I can’t believe graduation is less then two weeks away. College literally goes by in the blink of an eye. It seems like only yesterday when I arrived at Champlain College to embark on a new chapter in my life. I have spent the past 4 years writing this chapter through my studies, my friendships, and my experience abroad. Now this chapter is finally coming to an end. It was only 15 weeks that I started my blog in hopes to figure out what I wanted to after college. After all of the information I have gathered about traveling and volunteer, I plan on traveling for the month of July to India. While traveling, I will continue to document my journies. 

When Elaine Young told our class that we needed a way to measure the metrics of our blog I was going to rely on my Posterous analytics. However, I realized they did not make much sense. Before he ccc410mkt capstone, I created my Posterous blog for my online visibility class. I had two posts that I created in September. I never left my blog post on Facebook and only tweeted about them once. On my Posterous analytics, it said I had 620 views. Clearly these numbers made no sense. I discovered that Posterous has the feature of setting up a Feedburner and Google Analytics account. On February 7th I created an analytics and feedburner account.

When I was using my feedbuner, I questioned how accurate it was. I would check my Feedburner account every other day. Each time I checked on my status, I would see a different number for subscribers. At one point, my feed claimed that no one was subscribed to my blog. Just like Posterous analytics, Feedburner made me question its accuracy. My experience with Google Analytics was different. This is tool that every company should use. My analytics seemed to vary. It was clear the two weeks I did not blog had affected my analytics. To get more viewers to a blog, you definitely need to keep a consistent flow with posting. In my social media plan, I said I would post three times a week. After spring break I got off track and my views went down. The analytics showed a flat line.  However, the times when I wrote about a personal experience I had abroad or talked about an overseas issue such as the invisible children or Egypt, I had the most clicks. These seemed to be the stories people were mostly interested in. I even got a comment on my post “Volunteerism Being Discouraged in Houston” stating:

It is always important to respond to a blog comment. This is how people build connections with each other. Building connections was something I had been working on the entire semester. One thing I need to focus on is my bounce rate. A good bounce rate averages around 30%. My number was not where near 30 (mine was 78%). Many people reading my blog would only read the newest post and then go to another site. This is something that I still need to work on. What I found interesting with my viewers was which post was the most popular. Out of all my personal experiences with traveling, people responded to my $200 Dollar Cheese Burger Fine. The title alone catches a reader's eye making him or her want to know more. Instead of tweeting, "Check out my blog post" I would create a catchy title to make followers want to click.

A key factor for gaining followers and driving traffic towards my blog was using Facebook and Twitter. Majority of the people who were reading my blog heard new post through Facebook. My blog had an autopost setting that would go straight to my social media networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. After the autopost sent out, I would go to my Twitter account and retweet my post using hashtags to gain more attention to my blog. This was how I got retweeted a few times about my post on Eat Pray Love, Egypt, and Invisible Children. It was always exciting to have my blog retweeted by strangers. 

My experience with blogging was ineteresting. One thing I learned about blgging is you have to blog about something you are passionate about. If you don’t like your topic, you will most likely not feel like blogging. Another thing I learned was not stressing out about number. When I was reading the book, Share This! by Deanna Zandt she said that blogging is quantity, it's about the quality of your posts. If you can get a tight niche group of followers that share same passion as you do, your blog is a success. May blog may have not received many comments, but it was getting retweeted and commented on via Facebook. Gaining followers is something I still need to work on. In the beginning of the year I was on following my friends on their blogs and twitters. To expand my blog I began following more volunteering organizations and people who had a passion to travel. This increased my followers on twitter who could relate to my personal brand. My overall experience with blogging has been positive and I plan to continue with my personal branding project.

School is almost over and move out day is near. Instead of throwing out furniture, clothes, food, empty bottle, and other miscellaneous items that your apartment has collected over the school year, why not donate? You don’t have to volunteer in a different country to help a cause. In Burlington, VT, people have the opportunity

Clothes
Have you gained over the freshman 15? Are there clothes sitting in closest that you haven’t worn in years? Packing and moving away is a great opportunity to get rid of these items. Instead of throwing out your clothes or trying to resell them to places such as Second Time Around and Plato’s Closest, donate them to the Salvation Army or any of the local “Donate Clothes” bins. These clothes will be donated or sold (for a low price) to people with a low income. These clothes bins take any type of clothing items including shoes.

