Throughout this time period of planning and hosting this conference my group and I experienced lots of bumps in the road but worked through them to make this conference the best that it could be. Throughout this project I have played many vital roles whether it be reaching out to a variety of different yoga instructors, creating a gofundme, or keeping everyone on task and aware of due dates. My most important role has been to track down a yoga instructor for one of our stations. This task was hard because our event was during the day and many instructors work or have kids, so they weren't available. Through a stream of connections, I was able to find a yoga instructor who happened to have a daughter at Austin High. I worked with this instructor to keep her informed and aware of what our project was about and what our goals are. I was also in charge of finding items we could put in the gift bags for the women. We had to plan for 100 women so we had to buy in bulk, but with the use of our fundraising money this all worked out. My group and I feel we made a significant impact in our community locally by bringing these women together, allowing them to be exposed to different part of their community, and meeting new people. Regionally we became more aware of government housing and the different processes there are to live in government housing. We also crushed some stereotypes of government housing and educated others with our project. Globally we educated ourselves and others and we hope that this event is ran annually and will eventually spread to other states and communities so they can offer this to their community. With the political climate being what it is at, I believe we are making a difference in such a way that makes these women feel more empowered and comfortable in their bodies. My expectations for the take action is that it would have been more organized but of course with so many people and different activities it is hard to facilitate every person. In the end, I think it was better unorganized because some women felt uncomfortable in certain stations, but we still encouraged stepping out of their comfort zone. The outcome of the conference was terrific. Many women showed up ready to have fun, many enjoyed each satiation and really gained something from being there. We ended up having a lot more raffle baskets and gift cards to give away than expected but that encouraged more women to come and stay the whole time. During the conference, I was running around helping who ever needed it. I helped Tammy, our yoga instructor, to understand the game plan and what all will go down and what time everything is happening. I helped check women in and give them their beads and brochure. I also stayed at the facials and pampering station for a while and got to listen to many of these women's story's. Many women had so much to say and wished us well on our journey to college and I felt like we made a big impact on their day. As I was doing nails at this station many women would open up and tell us about their day, their family, and their life growing up. Many of them shared their life with me even though I am a stranger they have never met me before, and this was really touching because I felt trusted. Although the Santa Rita Courts held this conference last year, I feel that this year really set the bar for the following years and each year it will get better and better and these women will have a lot to look forward to. Community played a large role in our conference because it took a lot of volunteers, donations, reaching out to other housing communities, and the help of many local businesses to help us pull this conference together. We saw such an amazing community of women come together at the conference and I know many people made some new friendships or made old friendships stronger. I am glad I was apart of this process of bringing women together and empowering them and watch them empower others with their strength. Our community choices affected our conference in everyday. Although we did a lot of fundraising, we still had extra expenses we had to cover in order to make this conference the best that it could be. Without our community we would never have gotten together 14 raffle baskets and 20 gift cards for us to raffle off to these women, we wouldn't have had mini lush shower gels donated, we wouldn't have had an amazing yoga instructor, and we wouldn't have been able to buy food or drinks or these women. Without our community the conference would not have been able to reach its full potential. Many people chipped in to this conference and helped make it a great turnout. If people weren't willing to give up their time and make some donations we would not have had such a high turn out. Our community really played a vital role in this conference and its success. Along the way we changed and altered some of the stations because many people we reached out to were not available. We also juggled what we wanted to put in the gift bags and gift baskets and where we would get the gift cards to raffle off. The day of the conference we also changed the way we did our raffle because we realized we couldn't read many people handwriting. From this experience I learned that if you are looking for resources it is easiest to reach out to a variety of different people because they may have resources and experts that will help you. I learned what it means to belong to such a loving community of women who empower each other. I have learned For the future, I have learned how to manage my time when planning something like a conference. If I did this over again I would do the social circles differently because they were a little unorganized. This would help structure the conference more and make it more organized. I would also ask people to volunteer their time and help run some of the stations. Overall the conference was a big success and it warmed my heart to see all the women so happy.
