As the news school year begins, I wanted all of you – Fellows and Fellows aspirants alike – to know about some Paterno Fellows opportunities for service. These activities could be a part of your leadership and service commitment, and/or they could just be a source of fun and friendships for you. None of them will feel like Work, I promise you that. It’s all about involvement and connecting.
I look forward to hearing from a great many of you. Here’s what I need:
Bloggers
In order to facilitate communications among Fellows, I’d like to have a small corps of 4-6 bloggers who would contribute on a regular basis to this blog space. You would comment on things that you are doing (e.g., studying abroad; or searching for an appropriate place to study abroad; or registering frustration about something related to study abroad); offer news reports, so to speak, on Fellows activities–with photos or podcasts, if you’d like (we have some nifty equipment that you can try out); or share personal reflections (or responses to other blog posting or things in the news) on anything that seems relevant to you. Think of this as a fun activity for those of you who enjoy blogging. You can commit to posting as frequently as you would like. And note that what you contribute could go toward fulfillment of the Excellence in Communication Certificate. Some of you (e.g., Presidential Leadership Academy members) are already blogging for other groups: if so, you could contribute those same blogs (or some of them) to the Paterno Fellows blog as well. How about it?
You can take a look at Associate Dean Long’s video on social media to get an idea of what we are looking for.
Advisory Board Members
Two Paterno Fellows Advisory Board members are continuing from last year, but I need two or three more of you to advise me on activities, make suggestions, and help to iron out matters of policy. Time commitment: meeting every two weeks (usually 30 minutes); occasional follow up actions that are called for (e.g., in order to make a certain activity happen). But the main commitment is in the form of advice giving, and the time required isn’t large. You would be a means of ensuring that the Paterno Fellows Director hears regularly from Paterno Fellows themselves–and that he listens.
5K Run Organizers
I anticipate that Paterno Fellows will be playing a major role in helping Sue Paterno to pull off for a second time the charity 5K run for Special Olympics–the one that she organized for the first time during last year’s Blue White Weekend in April. A dozen of you helped out for several hours last April; depending on your response I now envision the possibility of a more elaborate role for Paterno Fellows that would involve you in planning, publicizing, and executing the event, working directly with Sue Paterno. I hope that between 6 and 12 of you will be interested in this role: it’s nothing as elaborate as THON, but there will be opportunities for you to make a significant difference by taking on roles of significant responsibility. And over time, this has the potential to grow into a major philanthropy that you can be proud of.
Paterno Ambassadors
Paterno Ambassadors (we’ll need to find a better name) would assist in recruitment of new students, and they would meet on occasion with alumni “friends of the Paterno Fellows” who want to meet individual Paterno Fellows so they can understand the program better. Sometimes you’d work individually, sometimes in groups; sometimes you’d speak with individuals, sometimes you’d speak to groups. Time commitment is not great,and it’s an opportunity for you to polish your “public presentation” skills.
Please let me know by the end of next week if you have an interest in any of these activities. Just email me at jselzer@psu.edu. You can volunteer for more than one thing, if you wish. And if you need more information before you can make a commitment, that’s fine: just let me know that you’d like to know more.