Information System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Information System - Essay Example Their efforts are based upon the contributions in the field of industry and sciences before 1920s. It is broadly characterized as scientific management principles and application in industrial domain. The development of computers in a phase wise manner from the days of Steve Jobs and IBM to present day open source operating systems and spread of internet in the form of World Wide Web is a technological achievement made possible in the last part of previous decade. Thesis statement: Each of these developments (Scientific Management and Internet) has had economic, social, technological, cultural and developmental impact. This paper looks into the multifaceted contribution by each of these in their own capacity and own spectrum. Scientific Management: While the Industrial revolution had given the field of development and manufacturing a new dimension, additional development and performance improvement was yet to be achieved and there were considerable margins for development in that zon e. The improvement of the working procedures and personnel performance was an area that was yet to be harmonized with the industrial developments made in previous century. Bridging the gap between the man power, their abilities, machine and processes made up for a new domain of study and research. The principles of Scientific Management undertook this as an exploration of new methods and mechanisms for further enhancing the potential of growth and capacity amongst the workers and within the industries. This summarizes the purpose and motto of Scientific Management. Frederick Winslow Taylor: Many other proponents of improvement and development along with machine manufacturing companies aimed at bringing the two fields together. The First to achieve a breakthrough was Frederick Winslow Taylor who came up with a novel idea that would make up for the benchmark and standardized pattern of manufacturing industry principles essential for success. He along with his team of experts from the field of their respective specialization are clearly accorded as the honors of having achieved the breakthrough and come up with something concrete against something that was long considered and fancied for in terms of progress and better utilization of technology (SAPRU, 2013, 110). Target industries and domains: Under the principle and concepts of Scientific Management, manufacturing industries fell directly under the target of improvements and the potential that was present for capitalization. Making use of the energies resources, capital, machinery, employees all this was sought and a general realization existed that advocated the integration of management on scientific basis and industrial processes for creation of a synergetic effect within. The team performed intensive investigations aimed at identifying the areas of potential improvement and areas of negligence that had yet to be explored and were lacking for development on account of lack of attention and work performed in the given domain. As a result of the extensive research and review Frederick Winslow Taylor came up with â€Å"The Principles of Scientific Management† that had the best recipe of increasing productivity, integrating different domains and increasing the working patterns of employees as well. The novelty of piece of work was the fact that for the first time the social impact was touched upon in the entire scheme of research and for the first tim

Responsibilities of sports engineers Essay Example for Free

Responsibilities of sports engineers Essay Sports is something that attracts every person in this world towards itself. Sports has become a very common field that everybody has interested in. People are gaining more and more interest in different sports from all over the world. And that is why sports engineering is gaining significance and recognition. It is a special field of engineering, which involves everything from the development to the testing of the different sports equipment. The discipline includes numerous activities and everything related to sports and sports equipment. The sports engineers have several responsibilities that are discussed here at length. The very first responsibility of a sports engineer is the designing of the sports equipment. With the development of different sports and an increase in their popularity, people are eager to make use of the best of the sports equipment. And this is where the sports engineers can contribute by developing new equipment that would help the athletes perform better. Sports engineers are also responsible for carrying out a complete lab and experimental testing of the sports equipment, athletes and the interaction between them. This is one of the most important parts of the job of a sports engineer because it is not possible to make use of anything without testing the equipment and the nature of interactions the users would have with the equipment. The sports engineers not only carry out laboratory testing but are also required to test the performance of the athletes and different devices in the field, i. e. the environment of the sports. Field testing needs to be completely accurate so that there is no scope of mistakes and the athletes are prepared to use their equipment in the real conditions and situations. Computational modeling has been used only for scientific purposes till now. Computational modeling approach is usually employed in physics and other scientific applications, whether it is fluid dynamics or any other experiment. Sports engineers are also making use of this technique and approach for determining the forces acting upon the working of the equipment and for stimulating its working before actually developing them. Sports engineers also need to continuously work with the different government bodies and the authorities for making sure that the rules are adhered to and everything is carried out within the pre-defined guidelines. Sports engineers also have to work with the athletes to regularly keep a track and improve the performance of the different athletes in different fields. They need to find out new ways and measures for enhancing the performance of the sportsmen. Thus, we see that sports engineers are extremely important people and they need to carry out all of their responsibilities sincerely for the development of different sports and for the betterment of the athletes. Reference link: http://classof1. com/homework-help/engineering-homework-help.

