Community Projects

Women of Faith

This is a project I've been working on for a few years. I've seen it grow from a storytelling project to a film! Never expected that to happen. I was able to be a producer, script consultant, and actor. So much gratitude for all who helped.

Check it out at www.iamawomanoffaith.org to view the film (the whole thing is right there for free!!) and to find out more information about the project and the process.

PLAY THEORY! (not currently running)

A curious and passionate group of students at Brigham Young University and I have started a volunteer group where we share the power of positive, outward thinking through conducting workshops with various groups of people (staffs, students, school groups, etc... anyone!). We introduce them to the rules of improvisation and play activities and have discussion that help us connect these rules with real life and living happier ones.
See the rules below. :)
Quotes from participants:
"I just wanna be nice to everybody!" "I don't ever want to be sarcastic again." "Being around people that are open makes you want to be that way." "I went home and taught my husband!" "If you're not real, it doesn't work."

Youth Workshops 2009

Poole, England

I was in a class at BYU Fall 2008 with Julia Ashworth where I learned to see the world through Theatre-In-Education Workshops. They are something that I create, facilitate, and love! I create these workshops using games/activities that help to explore different topics (in most recent cases: Unity, Inclusion, the LDS mutual theme for the year: "Be thou an example of the believers..." 1Timothy 4:12) with each other and promote discussion and help to get to know each other better. I try to create it around things that the youth I am working with, deal with or interested in. Basically, it's role-playing and theatre activities to help facilitate group interaction and self-reflection.
One of my goals when I went to Great Britain in May and June 2009 was to do a workshop with some youth there. My sister is a young woman in California and she helped me to come up with some topics that she felt were applicable. I went to the youth's LDS church meeting on Sunday and sat in on their lesson to try to get to know the girls a little before I gave the workshop. I then met them the following Wednesday and we had a very interesting and wonderful experience. I did one in Lincoln, California and Maui, Hawaii. The young women were so open and giving, they were all wonderful experiences.

Poole, England

Maui, Hawaii

Redefine Service 2007-2008

Sophmore year at BYU I had the opportunity to work with Summer Price, who was the Student Leadership (BYUSA) President that year, as her secretary. She is a remarkable human being and I learned a great deal from her. Working in a position of being the ultimate supporter was a great learning experience as well.
At the beginning of the semester Summer mentioned to me that she wanted to do something more. What could she do as President to make a real difference? Redefine Service was born in the proceeding months.
This is taken from the website:
"In a recent BYU devotional, President Thomas S. Monson encouraged us to reach outward and said, "To find real happiness, we must seek for it in a focus outside ourselves." Such a principle is the very essence of the redefine service campaign. Brigham Young University is the greatest campus on earth, for so many reasons. Yet it seems we have somehow become increasingly isolated from one another, and overlook the need to befriend and serve one another.

We hope to motivate a change in the current BYU culture by helping inspire students to exercise a greater degree of kindness toward one another. We must redefine the current connotation that service need be some planned event with a great deal of time and preparation. "Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily" - Sally Koch. We can look up and look out for one another. We can change the culture on this campus. We can redefine service."

Redefine Service gave me such a focus that year. I was so excited each day to share it with someone. We would take our brightly colored buttons labeled with words like "smile," "befriend," and "share" and go out into the main square at BYU and talk to people. It became a habit for me to wander through the cafeteria and look to find those who seemed lonely, then sit down with them and get to know them. Not only through these interactions, but through the realization that there was such a cause as Redefine Service, I'm sure that many lives were changed and continue to be so.

Check it out and sign the pledge at redefineservice.byu.edu/