Writing and misc stuff

Though I spent a good amount of the period continuing to work on my paper, I had a few other things to do first. I went to pick up my transcript that I had requested the week prior for a scholarship application; I also went and talked to all my A day teachers to let them know I wouldn't be in class next Tuesday because of the choir UIL competition, where we'll be performing. I also picked up one of the Masonic Lodge scholarship applications and spent a couple of minutes looking through it to see if it said anything about the required recommendations.

For the rest of the period, though, I did work on my paper. Right now, I'm at almost 8 pages, and I've reached the point where I've started talking about the majority of my fundraising. Of course, I skipped the section where I'll be talking about child illiteracy as a significant problem in India, so I imagine that part will add at least one, if not two or more, pages to the total count. I'm also going to be incorporating my updates more as they become more relevant later on (I won't be including the ones where I just review books, but instead ones where I thank donors and copy/paste some stories of the kids I helped).

I'm hoping I'll get to work on my paper more over the weekend to make up for my upcoming absence on Tuesday. My goal of having the first draft of it done over spring break still stands. After that, revising and editing won't really be that bad.

Making good progress...

I spent much of today's class period working on my thesis paper. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be double-spaced or not, but I asked and found out that it is typically double-spaced, but doesn't have to be. So what I'll do is decide at the end whether or not to double-space mine, depending on how much stuff I have in my paper and how many pages that ends up being.

I've made some good progress so far! I checked my page count with double-spacing and it's at 6 pages right now. I've still only begun, really. I've finished my introduction, but I skipped over the "research paper" section where I talk about child illiteracy and why it's such a big problem in India; I'll come back and probably do that section last. Right now I'm in the mid-early stages of the Readathon itself; I still have to get to the heart of the paper, which is where the majority of my fundraising occurred. And on top of that, I still need to write a bit on my Readathon Coordinator experience and what my role was and the final outcomes of both my individual and my team fundraising. The very end of the paper is also going to be pretty sizeable, since I'll need to talk about the Readathon wrap-up and reflect on how my experience volunteering with Pratham as a whole has influenced me. With all of this, I'm pretty sure I'll make it to 25 pages without too much difficulty. I might leave my paper double-spaced after all, but we'll see.

I think, if possible, I'd like to include updates every now and then in my paper - they'll be indented extra, as well as italicized to differentiate them from the rest of the paper - to add more "authenticity" to the narrative. Besides, those updates include a lot of what I'll be talking about anyway, except they'll be more realistic because they were written "in the moment," whereas this paper is being written in retrospect, in a way. So we'll see. I'd also like to include a couple of the stories of the children I helped with my fundraising, but I don't know if I'll have enough room. That would be nice, though - to add in a few anecdotes of the children and how the money I've raised has gone to fund their education.

Thesis paper fun times

So today in thesis I got to actually start my paper. Today was actually a relatively productive day; I just got to sit there and type away for a good chunk of the period, which was really nice. I'm determined to make sure that the next few weeks of thesis turn out to be the same because it would be awesome if I could get this paper done in class just by working on it for 1.5 hours non-stop every A day.

Today I typed up most of my introduction, starting with the anecdote and slowly making my way to the part where I really introduce Pratham for the first time into the narrative. I have just about two full pages so far (not double spaced), which is not bad at all! Considering I haven't even gotten to the most important parts of my paper, though, I'm thinking I'll have to spend a lot of time after I finish this paper cutting stuff out to meet the 25 page limit! I also really hope this paper doesn't have to be double spaced (I need to check on that), because if it does, there's no way I can fit everything I want into the paper and still keep it to 25 pages. We'll see how it goes over the next few class periods; as I go, I'll probably have a better idea of how exactly I'll make the whole thing work.

Starting my research paper

Now that I've had the conversation with Vineeta Aunty about changing my thesis product, I've been able to finally start my paper! I had to email everyone in Pratham, of course, to tell them about the cancellation of the DCT event, as well as the director of the DCT with whom we were attempting to negotiate things. But now that that's done, I can finally move on and get started on my thesis product on my own. I really should have thought of this paper idea a while ago - if I had, I probably would have it almost (if not completely) done already. Ah well.