Furniture
One of the biggest struggles of moving out is figuring out the disposal of your furniture? Keep in mind college students: you will receive a fine for leaving unwanted furniture on the sidewalk. Here are a few places in Burlington that are more then happy to take this furniture off your hands:
                     1) Recycle North
                     2) Salvation Army
                     3) Goodwill
                     4) 1-800-GOT-JUNK
Other then 1-800-GOT-JUNK, you don’t need to make an appointment to drop off your furniture. Just get it in the unwanted furniture in your car and drop it off at the drop-off stations there. Don’t worry about removing the furniture by yourself because there is always someone there to help. If you don’t big enough car to make a drop off, Recycle North will schedule a pick up appointment for any furniture or household appliances (washer, dryer, refrigerator, etc).

Food/Bottles
We all have witnessed someone going through our recycling to collected bottles. Basically, recycle nights are gold mines to collecting our 5 cents or 15 cents alcoholic bottle that we consume on the weekends. Help these people out. When you are cleaning up from a long night of partying, separate the recyclables that can be turned into money. Afterwards, place your cash recyclable on the sidewalk. I guarantee within a 30 hours, someone will pick them up. These people need this money more then you do, trust me. Outside of bottles, you should get rid of food you are not going to eat. For example, there are 12 boxes of whole-wheat pasta that has been sitting my pantry since August.  None of my roommates are going to eat all 12 boxes. Instead, we are going to make a meal for COTS. Cooking your unwanted food for organizations such as COTS and Ronald McDonald House is a great way of giving back.

After taking in consideration volunteering in a program such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, I know they are not the programs for me. It takes a lot of dedication to commit to these programs. Not only are volunteers placed in a random countries (not by their choice), but they also have to commit to volunteering for 2-years. Because of the 2-year commitment, I have been reconsidering the long term volunteering programs. Instead, I have been looking at other programs aboard. These programs can range anywhere from 2 weeks to however long you want to stay. Here a few options that I have been considering:

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)
(www.wwoof.org)
WWOOF has numerous volunteering opportunities all over the world. With over 90 countries, 12,000 host, and 400,000 volunteers it great opportunity for people who are traveling arount the world on a budget. Whatever region a volunteer chooses, he/she will be paired with a host family. Here, he/she will be provided free accommodations in exchange for farming on the family’s property. These volunteers will not receive pay for their work, but will have the experience of a lifetime. The only thing WWOOF ask for is a small membership fee.

WorkAway.Info
(www.workaway.info)
The best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the culture. Workaway.info encourages travelers and determine language learners to participate in their program program. Unlike living in a youth hostel or hotel, volunteers are expected to be part of a family. While living with a host family, volunteers are expected to help cook, clean, and help with other house hold task in exchange for free food and board,.Workaway.info is not an agency or volunteer organization. This is a website that enables you to find placements. Contacting the family, getting visa, and finding airfare is all on your own. Like WWOOFing, it is an affordable way to travel and immerse yourself in a culture much different then your own.

Couch Surfing
(www.couchsurfing.org)
When I was abroad in Australia, I met a few people who were “couchsurfing”. Everybody who I met that were members of this organization said it was an economical way to travel. After doing some research, I found that the non-profit is the most affordable, but it does not require any manual labor between host and member. For each positive experience, it will cost the member 24 cents USD. Food is not included into this traveling cost, but people will experience cross-cultural encounters that are fun, engaging, and illuminating.

Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Imagine waking up every morning, walking to school, going to work, then finally traveling back home. Each day you would be walking an average of 6-10 miles. Would you be able to do this routine everyday barefoot? Many children around the world consider walking 6-10 miles barefoot just a regular day.

Hundreds of millions of children are at risk of injury, infection, and soil-transmitted diseases that most can’t afford to prevent and treat. From these injuries and infections children are less likely to attend school and improve their education. Children who have access to an education are more likely to have long-term success. This is why TOMS Shoes has created the event, “One Day Without Shoes.”  People from all over the world participate on April 5th by walking barefoot to create awareness of these rising issue. People can walk barefoot to work/school or even join a “One Day Without Shoes” walk. It doesn’t matter what you are doing or where you are walking, as long as you are barefoot.