Sociological Perspectives Institution Of The Family

Sociological Perspectives Institution Of The Family Society is the subject of the social sciences. Generally Speaking society is that complex social organization of human beings that share an identity inhabiting dynamic relationships and a distinctive culture. Members of a society identify themselves through that society and work together with other members to ensure that the rules generally agreed upon by all members to govern how they relate to each other are in place. Sociological perspectives are viewpoints from which we study and understand society and its varied mechanics and elements. There are varied sociological perspectives available to social scientists for the purpose of study. What sociological perspective is used depends on the theories and purposes of the one undertaking the study. Functionalism, Conflict theory, and Social Interactionism are sociological perspectives that I believe can be used to study the social unit of the family. Functionalism looks at the family as if it was one mechanical entity with every member of the family taking on a role and a function affecting the whole. For example, the mother is the nurturer, support to the husband in terms of keeping the family together taking on household duties as well as economic duties; the father, traditionally is head of the family whose primary function is to provide for the economic and financial needs of his wife and children; the children are dependent on their parents but take on an important role towards each other and to their parents. What these roles are vary according to the age of the children and their stage in life. In the elder years of their parents, the children are expected to become the nurturer and provider for their parents, a role reversal of sorts. Since a functionalist perspectives focuses on roles/functions, when a family is in a state of conflict, the dynamics of family function can be looked at to pinpoint the areas of issue/tension for the purpose of finding solutions. Now, from a functionalist perspective, how can a member of a family view self and society? First off, the self-view will be rooted in function and expectations. The father for example will view himself as one who must provide for and protect his family based on standard expectations of what fathers do and what fatherhood means in the society he belongs to. He will view society as one of function and structure as well where his family makes up a unit integral to the functioning social groups he/his family belongs. Roles then will become part of the expected mental images a functionalist perspective gives in terms of viewing family and society. Thus, the roles of mother, father, daughter, son, aunt, uncle, grandparents, cousins all these are based on social and cultural standards. This extend s out to expected roles functions of key individuals in society as well as social groups (i.e. Priest, teachers, politicians, employers, church, government, businesses, etc.). In terms of social change, if change is systemic, it will be based on or will have to be rooted in the need to overhaul or effect a particular function for the purpose of adapting to or surviving challenges, conflicts or trends. Take for example the trend of and the established need to adapt to new communication technologies (3G phones, mobile internet). Once families used to not need such technologies to keep track of and keep in touch with family members to nurture relationships and fulfil obligations. Now though, parents and children have adapted digital technology in their lives to harness the function of connectivity and communication providing new avenues for family connectedness. On Symbolic Interactionism Symbolic interactionism as a perspective on the other hand looks at the micro relationships between family members looking at their everyday life and the relationship all members have with each other. It seeks to find out the finer details of social relationships in order to understand why they work/dont work. It seeks to see whether families attach certain meanings to social stereotypes in relation to their expectations from each other. At the same time it also seeks to understand how each other come to mean in the lives, choices and interpretations of each member. It seeks to establish the strength and frailty of familial relationships by providing details. It is different from functionalism in that it focuses on quality meaning of relationships instead of function alone. While functionalism sees the family as an organic entity that follows a unique structure according to role designation within the family-group, symbolic interactionism gives more weight to the function of relat ionships in the family structure. For example, the importance of family bonds can be measured in the way family members act towards each other. For Herbert Blumer (1986), the originator of the theory, familial relationships are best understood via the discourses and interactions of family members in their relationships towards each other for meaning is created via this, relationships built, conflicts resolved, positions taken. In other words, this sociological perspective is a discursive microscope that can create a genealogy of family relations and provide a picture of shared beliefs and unique family behaviour that contribute (or due to lack of prohibits from creating) towards a shared family culture and identity. What does this mean for members of a family? It is in discourse that meaning is created. Cultures and traditions of families are built over interaction and shared histories. Without interaction, meaning and relationships cannot be built. For individual members of the fam ily then, family is viewed as a dynamic and continual interaction with each other that allow for meanings and symbolisms to be invested and shared by those who interact. For example, a father can only be a father if he interacts with his children to fulfil his own expectations of himself as a father to his children and if the children respond to him in such a way that the interaction establishes a communication exchange, a discourse where father and children find meaning in each other. Therefore while the father works to provide for his children, without interaction, this relationship is not socially established in meaning making familial relations between father and children non-existent. Society from this perspective is seen as a massive social structure where truth and structures are established based on