Today I created my outline for the paper. So far, I have 8 distinct sections: I'm going to start out with an anecdote about visiting India and seeing the poor children on the streets, and how that was my primary motivating factor to volunteer with Pratham in the first place. Then I'm going to transition into more of a research paper-type deal by discussing the problem of child illiteracy in India. After that, I'll be able to start my true personal account of what happened during the months of the Readathon, from June to October. I've decided that I'm probably going to incorporate my actual updates from my webpage into the paper as well, since that will help me tell my story better. Based on this outline, it seems like I have a lot to write about - hopefully this means I'll be able to write 25 pages without too much difficulty!

And... yet another product change!

This past weekend, I spent time reflecting on my thesis project and the DCT Pratham fundraiser. I realized that I was overextending myself and it was too big to be successfully organized in time for my thesis deadlines. When I thought back to all our earlier conversations, I realized that I had essentially been letting my mentor make the major decisions of how many tickets to sell and that she was the one suggesting that I do all these other things like the door prizes/raffle, finding a business to sponsor the reception, etc. I really hadn't thought about how much of a time commitment this was going to be, and once I did, I realized that it simply wasn't feasible. And I stopped to think about how many other things I had going on this and next month - UIL competitions, scholarship/financial aid applications, etc. - and I realized that thinking I'd be able to organize an entire fundraiser on top of all of that was rather ridiculous on my part.

The other main problem was with ticket selling - we had 125 tickets to sell, and I didn't hear back from the Pratham Kids Club at all (or anyone else on the Pratham mailing list, for that matter), so I was really nervous about whether we would be able to sell all of them in time. This fundraiser could really only come together with a group effort and I simply didn't feel comfortable continuing with this project without the support. Add that to the fact that there was minimal interest in the event itself - not many of the people I heard from said that they would be available on that date, so I really would have a hard time selling all those tickets. And the other thing is, if we decreased the number of tickets to make the event smaller and more manageable - to say, 50 tickets - we would be giving up a lot of opportunity to raise more money. I calculated that with 50 tickets, we'd only be raising a net total of $500, which in all honesty is next to nothing. The expenses of organizing this event (paying for tickets, room rental, food/drinks at the reception) would far outweigh the amount of money we could possibly raise.

Moreover, the actual buying the tickets from the DCT ended up being another obstacle to the whole event; when my parents found out that we would have to pay in advance to get the tickets, they did not feel comfortable allowing me to continue with the project. The paying-in-advance thing is pretty sketchy, to be honest, because what if I don't sell all the tickets? I'll be paying money out of my own pocket to support this fundraising event, and that is not what a fundraiser is about. That's not what it's meant to be.
So as a whole, this DCT event just wasn't working out. I spent much of today's thesis period writing these reasons out in a document and calling my mentor to explain all of this and discuss our next steps.

Like I told her during our phone conversation today, I came up with an alternative idea almost immediately, something that would be far more convenient for my thesis project - a 25 page paper explaining the problem of child illiteracy in India and the need for child education initiatives, and relating a more personal account of my own experiences working with Pratham through the summer and into the school year as part of the Readathon effort. This works way better for me, because I can write this paper on my own time; the responsibility is all on me, and there are no extraneous factors that I have to worry about to ensure they don't get in the way of me completing my thesis in time. In fact, I already have a few ideas in mind for what I want to include in the paper and how I want to go about structuring it, so over the next few class periods I'm going to sketch out the entire outline and make sure that I have everything I need - that way, writing the actual paper will be much easier.

Continuing the conversation

I'm still in touch with Trish Long, the director of the DCT, to figure out the final logistics of the whole ticketing and payment deal before I can actually get any tickets to sell. Since we weren't able to negotiate the pricing at all, Trish did suggest that we try some door prizes or a raffle to help raise the rest of the money. After talking to Vineeta Aunty, I also decided that looking for a business to sponsor the event for around $500-700 to provide the money for the room rental, snacks, drinks, etc. would be a good idea. I know that the last time something like this was done, there was an adult in Pratham (she's actually one of my judges) whose business sponsored it, so if we could get someone like that this time too, that would be perfect.

