Weekly Update!!

Good news everyone! Jane is now done with school so we'll be finished with mostly everything regarding volunteers hopefully within the next week! Also, it's not set in stone, but we're 80% sure that there will be a total of 3 Apple Tree locations this summer: 1. "HQ" in LA, 2. the same Torrance church as last year, and 3. another church in Anaheim! As we approach 6/20, make sure to keep your eyes peeled for the latest updates. You can expect a much more meaty update next week.

That time of week again..

First and foremost, I hope everyone's doing well. Finish up the school year with a bang, right? AP's and finals and all that good stuff. Well, I have some stuff for you guys today :).

Ark School's new identity is now 사과나무! That's weird Korean shorthand for 사랑과 나눔으로 크는 나무! For the English name, we're thinking of just calling it The Apple Tree. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below! (GASP yeah, you can use the comments :O)

Though we still don't know which churches will be joining us for The Apple Tree this year, our LAUSD campuses will begin on June 19 (Wednesday) and will be ending the first or early second week of August. Mark your calendars!

Volunteer interviews and training dates will be moving! Sorry! We're restructuring our schedule to better accommodate ALL volunteers from all over SoCal (ranging from the Valley to Irvine!).

Remember to keep spreading the word about Ark School/The Apple Tree! We're gonna be needing a lot of volunteers!

That's all for now, I'll keep you guys updated on all the details you need to know, as long as you keep checking the blog!

(Possibly) Big news, everyone!

So, this could be good news or this could be bad news, you decide haha. What's happening is Ark School finally has its big boy pants on; around 6 churches from all around LA and the OC are interested in hosting Ark School at their churches as well! What this means:

1. Ark School may have graduated from the name "Ark School." Once Ark School rolls out to become a bigger non-profit organization separate from Gracious Ark Church, we will be renaming the program to be more neutral, so to speak.

2. Volunteer interviews and trainings may be rescheduled to later dates to better accommodate all volunteers (we'll keep you guys posted, keep checking up on the blog every week!).

3. Volunteers may be given a choice of site. Simply put, if we have multiple locations running Ark School, you get to choose which one you want to volunteer at.

Once again, we are not yet sure how many of the interested churches will be participating, but this is just a heads up for things that might be happening! As stated under #2, keep checking the blog and we'll keep you guys updated!

Weekly update!

1. For those of you who have already filled out your applications: don't worry, we haven't forgotten about you! We just need to figure out when interviewers' schedules match up to designate time slots! Sorry for the wait, we'll announce it and contact you guys soon.

2. As for anyone interested in volunteering at Ark School this year who hasn't done so already, please fill out your applications ASAP so we can get a general idea of what special activities we'll be able to do. Also, it would help us greatly if you told your friends about volunteering at Ark School!

3. The senior pastor is back from Korea so we're grinding up our gears to finish up planning for Ark School 2013. It will most likely take just a few weeks to get everything finalized, but it may take longer, depending schedules and workloads, so just sit tight!

Weekly update.

I actually don't have much to say to you guys this week. As you all know, The senior pastor's been in Korea so we haven't been holding any meetings or talking about Ark School in any definitive way. I hope you guys are sharing about Ark School with a lot of people!

Oh, and I get the feeling a lot of you are going to be turning in your applications in the last minute, so a word of advice: don't. Haha simple right? It's a really short application, so get to it asap! Who knows if I'm going to have to pull the application deadline up short?

Anyways, I hope you guys are all doing well physically, emotionally, mentally, etc. and are as pumped for Ark School as I am!

So far...

We have had 5 applications submitted. Not tremendous progress, but still excited to see things coming along! If you have already turned in your application, we'll begin contacting you guys around the week of 4/21. Also, we are thinking of putting together an early-bird incentive for submitting applications. If we do go through with it, those who have already turned in their applications will be included.

On a separate note, the senior pastor who is basically the decision making head, is now in Korea, and will be back in about 10 days. Until then, preparations for the actual program are on hold. Please keep him in your prayers (considering how close it is for South Korea to get bombed haha....?) That doesn't change really anything for you volunteers, though! Keep an eye out on the blog for weekly updates!