discourse; without interaction, without discourse, there is no progress especially in terms of shared cultural practices. A family vested in social interaction sees active relati onships as essential in establishing bonds and social change, at least within the family will only happen via discourse. For example, a status qou must be arrived at via discourse in which members of the family have come to agree or view a particular position or necessary action similarly to warrant collective shift in approaches or performance of a particular action. The Conflict Theory Conflict theory, a perspective rooted in the ideas of Emile Durkheim (social conflict crime) Karl Marx (dialectical materialism/Marxism) looks into differentials of power how power, influence and authority influences the distribution of access to resources, for example, in a particular social group. Hence, it is a good perspective in the study of criminology for it can be used to pinpoint the source/forces behind criminality due to access/lack of access to power economic resources. As a perspective in understanding the social unit of the family however, conflict theory can be used to understand the power relations in the family the hierarchy of family authority and control. Thus the use of conflict theory in the study of the family unit can be said to focus on the negative aspects of family structure and relations; at the same time however such a focus can it also bring out the relations of gender, of power and of control. Eventually, it is easy enough to identify who controls w hat and which in the family in order to assign responsibility and correct social and relationship conflict. Conflict theory is a tool used in identifying family issues in order to find ways to fix them. For instance, if a teen is having issues with his/her parents, conflict theory can be used to analyze and pinpoint the source of friction in order to ascertain remedies in fixing parent and child relations. In the case of extended families that are so typical in parts of Asia (i.e. Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam) wherein extended families allow economic and social support for members of the clan that cannot otherwise support themselves, their children and their needs, conflict theory is perfect in unravelling the relations of power and control including identifying factions, matriarchy patriarchy patterns and areas of resolution (especially if the conflict theory is taken on to resolve a familial issue). Members of a family using the conflict theory can be viewed as so cial agents differentiated by their access to power and resources. Hence, they are essentially competing with each other. A family member can look into ones position in the family to assess his or her access to influence, power and resources to determine his/her position in the family. If parents, for example are fair, and if the mother and the father see each other as equals then in the decisions that they make, this is reflected. But if this is not the case, if the father has more say in family matters including economic issues, then there is a differential between husband and wife in terms of familial authority. If all children in the family are treated the same and given similar opportunities, then one can say that access to resources and authority is fair; but if one is treated better than the other then there is definitely a differential in terms of access to power and resources between children. Members of families who view their primary grouping as one of competition for res ources (i.e. one of conflict) sees society as a bigger representation of their own issues to resources and authority within their families. They will view society as an intensely competitive social arena where to survive; one must be adept in working towards more power and access to resources via structures like schools, government and civilian organizations (businesses, NGOs, private firms). Social change is inevitable for status qou will change dependent on the sway of power at any given time. From this perspective, society is continually changing and power changes hands regularly due to competition. Word Count:1,729

Atomic Bomb :: essays research papers

Atomic Bomb On August 2, 1939 Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This was right before the start of World War 2. In this letter Einstein and several other scientists told Roosevelt of the efforts Hitler was making to purify U-235 in which he hoped to make an atomic bomb. This is when the United States started the Manhattan Project. This was the project of making an atomic bomb. In the project many brilliant minds were used. The most famous of these people is Robert Oppenheimer. He was the major person behind this project. He basically ran the operation and oversaw the hole project from start to completion. Other great people like H.C. Urey, Ernest Lawrence, Isidor Rabi, and Ken Bainbridge also worked on the project and put just as much into it. The most complicated process was the process of getting enough uranium to sustain a chain reaction. In that time it was very hard to extract U-235. The ration of Uranium ore to the Uranium metal is 500:1. Then out of this Uranium metal 99% of it is U-238 which is non-fissionable. Finding a process to refining the Uranium was the first step in developing the atomic bomb. A massive enrichment laboratory/plant was built in Oak ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey and other associates at Columbia University devised a system that separated the Uranium using the principle of gaseous diffusion. Ernest Lawrence shortly following this invention came up with a process using magnetic separation. This process was quicker then the first. After the Uranium metal was separated form the Uranium ore it is put into a gas centrifuge to separate the U-235 and U-238. The first step of building an atomic bomb was completed. They now had the U-235 to build a bomb. Over the course of six years, 1939-1945, scientist worked on equations to make the U-235 into a bomb. It took some of the greatest minds to make these formulas. At the end of the six years and after spending $2 billion they had what they thought was a working bomb or a very expensive dud. At 5:29:45 (Mountain War Time) on July the 16th, 1945 the "Gadget", the code name for the bomb, was tested in the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico. This was the first atomic bomb ever detonated. The Gadget caused a white blaze to stretch across the skies of New Mexico.