On Tuesday April 5, 2011, the city of Burlington, VT held their first “One Day Without Shoes” on Church Street. Even though the weather was dark and rainy, this did not stop students from walking up and down the highly trafficked pedestrian mall. After the barefoot walk, Kayla Hedman, a freshman Champlain College student, collaborated with ECCO Clothes (63 Church St) to create an “Attain Your Sole” event. Kayla reached out to local artist in the Burlington area to design an array of custom TOMS Shoes. The contributing local artists include Jodi Whalen, Joanne Kalisz, Heather LaPietra, Moe O’Hara, Rob Hernandez, Tonya Ferraro, Colin Dees, Nicole D’Agata, Laura Hale, Michael Nedell, Peter Barry, Abbey Schneider, Shawna Cross, and Haley Bishop. During the 6-9PM event at ECCO Clothes refreshments and “sole food” hors’deurve were served to guest visiting/purchasing the custom shoe. Keep in mind, for every pair of shoes sold, TOMS will donate a pair to a child need.

For more information about donating or purchasing a pair of custom designed TOMS Shoes, e-mail Kayla Hedman at kayla.hedman@mymail.champlain.edu.

When traveling to a specific country, it is important to learn and understand their rules and laws. Even in Australia (a place similar to America) their customs and laws are different. Before I left for OZ my study abroad coordinator told me to review the Australian laws and cultures. I ignored him thinking, “How different could Australia be?” Of course I was wrong. After being in Australia for less than a week, I had already broken one law and received a ticket. What was this ticket for? Eating a McDonalds cheeseburger on a train. This was no surprise to any of my friends since everyone knows I LOVE cheeseburgers. Once I had received the fine, I wrote to lovely letter to Queensland Transportation to explain my reasoning behind eating a cheeseburger on a train. Here is my letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

During the date of 27 February 2010, I had received a $200.00 fine for eating on the train. My story begins with me attending the Future Music Festival. This is an all day music festival starting from waking up at 9 AM to leaving the festival at 10 PM. When I arrived at the Central train station after the festival, I could hear my stomach digesting my fat and basically streaming at me “FEED ME”! Being a typical American, I decided to eat every Americans favourite meal, a McDonalds Double Quarter Pounder with cheese. After waiting in line for a good fifteen minutes, I finally received my cheeseburger and it was delicious (Australians can make a good Mackers cheeseburger). It was everything my heart desired and more. When the train had arrived, I had almost finished my cheeseburger. Walking onto the train I took my one last bite of my cheeseburger and sat down in pure satisfaction (God Bless Cheeseburgers).

All of the sudden a man in uniform (at the time I had no idea who he was) asked me, "Are you eating on the train?" I simply replied, "I was" and he proceeded to say I was giving him attitude. The next question that came out of his mouth was if he could see my I.D. I gave him my American drivers license and he asked me where I lived. When I gave him my address, he told me he was giving me a $200.00 fine. I had asked him why I was receiving a fine and he told me I was eating on a train. At first I thought the man was kidding, but when he brought out his ticket book I knew he was serious. After he had given me the fine, he was about to walk off the train with my American drivers license. I said to him, “Excuse me, can I have my I.D. back?” He asked me rudely if I was giving him attitude again and if I wanted another ticket. I told him that it would be very hard for me to get another I.D. since I will be living in the Gold Coast for the next 5 months.

After receiving this ticket I understand that I cannot eat in Australian public transportation. In America, we can eat on trains and buses because we are obese people who enjoy eating our fast food everywhere we go. This law is something that I am not accustom to or even aware of until now. When I had received this ticket, I had arrived in Cairns on 16th February and spent the whole week living with study abroad students in a hostel for AustraLearn student orientation. During my time in Cairns, I only traveled by coach buses provided by the program. It was not until the day of the music festival where I took my very first bus and train to Brisbane. My student orientation never covered the rule about eating on trains; so could I know about this in particular law? I was hoping that you would waive this ticket due to my lack of knowledge. If you were to waive this fine, I promise that I will never eat on any form of Australian public transportation ever again. I have enclosed a copy of my passport and the international stamp from the day I had arrived to prove I have only been in the country for a short period of time. Please understand where I am coming from and sorry for disobeying the law.

Sincerely

Melissa Tiburzio

During the rest of my stay in Australia, I never ate on a train for fear I would receive another fine. Everyday I would run out to the mailbox waiting to see a letter in response to my apology note. However, I had no luck. The Queensland Transportation must have read my letter and thought it was a joke.