God bless!

P.S. If there is any specific topic you would like for us to tackle during the volunteer training, let me know!

Applications are up!

I have three major updates for you guys today:

1. Click here to go to your application! If you have any trouble with the application, feel free to Facebook message me or email me at arkschoolgac@gmail.com!

2. I've also updated the Dates, Links, and Volunteer Checklist(<---- you should probably look at this post lol) pages! The dates are not quite set in stone yet, but the estimates are closer than they were before, so you can use them as a slightly more reliable reference. Update posts will come every Thursday evening, so keep an eye out every Thursday!

3. It looks like we will be starting Ark School on 6/20 this year, give or take a day or two, depending on quite a few things actually. We're almost there... Let's do this!

Remember to tell your friends about Ark School 2013. We'll definitely be needing a lot of volunteers this year. You can give the the link to this blog (arkschoolgac.blogspot.com) or send them this link: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1cdNCZYmE8phyKO1ZOijyH6k2yt6t0QAKRE44go0kNY4/viewform

Once they fill out the application, they're going to have to keep up with the blog anyway, so why not link them to both? Hehe.. Thanks guys!

Application postponed

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the application will be made available late next week. Sorry for those of you guys who're waiting for this haha. On the bright side, it's looking like there will be no application fee for volunteers! Give and take? I'll keep you all updated as things start to take a more definitive form.

A quick update!

Hope everyone is doing awesome and enjoying your breaks! Here is a quick update for errbahdy so take a minute and read through. Have a good rest of the break guys!

1. I was supposed to have the application ready by late last week, but I'm getting rid of the paper applications and trying out "Google Forms." It'll be ready and the link will be posted by the end of this week :)!

2. As of now, there are still only 7 people on my list haha ;A;... but I suppose that won't matter too much, since the application will be out this week.

3. I already included this on the application, but expect to see this at least a few more times: interviews will be by APPOINTMENT ONLY!! We will be contacting you all to schedule your interview once we receive your completed applications on a first come first serve basis, so make sure to get that filled out ASAP!

4. Here's a tentative breakdown to the schedule of our going-ons over the next few weeks.

OUTDATED3/29~4/17 - Receive applications. 

OUTDATED4/1~4/20 - Interviews dates. 

OUTDATED4/21~5/8 - 2x mandatory volunteer training sessions 

*Once again, these dates are tentative, only to be used as a general idea of how things will be rolling out*

5. All of the pages on the top navigation bar will be updated by Monday (4/1)


Check the Dates page for updated dates! That's a lot of dates in one sentence...

Wow, already failed haha.

So sorry guys. Already went against my word to post at least once a week. Anyway, I have another__________ vague update for you guys. I'll number these out for you so it's easy to follow:

1. We will have the new application form for Ark School 2013 ready for you guys by March 15th. We will NOT accept any of the old versions of the application!

2. We will begin interviewing beginning the 2nd or 3rd week of April. We will give you the option of interviewing in person or via Google's Hangouts service (video chatting). More details coming soon.

3. Volunteer training(s) will be held AFTER we have considered all applications and interviews. There will not be any overlap with interviews. (Last year, interviews and the training happened on the same day)

4. There may or may not (UPDATE: probably not this year) be a registration fee (probably between $25~$50 IF it happens) for volunteers. This is in order to weed out people who are looking to make "easy volunteer hours" by coming and not doing what they're supposed to be doing. We need commitment. That was mentioned last year as well, but we did not see a lot of it. We figured that if you're willing to spend money to volunteer, you're serious about it. Another reason is to ease the financial load of running a $30,000~$40,000 program. Volunteers thus far have participated (as far as spending resources go) in all activities the students have for free. It would be something like paying a (very *cough cough*) small portion of the accommodations provided for you throughout the program :P. There will also possibly be a waiver for said fee IF we do charge a fee.

5. Only one person so far has contacted me with interest to volunteer this year. You guys need to start contacting me now! E-mail me at arkschoolgac@gmail.com or text/facebook message me saying you want to volunteer and I'll add you to my list! I need to get a rough idea of who's coming :).

With that said, I hope you guys had a fantastic February and have an amazing March!