Showing posts with label wharton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wharton. Show all posts

Friday, November 30, 2012

#AdoptHope Wrap-Up

Wharton students, left to right: Natalie, Ainsley, Armin, Nilesh, Kashfia 

Our #AdoptHope event held at Shops at Liberty Place last week was a huge success in spreading awareness about the many children in foster care who await the love and support of a forever family. Many passers-by were given the opportunity to ask questions they had about adoption and foster care, pick up pamphlets provided by several different adoption agencies, and gather information on the many children that we work with here at the National Adoption Center.

The goal of this event was to educate others about adoption through the use of informative resource tables and provide interactive activities that reveal surprising myths and facts adoption. NAC staff, our Philly Fellow got to working side-by-side with students from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to create this event. We are extremely pleased that we had the opportunity to celebrate National Adoption Month with others in the community and continue to push forward with public awareness initiatives.
        
Quote from Brittani, Wharton student and event performer, “I know I personally learned a lot about adoption and so did the rest of the team, which is awesome because now we will be able to educate others”
Myra, Adoptive mother of special needs children, and Beth, NAC's Marketing Director
                                   
We had a scrapbook where people could record their thoughts about adoption and family, here are a few of the messages left:

“Special children need special homes”

“I definitely want to adopt someday”

“It’s a wonderful thing”

What would be your message?

Monday, November 19, 2012

#AdoptHope

from a team of Management 101 students who have been working on a project to assist us & who have worked with our Philly Fellow and our Marketing Manager

Throughout the past two months, our team [from UPenn, Wharton] has thoroughly enjoyed working with the National Adoption Center to organize the #AdoptHope event, a public awareness event that will be held today Monday, November 19 at Liberty Place in Center City Philadelphia.

Adoption has closely touched the lives of many of our team members, so we’re truly excited to have had the opportunity to help NAC celebrate National Adoption Month on their 40th anniversary.

Our event’s goal is to educate people about adoption through the use of informative resource tables and interactive activities that debunk surprising myths and facts about adoption. We will also have live entertainment from students of the University of Pennsylvania and a raffle with a chance to win some great prizes. As guests leave the event, we hope that they will take a minute to share their experiences with adoption or something they have learned by writing in our “Share Your Story” scrapbook or conducting an interview that will feature in a future promotional video.

This experience, from the inception of the initial concept to the creation of the final posters, has helped us to realize the dedication and organization that go into planning an event. The work of the National Adoption Center is truly inspiring, and it was an honor to be part of this exciting time for them. Although we were already passionate about adoption going into this project, we have learned so much by taking on this project and hope that our guests will also be inspired to support the National Adoption Center in their mission to help thousands of youth #AdoptHope.

Friday, September 21, 2012

Philly Fellow Update

continuation of Abi's experiences while being a Philly Fellow for us...

Sept 11, Beth and I went to UPenn’s Wharton School of Business to present the National Adoption Center to a Management 100 class as one of six potential non-profits that students could team with for a project. Out of eight of the non-profits, six are selected to participate in this project. We felt confident about NAC’s selection odds because NAC stood out—after all, without supportive families themselves the students might not have accomplished as much as they have, which is something I’m constantly reminded of when I hear stories about waiting children—and the organization participated in the Wharton assignment in previous years. The representative(s) of each non-profit spoke about their organization’s mission, what they envisioned the projects would look like, and what they expected the end result would be. Each 4.5 minute presentation was followed by 4.5 minutes of Q & A. Our presentation went very well, and a few students came over afterward to ask additional questions. Two of them spoke of how they had been personally affected by adoption.

Shortly after this, we found out that we were selected for the project! (It will be NAC’s third year working with Wharton students.) Our next meeting will be with the group of students with which we’ve been partnered. This is an important meeting where we will hash out ideas for the public relations event. We need to think about scale, audience, cost, location, feasibility, etc. Helping to plan and execute the event will be an educational experience for me, and I look forward to getting started. Whatever the event ends up looking like, our starting point as always is the goal of increasing public awareness of children awaiting permanent homes.