Project Proposal

Project Members: Grace Dreher

Project Name: The Venezuelan Crisis

1. Provide a brief summary of your service-learning project.

- For my service-learning project I will create posters with images depicting the crisis in
Venezuela. I will take these posters and place them all over the school. Each poster will relate to
the typical Taft student and hopefully it will persuade them to donate money to help relieve some
of the suffering in Venezuela.

2. What global issue does your project address?

- For my service-learning project I would like to address the crisis in Venezuela. People in
Venezuela currently do not have access to adequate food, medicine, or household products.
These are things are vital to survival, and unfortunately without these items the quality of
someone's life is diminished greatly. In more extreme cases, lack of food or medicine can lead
people to perish simply because they are not granted basic human necessities. This problem is
multifaceted and cannot be solved in one fell swoop, but I believe raising awareness about the
topic and prompting people to donate the cause is paramount in the fight against this important
issue.

3. What GLS Standards does this project address? Please list all of them by number.
1. Social Entrepreneurship: By creating an initiative to raise money and promote awareness for this
problem I am carrying out a social entrepreneurial mission because I am combining a service-
learning project with research and an end goal of making money for a cause.
2. Identity: By forcing Taft students to realize their own identity as privileged children who are
fortunate enough to go to prep school, hopefully it will inspire them to help others in the world
who are not as fortunate as they are.
3. Education: My posters will inform and educate the Taft community about the issues going on in
Venezuela. They will have pictures, which will show suffering, and the words on the posters will
contain quick facts about the country.
4. History: A combination of bad leadership, decreased success in the oil industry, and corruption in
government has left Venezuelan people almost destitute. For many years now, people struggle to
obtain food, medicine, or common household goods. While the Venezuelan government is trying
to remedy the situation, the aid is not being felt on the small scale. My posters will show the
horrible conditions caused by all of these issues in Venezuela.
5. Civic Participation: Through this project, I am taking the initiative to make an impact on
something I care about. I am not simply sending money; I am trying to persuade other Tafties to
help me in my efforts to make a change for the people in Venezuela who have no one left to turn
to.
 4. Service: What specific service objectives does your project have? In other words, how will
your project serve others or make the local/global community a slightly improved place?
- I have designed my project to promote awareness about the situation in Venezuela. My goal is to
get the Taft community to understand that there are people in the world less fortunate than them.
Oftentimes we overreact regarding things like a bad test grade when in reality it is insignificant
when one considers the challenges people in Venezuela and other poverty-stricken countries have
to battle. I hope to make Taft students think about their socio-economic position and hopefully
offer some resource of theirs to help those in suffering.

5. Learning: What specific learning objectives does the project have? In other words, what
might others learn from your project?
- The Taft community will hopefully learning about the crisis in Venezuela and maybe understand
what exactly is going on. In my experience, it does not seem to be a topic that is discussed often
and I set out to change that theme with this project.

6. Eight Cs: How does your project address each of the Eight Cs?

a. Content (Global Studies): My project will be composed of facts and pictures regarding the
Venezuelan crisis.
b. Cultural Awareness: My project will point out the cultural and socio-economic differences
between students at Taft and the people of Guatemala.
c. Critical Thinking: The posters I place around the school will prompt people to think critically
about the situation in Venezuela regarding what is going on and what can be done.
d. Creativity: These posters will not be mundane; they will catch people's attention with bright
colors and meaningful images.
e. Collaboration: I will be working alone for this project, but I will likely seek out my
classmates and friends opinions throughout this process in order to produce the best result
possible.
f. Communication: Through my project, I will communicate to the Taft community with the
message that everyone should be involved with improving the conditions in Venezuela.
g. Credibility: I will source my images and facts from reputable sources so that I can be sure
they are credible.
h. Creation: I will make all the posters myself from scratch so to speak, which entails I will
be creating something.
7. Use the chart below to outline the specific steps in completing this project.

Steps Description
 Find images Search for images online in regards to
Venezuelan suffering.

Look for statistics online that demonstrate

Find statistics the crisis in Venezuela.

Come up with specific text that I will place

Create text on the posters.

Produce posters Put all the other steps together and then
actually print the posters.

Place the posters all around the school in

Hang the posters. places where students often have to pass.

Add as many steps as necessary.

8. How will you measure and determine success for the project?
- My project seems like it may be hard to measure the success of, but I believe that the easiest way
to gauge the success of my project will be to pay attention to how it is received. If I empower a
few people to do something about this issue or even just become more educated regarding the
topic, I will feel as though my project was a success.
 9. What resources (materials, organization's, key people) will you need to successfully complete
this project?
- I will use the printers around the school and the art supplies we have in our Service Learning
classroom to create these posters. All the resources I will need I can find easily at Taft.