Volunteering with GE

Are New Year’s Resolutions on your mind?  What will it be this year: work out?  Get in shape?  Lose 10 pounds?  Eat healthier?  It’s great to think about what you can do to improve your own lifestyle, but what about goals focused on those around you?  Add volunteering to that short list of goals for 2012!  Giving back to the community and to those less fortunate should always be at the front of our minds.  Volunteering, community service, and giving back is a pillar of the GE culture across all businesses.  Whether it’s a small activity with just a few ITLPs, a large event with GE Volunteers, or simply something you took the initiative to do on your own, getting involved in the community is supported by team members and managers alike.  It’s estimated that 100,000 GE employees volunteer annually, contributing to one million hours every year.  GE employees and retirees can participate with strategic volunteering partners or GE-wide initiatives.  Regardless of your interests and passions, GE fosters volunteer opportunities in education, healthcare, the environment, and community development.

© Getty ImagesAt GE Healthcare in Milwaukee, I have found an organization called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) that goes into the classrooms and helps students in those focal areas.  Assisting students on their projects and getting them excited about these disciplines is a fun way to leverage a skill I have and get involved with a passion of mine.  I always enjoy going back to the school, visiting the kids, and seeing what is on their minds for that week.  Additionally, we also try to discuss how studying and working hard now can help them with a career later.  Sharing personal experiences and informing them of their options motivates them to look beyond today and think about long-term goals.  Serving as a resource to these students – whether as a tutor or a mentor – is entirely rewarding.  Add ‘volunteering’ to your 2012 New Year’s Resolution, take an hour or so out of your weeks, and make an impact in your community!

Bridgeport Rescue Mission Volunteer Day

On Wednesday, July 14, a group of Corporate IMLPs and interns volunteered on four-hour shifts at the Bridgeport Men’s Rescue Mission in Bridgeport, CT. The first shift began at 8am despite some heavy rain at the time! We met up with Marion Schrade, a manager at the Mission who introduced us to many of the Mission’s residents. She then took us on a tour of the facility, taking us through the kitchen that serves over 1,400 meals a day, the event room which serves as both a classroom and spiritual room, and the various housing sections of the facility which house both short term and longer term residents. It was very interesting to learn about this complex operation and the services that it provides.

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IMLPs Teach 1st Grade with the Junior Achievement Program and Sparks Elementary School

Family. Wants. Needs. Jobs. Education.

These were the focus points of their lessons as 8 IMLPs, myself included, took to Sparks Elementary School in Stamford, CT to teach the 6 first grade classes there. 

Walking into the building, we were surrounded by memories of our youth… the colored in snowmen from Mr. So-and-so’s class taped on the wall, the cut out construction paper traced-hands with names on them put on the hallway cork board outside of Mrs. Whats-her-name’s office, the miniature water fountains outside the bathrooms and mystery meat lunches being announced over the school PA system… ah, those were the days.  Putting aside the nostalgia, we bravely took to the classrooms, armed only with our wits… and step-by-step lesson plans complete with activity books, posters, hand-outs, and everything we could possibly need.  Okay – so it wasn’t quite as challenging of work as we’re used to everyday, but boy was it fun.

The first lesson was about Families.  Here we got to talk about different types of families, how they work together, different jobs in the families, and how everyone has to do their part to make it work… even if sometimes it’s not fun (like doing chores).  The first graders were very interactive and eager to participate, which really made it fun.

The second lesson was on Wants vs. Needs. Here we talked through what a “want” is and what a “need” is and how many things may seem like needs, but can really be done without (like TV, cars, and toys).   This lesson was neat in that we got the children very involved, allowing them to draw, color, and play a wants vs. needs flashcard game.

The third lesson was about Jobs.  Here we told the kids what we did for a living and went on to show how important jobs are.  Taking it another level, we talked a bit through how education allows them to get good jobs.  We made it fun by having the children talk about jobs that they’ve done or that people in their families do.  We even got to use a large poster that students could come up to and point out people doing jobs on.

The fourth lesson got the children to design their own city.  The children put buildings wherever they wanted on a map and then got to explain why they did it the way they did (everyone put the candy store next to their house so that they could go there every day).  From this, we talked about how the city works well thanks to a bunch of people doing different jobs for each other and helping each other out.  We also got the kids thinking about what they want to be when they grow up and had them create their own business in their city.

The last lesson tied things up by talking about how good jobs allow you to get money, which helps your family and allows them to satisfy their needs and (after satisfying their needs) their wants.  It worked to show the class that a good education is the key to a good job.  Once again though, we got to make it a fun, interactive lesson by making it into a game of charades wherein people acted out jobs and got paid for them if “they did a good job” and someone guessed what they were.

Overall, the day was a riot.  These kids were so eager to participate and so much fun to teach.  They caught onto the lesson ideas quickly and were really smart too.  The whole day, in fact, was a fun time and a rewarding experience.  Just to see their smiling faces and fuel their energetic spirits was well worth it.  I think I speak for all of the IMLPs involved when I say it really was a great day.

Hahn takes gaming to a new level.

"Brandon Hahn demonstrating a new technology at the iFairWhoever said that nothing productive came out of playing games clearly never met an IMLP.

Brandon Hahn, a current IMLP with GE Healthcare, used a little imagination at work to combine a few everyday technologies with new software to create something truly inventive and engaging.

Hahn was looking for a better way to present at the iFair, a a science and technology career fair in Milwalkee.

Hoping  to circumvent the typical problem of walking back and forth to the computer to switch applications or draw on the screen, the WiiMote SmartBoard was born.

To create this new fusion of technologies, Brandon combined the following items:

• Laptop with Bluetooth Connection
• Projector
• Nintendo Wii Remote (Wiimote)
• Infrared Pen
• Wiimote Whiteboard Software (Open Source)
  

But how did he find this stuff? Hahn recalled hearing about the software from a former college professor, and found information on the WiiMote Project via a Carnegie Mellon student's website.

According to Hahn, it works because "the Wiimote has an infrared webcam in it, which is capable of tracking up to 4 infrared light sources as any point.  When you aim the Wiimote at the screen, it looks for the light from the pen.  The four-corner calibration matches the Wiimote’s field of vision to the computer screen as projected by the projector."

If you're looking for whiteboard capabilities without having to set up any software (or if you don't own a Wiimote, check out GE's free whiteboard application at http://imaginationcubed.com/)

Atlanta IMLPs Learn Skills from Ludacris' Top Chef

Atlanta IMLPs Take a Cooking ClassAtlanta IMLPs visited Cooks Warehouse in Midtown Atlanta to pick up a few cooking tips from Straits chef Tyson Wong Ophaso.  As a chef from Ludacris' restaurant, Straits, Tyson volunteered his time to teach a class where all the proceeds went to a local charity.

At the class,  IMLPs watched how to make the famous Banana Blossom Salad, (Banana Flowers, Grilled Chicken, Asian Pear, Herbs, Vietnamese Vinaigrette) and Ludacris' favorite dish (according to the chef), Kung Pao Lollipops (chicken drummies, crushed peanuts, red jalapeno).

But it was more than watching... the IMLPs ate the food too. Even the vegetarian in the group was able to join in and eat some of the sample food from Straits.