I also sent out an email to the circle of Pratham leaders/administrators to let them know about my thesis and that this event will be happening in the near future. I'm hoping to hear back about possible sponsors and agreement from the Pratham Kids Club that they'll be willing to help spread the word about and sell tickets.

Vineeta Aunty and I have been having a conversation for the last day or two about how exactly to go about paying for these tickets. The DCT wants us to pay up front, but that won't really work because it's a total of almost $2000, and that's too much to put on any one credit card all at once. What she's suggesting is that I ask for a payment plan where I can pay for them in installments - once every week or two. But what I'm not sure about is why I should be the one paying - if Pratham is the one going to benefit, they should also be the ones paying. It's not fair that I shell out almost $2000 and don't ever get it back (and that makes no sense because Pratham is the one that should deal with all the financial matters in the first place). We're still discussing it because we have to sort this out before I can email Trish back with the official payment idea. Hopefully we'll have that done by this weekend.

A few minor-ish setbacks

So Vineeta Aunty and I had a conversation, and basically what she told me is that the DCT only has 135 tickets remaining; they've already sold all the rest (the Section A tickets are completely gone). I was not anticipating this at all, to be honest; I knew Charlotte's Web would be a really popular play, but I didn't know it was so popular that people would be willing to reserve tickets two months in advance. This essentially means we won't get to raise as much money as we had initially anticipated because we will have fewer tickets to sell.

The other problem is that the DCT is giving us the $15 group rate per ticket, which is also not much of a discount. The typical rate ranges from $17-19, so they're essentially only giving us $2-4 dollars off. In addition, they're requiring that we pay $100 for a room rental, which makes it all worse because that's an additional expenditure that will take away from the total amount of money I raise. Based on my calculations, at this point, it seems like I'll only be able to raise between $1000-1500 (which isn't a small sum, but it's less than I was hoping).

What we've decided to do is buy whatever tickets are remaining (essentially making the play completely sold out, which I guess works in our favor) and sell them at the same rate we were expecting to sell them at, which is $25 (because $25 is how much is required to educate one child through Pratham for one year in India). I've been in an email exchange with Trish Long, the director of the DCT, to negotiate the pricing and ask if she can give us a better discount by explaining the reasons; she just emailed me back and said that she can't do anything else about the pricing because Charlotte's Web is such a popular play, which means there's very little flexibility. She suggested Mariachi Girl and another play, but again, neither of those will work because of the age demographic of our potential buyers/audience members and the coordination of times/dates with my final thesis presentation. She also said that $100 is already a discount from the typical $200 rate for the room rental, so there's no negotiating on that front either. She is being extremely kind and willing to help do whatever she can for this event, though, and I appreciate that.

I really hope we can work all this out in time, because we have to pay for and receive these tickets by the end of February in order to have enough time to sell them and get the word out. My mentor keeps reassuring me that we won't have any problem selling all 125 tickets and that the event will be a success no matter what, but I don't know at this point. We'll just see how it all goes.

Miscellaneous stuff taken care of

I'm still waiting for the DCT to get back to me and my mentor about my fundraising event idea, so I'm attempting to get as much done as possible in the interim. I emailed my judges about my final presentation date (as of now) and the information they would need to better understand their role in my thesis project. I'm going to probably contact my mentor tonight to ask about the possibility of me giving my presentation at the event itself. I'm not sure exactly how - or even if - that would work, just because of time/space constraints and the audience who will be attending, but if I can, I think I probably will. That way, I can do it all on one day and just get it done without having to miss class to do it.

I also went back to search for that one Pratham flier I found, because I'm going to use that one as the template for our fliers for this event. I created a rough draft of it in Word, and I'm going to keep that until we get more details and actually buy the tickets themselves.