Ethan Frome Essay

Ethan Frome had nothing but sickness and trouble. His life revolves around taking care of one invalid after another, from his father, his mother to his hypochondriac wife and finally ending up as a disfigured and very image of â€Å"ruin of a man†. He failed to achieve any of his ambitions to leave town and become an engineer and did not succeed even in his desire to run away with Mattie Silver. Aside from poverty, the rigid moral character of Ethan prevents him from going against the social conventions in favor of his personal ambitions and fulfillment. Set in New England, in the rural town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, this literary piece was written by Edith Wharton in 1922. The bleak environment of seemingly endless winter aptly sets the tone of the story and the fate of Ethan Frome. A narrator who was forced to stay in Starkfield because of a workers strike was instantly fascinated by Frome’s appearance that looks quite old for a man of fifty-two and disfigured since an accident twenty-four years ago when he first saw him outside of the post office. He went on to find out more about him as he â€Å"had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story† (1). The story of Ethan Frome is a portrayal of a passive and unhappy man who is weighed down by his duty to his wife and his bitter existence as a poor farmer. Ethan had been in Starksfield since his youth when his father died and he had to come home to take care of his ailing mother and their farm. Prior to this event, he was taking a technological course in Worcester but the lack of money prevented him from realizing his dream to become an engineer. He decided to marry Zenobia Pierce or Zeena, his cousin who came to help him care for his mother, after the burial as he was afraid to spend the winter alone. Though Zeena was lively and cheerful at first, she later on fell silent and sickly. He woulf often think that had his mother died in the springtime he would not have thought of offering marriage to Zeena. Her illnesses became her obsession as she would go on a monthly trip to Bettsbridge to see her doctor. For rural towns like Starkfield, people with sickness or complications are common topic for conversations and are â€Å"singled out for a great fate†. Zeena’s illness became her weapon that she uses to take control of the household and of Ethan. Mattie Silver actually came to the Fromes to do the household chores in exchange for the food and shelter as she was also destitute after the death of her parents. Since she was not used to doing housekeeping, Ethan would help her out in doing her chores just so she would not incur the wrath of Zeena. Ethan eventually fell in love with lively and cheerful Mattie who gave Ethan respite from the isolation and loveless match with a sickly and whining woman. The illicit relationship however advances to no more than holding of hands as both Mattie and Ethan are too afraid to defy the forces of social and marital duties. The time came though that Zeena decided to send Mattie away because of a broken red pickle dish that is symbolic in the story of the marriage of Ethan and Zeena. The idea of living apart from each other was unbearable for Mattie and Ethan that upon the suggestion of the former, they went on to take a sleigh ride that would crash them into the big elm tree. The attempted suicide failed leaving Ethan disfigured and Mattie a paralyzed woman. The irony of the story is that in the end Zeena seem to overcome her illness and became the caregiver of the now invalid, whining Mattie and the lame Ethan. The entire life of Ethan Frome had been a series of dreams destroyed because of the circumstances of him being poor and his adherence to social duty. His opportunity to leave town and finish education to eventually become an engineer was hindered when his father died and he has a farm and an ailing mother to take care of. Their farm as he said was â€Å"side-tracked† when the railroads where put up and no more people came to town. He blames this as the cause as to why his mother’s condition deteriorated. It could also mean the lost opportunities for the town and also to him as the place got left behind in the course of development. Ethan was one of the people stuck in Starkfield, a place where â€Å"most of the smart ones get away†(14) as Harmon Gow, the stage driver in the story, aptly puts it. The bleakness that surrounds Starkfield, for one thing, is not an environment that would nurture youth and create a field for dreams to come true. The narrator in the story noted that although he initially felt invigorated by the clear blue skies and shocking white of snow, this was soon followed by long periods of cold and darkness that he begun to understand the â€Å"deadness of the community† (15). In an environment that was neither nurturing nor bountiful, Ethan is further subdued into the tangled web of harshness and scarcity. The Fromes practically had to eke living from what little they could get from their farm for their survival. The connection between the land and the people is symbolic in the story. The environment made life for the townspeople difficult such as when Ethan and another man had to struggle in the sleet just to be able to transport logs. Starkfield is isolation in itself, with the places beyond it seen as a place to â€Å"get away† so as to seek a