent Auction Fundraiser brought in $1,073! That's incredible, and we couldn't have done it without all the wonderful, generous support from the community. Our fundraiser at the Wooster Jam was less successful, it only brought in around $70, but with all three fundraisers (auction, mocktails, 50/50 raffle), and some private donations we made over $1,400. That's absolutely fantastic, and it means that each person in our group gets about $117 towards the $750 matching grant that the college so generously gives us. Our biggest challenge now is to deliver the goods to everyone who purchased them, and to write thank you notes to all the businesses who donated goods to the auction. Did we make some mistakes? Definitely. I have a very long list of mistakes/things-that-we-could-have-done-differently-to-make-it-easier-or-better from this whole fundraising experience, and I think it would be in the best interest of the GSE program in general if we put these tips in a special binder to be handed down to each upcoming GSE group. That way each new team can (hopefully) be just as successful, or even more so in their fundraising efforts.
Let's see, what else can I mention that's related to GSE.... VISA APPLICATIONS! Take heed my friends, it's not fun. We are all filling out employment visas, because that's the proper and legal visa you need to fill out if you are volunteering with an Indian non-profit organization. You need a bunch of extra documents to attach to your visa application, and it is confusing as *insert swearword of choice here* So, I actually shed some tears over this, angry, frustrated tears, but at least it's over now. My visa application has been mailed into the Travisa processing sight, and now all I have to do is wait for them to mail my passport back. That's right, I had to mail my entire passport into the Visa service, and then they will hopefully mail it back to my home address in Vermont (*fingers crossed*).
Fun fact of the day, I just turned in my second paper for the GSE seminar. My senioritis must be worse than I thought, because I had a really hard time trying to articulate exactly what I wanted to say for this 10-page paper. My paper is on the characterization of livelihoods among persons with disability in India. Unfortunately there's not a ton of information out there (surprise, surprise), but I'm not writing an I.S. about this, just a 10-page paper.
Also, some of my other GSE teammates are keeping blogs about their travel experiences in India as well. I have links to all their blogs on the right side of my blog page. You should check them out!
Let's see, what else can I mention that's related to GSE.... VISA APPLICATIONS! Take heed my friends, it's not fun. We are all filling out employment visas, because that's the proper and legal visa you need to fill out if you are volunteering with an Indian non-profit organization. You need a bunch of extra documents to attach to your visa application, and it is confusing as *insert swearword of choice here* So, I actually shed some tears over this, angry, frustrated tears, but at least it's over now. My visa application has been mailed into the Travisa processing sight, and now all I have to do is wait for them to mail my passport back. That's right, I had to mail my entire passport into the Visa service, and then they will hopefully mail it back to my home address in Vermont (*fingers crossed*).
Fun fact of the day, I just turned in my second paper for the GSE seminar. My senioritis must be worse than I thought, because I had a really hard time trying to articulate exactly what I wanted to say for this 10-page paper. My paper is on the characterization of livelihoods among persons with disability in India. Unfortunately there's not a ton of information out there (surprise, surprise), but I'm not writing an I.S. about this, just a 10-page paper.
Also, some of my other GSE teammates are keeping blogs about their travel experiences in India as well. I have links to all their blogs on the right side of my blog page. You should check them out!
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