 

Where my story begins....Mackers

Me and Kane + Double Quarter Pounders = Total Satisfaction

This is probably the reason why that cop gave me a fine. Don't I look super clean?

How many people go hungry in the Untied States each year? As Americans we take advantage of the opportunities and freedom we have and assume that hunger only affects lower class citizens. This assumption is false. Even though the United States is an amazing country with plenty of opportunities, we have increasing issues involving hunger. Currently, 17.2 million children are at risk of lacking food. Would you ever think a middle class child would say, “I eat less so my sister can have another meal.” Hunger is developing into a crisis. Each year more and more children are lacking food. This affects their learning process. However, the food company ConAgra Foods is working to prevent this issue.

ConAgra Foods has created a campaign called, “Child Hunger Ends Here”. They are working with Feeding America by contributing “250 million pounds of food to Feeding America, and donates an average of one million meals a month. ConAgra is donating one meal — up to 2.5 million meals — for each eight-digit package code, on specially marked ConAgra brands, that is entered on the campaign website” (Olson). Brands such as Banquet, Chef Boyardee, Healthy Choice, Fresh Mixers, Kid Cuisine, Marie Callender’s, and Peter Pan are participating in the eight-digital package code. The marketing campaign will include social media platforms (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook), television special, mobile advertising, and paid digital advertisements.

It is amazing to read about country crisis and how they will be fixed. 10 years ago, people would have gotten their news through television or print. But social media sites and the Internet have made crisis campaigns known within minutes. For example, when the Japanese earthquake occurred, 2 hours late South By Southwest created a Twitter campaign #sxswcares. Whenever people used this hashtag, they could be informed about new information on Japan and what they can do to help. By having ConArga introduce the mobile advertising (texting to donate money) and spreading the word tweeting, people will become quickly informed about this cause.

http://www.childhungerendshere.com

Imagine graduating from college and traveling to Uganda with the plan to film a documentary. You don’t know what you will be filming. But you are determined other to find some groundbreaking story about the hidden holocaust in this country.

Three boys from California made this dream into a reality. Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole They hopped on a plan and flew over 6,000 miles to arrive in Kenya, Africa. Instead experiencing luxurious hotels and visiting tourist desinations, they witnessed pain and suffering from not only adults, but also the children of Africa. The boys had finally discovered their documentary story when they traveled to Northern Uganda and stopped in town called Gulu. In the middle of the night children would travel into the city. These children were called night commuters. Each night they would walk many miles to avoid abduction from leader from a rebel leader Joseph Kony. Joseph is head of the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) and is responsible for stealing children in the middle of the night and turning them into soldiers. The ‘Invisible Soldiers’ (also the name of the documentary) ranged from the ages 5-12. This age made for the best soldiers since they were not too small to hold guns and it was easy to abduct them. Once these children were abducted, they were tortured and taught to kill. When children were not night commuting into the city, they were displacement camps with adults where conditions are horrible and there are no schools or jobs. Here is the trailer:

Yesterday, 3/20/2011 Champlain College held a screening of this inspiring documentary. If you have missed your chance to see Invisible Children, check out the follow up documentary called Tony, which will be held in Hauke Conference Room at 11:00AM. While Jason, Bobby, and Laren were filming, they met an unforgettable boy named Tony. Seven years later, Tony came to America to be the voice of the Ugandan children. This film documents his journey in America and the struggles he will face heading back to Uganda.

How can you help? Spread the word, raise money, and participate in the next event. On April 25th, participants  will be silent for 25 hours. What will this do? Give the victims of the LRA a voice. Check out how you can get involved:

When I came back from study abroad, people asked me what was my favorite part about studying aboard. Everyone expected me to say one of the exotic vacations I took or the extreme sports I participated in such as bungee jumping and skydiving. However, I always respond with the same answer, “It’s the people I have met.”

While I was living in Surfer’s Paradise Australia, I managed to find my dream wedding singer. Every Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday my friends and I would end up at an Irish bar called O’Malleys. O’Malley’s had the most beer on tap, the strongest drinks, and the best live music. The live music would get everyone’s dance juices flowing and singing voices warmed up. Jo Bos is no ordinary one man band, he will make sure you get up and dance by luring you in by playing the musical classics of Sex On Fire by Kings of Leon, Don’t Stop Believing by Journey, and Livin’ On a Pray by Bon Jovi. After having the pleasure to dance and sing-a-long with Jo Bos, I look forward to the day I ask him to sing at my wedding.