different fortune or freedom from the drab and coldness of the place. The limitations of the environment coupled with poverty further intensified the lost potentials of Ethan Frome. There was the poignant scene where the narrator accidentally left his biochemistry book in the sleigh and later on sees it in Frome’s hand. Ethan was both fascinated and humbled by the book as he exclaimed, â€Å"There are things in that book that I didn’t know the first word about† (18). It shows that Ethan’s curiosity and intellect had very few outlets in that kind of environment. For a fifty-two year old man who found excitement in a book, it is painful to think of what he could have been had he got the chance to explore his potentials. The conflict between personal passion and social convention is another theme portrayed in the story. The character of Zeena and Mattie were so different that the reader would readily understand the choice of Ethan between them. Mattie symbolizes beauty and energy in her ways, in the colors that she uses from the ribbons in her hair to the dish that she illicitly uses whereas Zeena possesses the deathly and sickly qualities in life. The sexual and emotional frustration in the marriage of Zeena and Ethan is symbolized by the unused pickle dish. Though shown as Zeena’s most prized possession, it remains at the topmost of the china closet left and unused. The barren relationship that they have is further portrayed with them not having children and hardly ever sharing a conversation. Ethan fell in love with Mattie and had come to hate Zeena but his strong sense of marital duty prevents him from deciding to be with Mattie. He acts with uncertainty and frustration under the looming shadow of his obligation to Zeena that it created a conflict in him. Ethan is also hesitant to leave his sickly wife for he believes that if he went away it would leave Zeena alone and penniless. Even in the moment when Zeena went away, her presence was greatly felt in imagined visions and in the symbol of the cat. Conventionally, the society upholds marriage as a sacred bond and is, in fact, at the apex of the set social orders. A man and woman are joined in marriage; it is protected by the norms of the society to keep the union intact. The critical eyes of the society is so that it could even permeate walls of intimate moments like the evening that Ethan and Mattie spent together when Zeena went away from the town to see a doctor. Their excitement though withered when the cat broke the dish and the looming figure of Zeena in their minds. Zeena’s absence bear more weight that her presence that conversation became impossible. The circumstance does not allow them to attempt to recreate a fantasy of life together, spending an evening as a husband and wife would. Their passion was shrouded by guilt and the unseen eyes of the society that both of them felt in the situation. As Ethan noted † in the warm lamplit room, with all its ancient implications of conformity and order, she (Mattie) seemed infinitely farther away from him and more unapproachable† (54). Conformity and order in the living room reminded Ethan that it belongs to Zeena and Ethan and could never be Mattie and Ethan. And when Ethan crossed the line when showed the slightest act of passion by kissing a piece of cloth that she was sewing, Mattie was spurred into retreating, scared of the repercussions with the transgression made. Poverty also limited the illicit lovers from taking serious step in pursuing an adulterous affair. Mattie, for one, was in a very precarious condition being dependent on the Fromes for her daily sustenance. Having nowhere else to go, she is also afraid of going into that kind of relationship with Ethan that could take away the refuge that she now has. Ethan, on the other hand, his duty to his wife and even to the Hales prevents him from acting on the situation like the loan that he planned to take from the Hale in able to elope with Mattie. Ethan did not only sacrifice his chance on love but he also sacrificed his ambitions just so he can fulfill his social duties. He had to give up his dream to move out of Starkfield and of becoming an engineer to care for his father, his mother and the farm. And upon the death of his mother, he end up in frustrated desire to fulfill his dreams for he was trapped in a marriage with a sickly wife whom he cannot bear to leave because of her condition. Though a sympathetic character, Ethan Frome can be also frustrating because of his lack determination to change the course of his life. He allows circumstances to take over him and did not decidedly pursue his interests and ambitions. Like the epitaph of the original Ethan Frome in the graveyard with his wife Endurance, he endures rather than act on his fate in pursuit of happiness and fulfillment. In his relationship with Mattie, instead of finding the courage to address his dilemma he opted for suicide with his lover, which he did not even decide on but took on upon the suggestion of Mattie. This was his only bold decision in the entire novel but this too ended up as a failure leaving him ruined and destined to live his entire life with an invalid lover and a controlling wife. Though Ethan is a sensitive and decent person he lacks emotional strength and determination. Instead of mustering enough courage to defy conventions, he chose not to take decisions and face the consequences of it, The deadened vitality of Ethan Frome from the decades of frustrations and his inability to rise up beyond the circumstances had left him in a situation where is â€Å"not much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard†.