Anne Marie's Reflection
Developing and organizing a conference for nearly one hundred women was an extremely time consuming and difficult task, yet I have never been so content and proud of something the way I am with the Santa Rita conference. Through contacting donors and speakers, creating gift bags, and documenting the event, I have contributed to an experience that the women who attended will value for years to come. Our group worked to impact a small number of local lives and the conference successfully allowed women to put their mind and body at ease and focus on themselves, which was our goal. Although a small housing community in East Austin may seem insignificant when it comes to implementing change, if just one woman feels more confident with her lifestyle choices and has a healthier outlook on life then we have succeeded. I was lucky when working with my team in that we were each extremely motivated to accomplish an effective conference. Even so, being seniors, we each have many other engagements, so communicating times for meetings at Santa Rita was definitely a tough detail to sort out. We had to learn each others schedules and be patient when not everyone could make a certain meeting date. Through our project, I know that by just telling someone that you are looking out for them you have the power to boost their spirits and productivity. Maybe organizing large events isn’t my forte, but I wouldn’t redo how we organized our conference. Although, if I assisted with Santa Rita’s women’s conference in the future, I would recommend reaching out to as many organizations as possible for keynote speakers in order to make sure the ladies stay engaged. This project has made me a stronger seventeen year old girl in that it has showed me the beauty in supporting fellow women, no matter the age differences, and how truly important it is to encourage women to love ourselves.
Taking on such a difficult Capstone project was intimidating at first, when I first realized how much planning and organization was going to have to go into this I was worried. Although we faced many challenges, putting this conference together was an extremely rewarding process and seeing it all come together in the end made it all worth it. The women were all so happy to be there, and although it was a little chaotic at first we were able to organize them and make sure they were all being taken care of so they can focus on themselves. I spent most of my time at the conference running the pampering station, where I helped the women apply face masks and painted their nails. While doing this, I got to have conversations with many of the women and hear about their lives. Many of them told me that I reminded them of their daughters or granddaughters, and we were able to bond and connect over this. It was so cool getting to know these women and it offered me a new perspective of Austin and life that I don't normally think about. Because our group knew how important it was to these women to pull off a successful conference, we were pretty motivated to get everything done. We worked very well together and spent weekends and after schools either at Santa Rita or shopping for supplies. We stayed in contact through text and always divided up our work evenly. The only challenge I'd say we faced was coordinating times to meet with everyones busy schedules, often times all four of us were not able to attend every meeting. We all made our best effort to do what we could and that's the most important thing. Putting on this conference taught me that making an impact on a small group of people can make a big difference in their lives. Many of the women left feeling hopeful about their future, and that's all we could have asked for.
Annie's Reflection
When I first started Capstone I wasn't sure what issue I wanted to address, or even what demographic. After meeting Lupe and the other wonderful women at Santa Rita I found the direction I needed. Before this project government housing was an issue that I didn't think about and, as one of the less talked about issues, didn't know anything about. After working with the ladies at Santa Rita, I've not only learned about government housing, but also about the perspective from the people in government housing. When we first met Lupe, her ideas and hopes for the Women's Conference were intimidating, and I wasn't sure if we were going to meet her expectations. To me, the thought of raising enough money and reaching out to businesses for donations seemed too good to be true, but we still put tried as hard as we good. Our efforts were rewarded with enough money to pay for all our expenses and even more. We were also able to get support from businesses such as HEB, Juan in a Million, Yoga Yoga, and Wal-Mart. The help we received changed my perspective on volunteering and making a difference in my community. Seeing a community come together to help people has shown me the possibilities for outreach that before seemed unapproachable. During the conference I helped out with the yoga stations. While the women were practicing healthy exercises, they talked about their own struggles and how being here helped encourage them to keep trying. Throughout the conference I overheard many conversations from excited women, but I also heard many conversations from women suffering from incredible hardships. Being able to talk with, and get close to the women I was trying to help really helped me realize the impact I was making. This realization has made me appreciate volunteering much more than before when my impacts wan't as direct. This project has encouraged me to start looking fo rmy ways to volunteer in, and take part in, my own communities.