UIdaho Volunteer Center: Stories of Service: Reflections on the power and limits of service

Great piece from one of our students. 

volunteeruidaho:

by Taylor Reed, University of Idaho student

In high school I was never overwhelmed with the desire to get involved in community service. However, I often observed my peers getting engaged in service through clubs, so with a little encouragement from my teachers (not to mention the added…

In Medias Res: Ok, so I'll admit I find this amusing, but...

A different, yet insightful view. 

stillinmediasres:

If you are on tumblr and you are interested/involved/employed in student affairs you’ve probably already seen #whatweshouldcallstudentaffairs. I admittedly have a low tolerance for this kind of thing. There’s a similar (ok, and I’m stumpted on what to call these? Gif aggregators? Memes?) thing…

The Last-Mile Problem

From “More than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is Helping Solve Global Poverty”:

Sendhil Mullainathan calls it the Last-Mile Problem. “It goes as follows: Faced with a stubborn challenge, we employ brilliant minds and vast resources to create a solution. We combine science, engineering, creativity and careful testing, and often we succeed in solving the technical problem-thus completing 999 miles of a thousand-mile journey. Then, inexplicably, we pack it in. Instead of taking the same rigorous approach to adoption, we just put the solution out there and expect it to speak for itself. All too often… It doesn’t.”

Are we following through with the “last-mile” of our work? Are we doing everything we can to see solutions and programs through to success? And are we truly evaluating what we do, showing what worked and where we can improve?