How to Create Successful Community Service Projects

How to Create Successful Community Service Projects SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Have you considered doing somecommunity service work during high school but can't find anything that fits your interests? Do you want to have more ownership over what kind of service work you do? If so, then making your own community service project may be the right idea for you. Read on for a step-by-step guide that will tell you everything you need to know to completeasuccessful community service project. Why Should You Do Community Service? Community service work can be a great way to spend some free time in high school, but did you also know that it can also be a big help when you apply to colleges? Colleges like seeing community service work as an extracurricular activity because it shows that you are actively involved in something that will better yourself and the world. By doing community service, you show that you have a real interest in making a positive change in your community. Community service shows admissions officers that you have a number of the "intangible" qualities that they're looking for in students. For example, through service work, you can show yourability to balance a lot of different activities at once while also maintaining your course load.This shows that you can stay organizedand take initiative. Finally, community service can help with some of the more concrete aspects of your college applications as well. The work you do can be great subject materialfor an application essay, can lead to good letters of recommendation, and - perhaps most importantly - can lead to scholarships! For more benefits of doing community service, see our guide. Why Should You Starta Community Service Project? If you're ready to start doing some community service work, you may want to considerstartingyour own community service project. Usually, students will choose to volunteer their time for a pre-established organization. However, creatingyour own community service project gives you the opportunity to have greater control over what you want to work on and what you want to achieve. Community service projects are different from traditional community service work because they areusually focused around one event or one goal and havedistinct end points. For example, you may decide to host a race to raise money and awareness for a certain disease, or you could plan a blood drive to help out after a disaster. These kinds of projects require a lot of planning and careful execution, so they're best attempted by students who have confidence in their ability to follow through in those areas. Though planning community service projects can be considerably more difficult than traditional community service work, it can also pay off in big ways, especially when considering your college applications: It shows leadership skills. This is a big thing that colleges want to see in your extracurricular activities. According to a DoSomething.org survey, over 50% of admissions officers agree that being a leader in a project or running your own project isthe best way to learn from community service experience. Why do admissions officers love leadership? Remember, they are on the lookout for the leaders of tomorrow. Show them now that you have the gumption to be one! It shows the ability to plan and organize. While leadership can refer to an intangible ability to inspire others, the planning and organization skills it takes to pull off a successful community service project are noteworthy in their own right. To run a large-scale event, you will need to coordinate many people, accurately predict expenses, and create a timeline. All of these are important skills that will help you in college and the future. It shows your ability to work with others. Most community service projects will be undertaken with a group. By organizing one, you are showing that you have great people skills. You can recognize different people’s talents and understand how to use them to maximum effect. You will show initiative and innovativeness. You saw a problem and decided that you were going to be the one to fix it. Moreover, nobody else told you how you were going to go about doing that. This shows great critical thinking and problem-solving skills that colleges love to see. Now that you know some of the reasons for making the effort to do a community service project let's go through the steps of successfully planning a project. 