Also, I just remembered: during our conversation two days ago, my mentor and I also discussed the possibility of having some small businesses come and sponsor this event, possibly by supplying snacks for the post-play reception, and in turn we could help advertise their business on fliers that we hand out to help spread the word about the event and about Pratham. My mentor suggested two people involved with Pratham (both of whom I personally met during some Readathon get-togethers over the summer) who could probably sponsor the event; one runs a law firm and the other owns his own medical clinic (private practice, I believe). Both of these are great possibilities, and my mentor told me that we could easily get one of them to sponsor our event. It's really great having this entire Pratham network, because it's making a lot of things in my thesis much easier! I'm really very thankful for it.

Progress has been made with the DCT idea

I had a 45 minute conversation with my mentor today to figure out exactly how to go about this idea. She suggested that instead of Mariachi Girl, we go with Charlotte's Web for the DCT play itself because our audience is mostly younger kids who would probably appreciate Charlotte's Web more than Mariachi Girl. I agreed with her, but said that we would have to make sure there were still final presentation slots available after that event date (which is April 27th). According to the rough schedule Mr. Correa emailed us two weeks ago, the last slot available is on May 2nd, so it seems like Charlotte's Web should work just fine. I didn't really like the idea of pushing the event till the last minute like that, but it seems like there's not really any other go. Mariachi Girl is recommended for children ages 8 and up, and we have a lot of kids that are younger than that; Charlotte's Web would be better, since it's for children ages 5 and up.

My mentor also told me that she knows the director of the DCT personally, and that they had worked with her in the past to coordinate events like this, so that is a big plus for me! At least that way, this idea I'm pitching to her will have some credibility and it'll have a much higher likelihood of being approved with my mentor backing it up.

We also discussed in brief the matter of selling tickets - we plan to buy in bulk 200 tickets and sell them each for $25, giving the DCT $10 of the proceeds for each ticket sold. Therefore, our estimated fundraising total from this event is $3000. We'll see if that actually happens, though; at this point, the idea is still in its early stages, and I'm just a teensy bit anxious about it, even though the Pratham network is really quite big and my mentor assured me that selling 200 tickets would be no problem.

We'll see how it goes. My mentor asked me to type her an email explaining all of the stuff we discussed so that she could forward it to the DCT's director to get it approved. We think that we'll hear back from DCT by the end of this weekend, and if we do, I'm hoping we can order our tickets by the end of next week. Then, once we get them, we'll have almost 2 months to get the word out and sell them all. 

Sketching out the Dallas Children's Theater idea~

I've made progress on my thesis! Since I've effectively decided to abandon the Spring Carnival idea, I've been trying to find out more about the Dallas Children's Theater to see exactly what a Pratham event would entail there. At first, I was considering the Beauty and the Beast show, but as it turns out, when I called them, they told me that it was a puppet show, which meant it would be in their Studio Theater, which seats just 150 people. That won't work for our Pratham event, because it's not big enough. So instead, we're probably going to go with Mariachi Girl, which is a regular show held in the Baker Theater, which seats 400 people.

The other thing that's nice about this idea is that the DCT has plenty of open spaces available to rent for the post-show reception. One of the rooms, the Gables Room, has enough room for 150 people. It seems like the best fit for the reception, considering that all the rest of the rooms are either small classrooms or the theater spaces themselves, and obviously neither of those types would really work.

The event itself is meant to be a just a short reception for Pratham ticket buyers, probably with snacks and a short presentation about the organization. Since I'm doing this as part of my thesis project, I might also make a short presentation to talk about my experience with the Readathon and how that culminated in this, but we'll see if that happens. Overall, the reception should only be about an hour or so. The show itself is between 1 hour to 1 hour and 45 minutes (I'm not sure the exact length yet, but I can call and find out; this is just the range given in their FAQ for all their shows), so the event as a whole shouldn't be that long. The showtimes that are on Saturdays (this show runs for about a week or two in mid-March) are either at 1:30 pm or 4:30 pm, which I think are pretty ideal times. Hopefully in the coming weeks we'll decide on an actual showtime so that we can buy the tickets soon and start selling them to raise money.