YMCA: A Personal Look at Helping Communities

Getting to Know the YMCA

The YMCA is one of the largest and well known non-profit organizations in the United States.  Their presence is seen throughout local communities and national campaigns.  The YMCA organization has teamed with Walmart to fight child hunger and voiced support for Michelle Obama’s Partnership for Healthier America initiative.  While most people are aware of the YMCA, few understand it from an “inside” view.  One of these few is Stephanie Crockett, a 21-year-old YMCA employee.  Stephanie has worked for YMCA for the past four years as a lifeguard, swim coach, and mentor.  The organization’s mission is “to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all” (YMCA, 2012).  Stephanie has seen that this mission is pursued and maintained and her personal experiences support the YMCA’s mission to help local communities.

Getting to Know Stephanie Crockett

Sporting her YMCA gear

Stephanie beams when she talks about her various experiences at the YMCA.  Her story there began when she started babysitting for children whose father worked as a director of the local chapter of YMCA.  As Stephanie grew close with the family, she realized that she loved taking care of children and being with them as they developed and learned.  This prompted her to apply for the lifeguard position at the YMCA in her home state of Michigan.  Stephanie explained that YMCA practices four to five core values, including respect, responsibility, honesty, caring, and faith.  However, depending on the area, some branches do not actively follow the “faith” value.  Stephanie notes, “Some choose to treat YMCA as a ‘gym and swim’, yet having ‘faith’ cut does not impact how the organization as much as one would think.”  It comes down to the actions of each employee, whether they are pursuing the Christian lifestyle or not.  Children’s lives are being impacted and this is not an area to take lightly.  For Stephanie, it is the moment when she can see the look on a child’s face when they realize that they can swim because it gives them confidence and a feeling of self-worth.  Through this, Stephanie’s own goals have aligned with the goals of the YMCA organization.  While Stephanie understands that some parts of the YMCA are losing the Christian principles they were based upon, she continues to speak frankly about her faith.  Regarding faith in her workplace, Stephanie says, “Hopefully, others see that YMCA means more than just a job to me.  I feel comfortable at YMCA to talk about my faith if the situation arises since YMCA was founded on Christian beliefs.”  Stephanie wishes to work as “Executive Director of Camping Services” which is a management-level position within YMCA.  She now has skills, like risk-management and leadership skills, that she can apply to her career.

Overall, it seems that though faith is being forgotten on a larger sense, employees like Stephanie can effectively mentor children through loving actions and not just branding them with Christian ideas that they might not yet understand.  Stephanie sees the importance of Christian principles and does want them to play a part in her career at YMCA.  Stephanie passionately describes her plans, “YMCA does help families and build character.  I am disappointed that YMCA doesn’t always follow Christian values; however if I were in a management position, I would refocus standards to reflect Christianity and reinforce Christian values.”  From my interactions with Stephanie, I have seen that she is already reinforcing Christian values by her kind actions and words towards those she works with.  This, in itself, upholds the YMCA’s original stance to practice Christian principles to build a healthy community.

Conversing with friends about YMCA

Plundering Through Blogs

Understanding What Journalism Blogs Have to Offer

Photo Credit:  http://www.unmsp.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/journalist.png 

Sifting through blogs can be taxing.  Which ones are relevant to the subject at hand?  Which ones provide the clearest and most factual information?  Obviously, all blogs are not the same.  Each will provide a different level of importance to any research we are conducting. 

A credible blog regarding journalism is Paul Bradshaw’s Online Journalism Blog.  From the very first page, his blog is crisp and simple.  As a reader scrolls down the page, they would see graphs and pictures that support Bradshaw’s writing.  This effectively adds multimedia to his blog without compromising its simplicity.  Bradshaw uses many hyperlinks so that readers can research additional information without having to go far from his blog.  The comments on the blog posts are numerous and add to the substance of Bradshaw’s website.  Bradshaw’s writing is also simple and clear-cut.  It is not difficult to understand his message.  This journalism blog, however, could use more vibrancy.  Due to the black and white color scheme, it feels almost like reading a print newspaper.  Online publications require more multimedia to keep the reader interested.  Bradshaw could utilize a more interactive medium, like video blogging, to add visuals to his blog.  However, he does use Twitter and Facebook to his advantage, which brings him more viewers.

BuzzMachine is a great blog for journalists and citizens who are interested in politics.  The blog is mediated by Jeff Jarvis, a writer and professor who is interested in writing in the digital age.  Jarvis’s blog is very visually pleasing.  There are quite a few pictures in addition to the written content and there is a cartoon-y header of a printing press that adds a bit of novelty to the blog.  One aspect of the blog that may turn off some readers is the length of the blog posts.  Jarvis does use an incredibly large amount of hyperlinks.  This does two things for his blog:  it lets the readers know that Jarvis is researching the topic and it provides backup information.  Jarvis also reaches out to users of Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.  This will allow Jarvis to connect with his viewers.

I discovered a journalism blog by Assistant Professor at The University of Southern Mississippi's School of Mass Communication and Journalism, Gina Masullo Chen.  The blog is called Save the Media.  Right away, Chen’s blog drew me in with its visuals.  The blog header is of newspapers, which is both cool and relevant.  The blog posts range from short blurbs to long, detailed posts.  Topics range from social media ethics to Apple products to using Twitter hashtags properly.  This blog, as compared to the others discussed earlier, is more to guide and assist journalists rather than provide information for the masses.  Chen uses witty and snarky remarks regarding her subjects.  The multimedia on her blog mostly consists of pictures and screen shots in order to further explain any subject she is writing on.  Another multimedia aspect that Chen uses is a list of other journalism blogs that readers can visit.  She even lists Jarvis’ Buzz Machine!  This is another form of support for the blog since Chen creates a community of other credible bloggers.  A recommendation for this blog would be the number of posts made.  Chen does not post frequently, which might drive away frequent visits to the blog.             

Each of these blogs adds a personal note to the very public field of journalism.  It is interesting to see the perspective of each writer and how they incorporate their style of writing to the subject of journalism.  

Photo Credit: http://www.empowernetwork.com/embellishedminds/blog/jobs-for-journalism-majors/