10Steps for Startinga Successful Community Service Project Step 1: Find Out What Is Needed in Your Community There are many ways to do this. Start out by asking your friends and family members if there are things that they have seen that need a solution. Talk to neighbors. Engage in a community discussion board such as Nextdoor.com. Talk to community officials (local government) and police officers, and speak with non-profit groups in the area. Once you have an idea of the issues present in your area, spend some time researching them. What is the history of the issue? Is it a new thing or has it been around a long time? What realistic steps can be taken to address it? What, if anything, have other groups done in the past to fixthe issue? It’s also a good idea to research what kind of events have taken place in your community in the past. What projectswere successful? What sort of activities had nobody show up? You can do this by talking to your local city government or local non-profit groups that have held events. You may also know from personal experience of events that you have attended. Which were the most engaging and resonated with your community? Step 2: See What You Have the Ability to Do It's time to start asking yourself the tough, specific questions. Remember to be honest and realistic as you answer them: What skills and talents do you have? How many people do you realistically think you will be able to get to help you? What skills and talents will they have? How many hours per week can you devote to the project? How soon do you want to do the project? What is a realistic amount of money you will be able to raise for the project? Do you have any materials at hand that will be helpful? Step 3: Choose a Project List your activity ideas. If you have a group of people you're going to work with, allow them to help yourank the ideasfrom most to least important. Vote on or decide which activity you want to do. Make sure it is reasonable, within your means, and that you can actually make an impact. Be honest with yourself and your group when assessing how to make the most impact. For example, imagine that you have decided to build a home for a homeless family. Would the experience of building the home yourselves add any value for the homeless family? On the flip side, could it cause any harm? Would it be more efficient and beneficial for the family if you simply raised the money for the home and allowed professionals to do the work? Be realistic withyour expectations and honest about the best way to reach your end goal. Step 4: Develop a Plan To start, write down exactly what you are hoping to accomplish. This will includea big-picture goal as well as the specific smaller tasks that you will need to doin order to get to that main goal. You also need to go into the practicalities of the project. How much equipment will you need? How many people will you need to successfully complete each part of the project? How much time can each person commit to the project? How will you organize different volunteers? Remember that you're responsible for the success of the project and one large part of that is that it takes place safely and legally. Do some background work to check out your liabilities and research the potential complications that can arise from the project you're planning. Step 5: Recruit Your Volunteers If you don’t already have a group of people helping you, now is the time to get some people involved. You can advertise in local newspapers, online forums, or websites like VolunteerMatch.org. Also, ask friends and family if they know people who would like to be involved. For each person, make sure that you have their contact information (email and phone number), as well as what areas they are best able to help in (making food, publicity, etc.). Get specific time commitments from your members. How much time can they contribute every week? How much time can they contribute on the day of the event? Make sure they are realistic and don’t commit more than their schedules will allow. Step 6: Make a Budget Now that you know your goals, you have to get specific with how much money is going to be needed to make your plan come to life. There are severalprograms out there that can help you make organized, detailed budgets. You can also do this in Excel or Word. Make sure you list the type of items that you need – be specific! How many will you need of each item? What is the cost per item? What is the total cost? Don’t forget that your budget has to includemore than just the physical items involved in your project. If you need a license to have an event or if you are going to pay someone to make an appearance, that will need to be factored into the budget as well. Finally, be sure to consider practical needs, like the cost of transportation and food on the day of the event for your volunteers. Step 7: Make a Timeline You should already have a rough idea of how long your project will take, but now you need to narrow it down to the specifics. Pick an end date for your project that will give you enough time to put it together. Make sure that the date is approved by all necessary authorities. Make specificschedulesfor each of your volunteers basedon how much time each can contribute. This is important – you don’t want to end up having to do everything yourself at the last minute because you assumed that people would be putting in more hours than they actually can! Try to be realistic with your expectations of what can be accomplished every hour. Markspecific goals on your timeline. By a certain date, a certain amount of the project should be completed, etc. Make note of specific things that are critical to success. What are the dates of fundraising events? When will yousend press releases to the media? Step 8: Raise Money There are a number of ways to raise money: street collection, organized events like raffles or an auction, direct mail donations, asking for contributions through church newsletters,and