 Another interesting character I met during my travels was Captain Mark. He was a pilot from the states that volunteered to drive us girls around Frasier Island. Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Instead of staying at luxurious hotels, everyone camps out on the island. While being on the island Keep in mind, having seven girls in a car can sometimes be too much estrogen for one male, but not Mark. The Captain loved us and put up with all of our silly antics including sharing food with the dingoes, listening to the Spice Girls, and forcing him do to say the standard airline caption speech (as seen in the video).

The people that have made the biggest impact in my life while traveling are my friends that were also studying abroad. We have a strong bond that called the ‘Garty’. Our tagline for our friend was, “Hannah Garty knows how to Party.” This was the tagline to our friendship and summed up our Aussie lives. When the Garty gets together we share our memories and how will all miss Australia. When people study abroad they tell you you get culture shock. I didn’t believe it until I came back to the states and all I wanted to talk about was Australia. Having my study abroad friends eased the culture shock. You would think our friendships would change in the states, but we are just as close and crazy. "Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to find" ~Randolf, G.

The Garty Creamin' at The Creamfields

Have you ever walked down the street and had a stranger say, "Hey beautiful what are you doing tonight other then me?" Yes this is one of the many pick-up lines that men use to "swoon" women, but would you consider it sexual harassment? All over the world, businesswomen and travelers are experienced some for form of harassment. Sexual harassment is not just physical action it is also verbalized. The problem with sexual harassment is many women feel uncomfortable to talk about their own experiences with being harassed because in their minds, being verbally harassed it is not a big deal in comparison to being physically taken advantage of. These women struggle with the idea to friends, family, or even the police about these incidents. Some women have become so uncomfortable about verbal sexual harassment, that when it comes they won’t feel safe enough to leave their hotels. This is why IHollaBack.org and Stopstreetharassment.com are using social networking outlets. These are safe forums/blogs where women that can express their feelings and share personal stories about their own sexual harassment encounter. Some people feel more comfortable to blog about their issues then to verbalize. This is a place where women from all over the world can share their travel experiences and sexual harassment stories.

After reading the article "Keeping Women Safe Through Social Networking" by Joe Sharkey, it made me think my own personal experiences with traveling and verbal sexual harassment. When I was studying abroad in Australia, my friend Nina Born and I experienced quite a bit of “verbal sexual harassment.” When we would walk to class, the main street we took would always have men honking and screaming out the window sexist and inappropriate comments at us. We would always comment that Australians like to hit on girls, but never did I consider this sexual harassment. The times that I have felt uncomfortable was in night clubs when men would say how beautiful I was and would try grabbing me. This is why it is important for women to travel with another person. If women are traveling by themselves, they should always be careful and be prepared for these issues. 

 

Feed a Friend of Houston was organized by Bobby and Amanda Herring in hopes to help feed the homeless population. Each day, the Feed a Friend program provides 60-120 dinners everyday for the past year. Even though this program sounds like a good cause, the city of Houston disagrees.

Instead of encouraging a program that feeds people in need, the city of Houston feels the program lacks the proper permit to give food to other people. The program is being forced to shut down if they do not obtain a proper permit. This permit will acknowledge the fact that the Herring are preparing the programs meals in a certified kitchen under the supervision of a certified food manager. Feed a Friend acquires/relies on food donations from local businesses. Once the gather the food, Amanda Herring along with numerous volunteers prepare the food in their own private kitchens. "We don't have meetings. We don't have a strategy. We're not experienced in this," Herring said. "It's just out of love."

In a CNN interview, Kathy Barton of the Health and Human Services department said, "The Houston Food Ordinance applies the same standards of food preparation and service for free food and purchased food. We do not have different standards of sanitation and food protection for poor people than those for people with money." However, there has been no reported health issues or illnesses after the consumption of these meals.

How can the government stop people who are trying to assist in a good cause? In American society we are constantly worrying about germs, diseases, and unhealthy conditions. We never stop to realize the rest of the world is not this clean. As the saying goes, a speck of dirt will not harm you. The volunteers cooking in these kitchens act as if they were cooking for themselves. They make sure to wash their hands and keep a clean cooking space (this is natural instinct). The city of Houston needs to focus less on health issues and focus on the real issue of the increasing population of homeless people who go without meals each day. They should be encouraging more volunteers like Bobby and Amanda Herring rather then discouraging them.