more. Increasingly, people are raising money through crowdfundingwebsites, such as GoFundMe, CrowdRise, DonorsChoose, or Kickstarter. See if any of these are viable options for your plan. You can also contact local businesses for sponsorship. Offer them some sort of advertisement in return. Whatever you choose to do, you will need to develop a strategy. Decide what your plan of attack will be to raise the amount needed. Top Tips for Raising Money: Get in touch with local officials to see if they have any tips, advice, or restrictions on how you can raise money Check into grants. Many charities will give money to projects that benefit their causes. Try to get money from a variety of sources so that you're not too reliant on just one if it happens to fail. Always have a backup plan. Step 9: Get Publicity Make a list of contacts at TV stations, newspapers, blogs, magazines, and radio stations. You are generally looking for journalists and editors. There are a number of ways you can get in touch with people who might be interested in covering your story. Start by looking for journalists who have written about similar causes or events in the past. You may be able to find an email address or other contact information by looking atpreviously-published articles. You should alsocheck local papers to see if there is information about whom to contact for local stories. Finally, you can search websitessuch as LinkedIn, much of which can be accessed even if you don't have an account. Initial contact can be made through social media (such as Twitter), or you can try to call or email the right people. You'll want to talk with them both about the specifics of the project, and why you're doing it. Make sure you let them know who is going to benefit from your project. Once you have your contacts and they're on board with advertising your project, make sure you stick to your schedule. Send out press releases at the appropriate time. Also, keep your contacts updated with any exciting milestones or achievements (such as reaching your fundraising goal). You can also easily advertise on your own. Set up a social media account (Facebook and/or Twitter) for the event. Make up a catchy hashtag you can use when talking about the event, and try to get others to use it as well. Step 10: Do the Project Now it's time toexecute all of your planning! On the Day of Your Event It may seem like the hard work is done at this point, but the actual event needs to go off without a hitch! The first step is to make sure that as much as possible is done and set up the day before the event. Don’t stress yourself out more than you need to on the day of! It’s also good to send out lots of reminders the day before to volunteers, participants, media,and anyone else whois important. Make sure you have a detailed schedule for what you will do the day of the event.Also, make a list of volunteer contact info, vendor contact info, and who will help in emergencies. Keep this with you at all times. Try to enjoy yourself, but stay on top of how things are progressing! Don’t forget to take pictures and stay active on social media during the event. Congrats on finishing your project! What to Do Afterward Once your project is over, you hopefully have experienced and learned new things. Take some time to reflect on this on your ownand also get feedback from the volunteers and participants. What didn’t go to plan? Consider how you could have done things differently and avoided problems. What went well? Why were those things successful? What have you learned about yourself? This can be many things like teamwork, leadership, or planning skills. Also, make sure you stop andconsider if you actually were successful in your goals. Did you help your target group? How can you tell that you have made progress and an impact? Take notes of these things. Finally, take some time to celebrate. You’ve just undertaken and accomplished something that many people would shy away from. 3Tips to Make Your Project Easier If the abovesteps seem daunting, try some of these tips to help make your project a success: Try setting up your project through your school. This may make it easier for you to recruit fellow students to volunteer for your event, and it can also give you a convenient place to meet to work on theproject. Reach out to a wide range of helpers to work on your project. You can do this by advertising in local newspapers, newsletters, through your city government, or on local websites. When your volunteers have a wide range of skills, it canmake certain tasks - like contacting the media or making a budget - easier because there is a good chance that someone will have done it before. Partner with a local charity or non-profit if you have a mutual cause. The charity may already have registered volunteers so you will have to recruit fewer people, and it may be able to either donate money to your projector have ideasthat will make your fundraising easier. What’s Next? If you would like some inspiration for choosing a community service project, see our list of community service ideas. If you want to learn more about why volunteering might be a good choice for you, check out the benefits of community service for teens. Already done a community service project? Learn how to write about your extracurriculars on your college application. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: