Michal Rachlin's Professional Portfolio

* Project Sunshine
Project Sunshine offers free educational, recreational, and social programs to children facing medical challenges and their families. These programs are largely volunteer-run.
Click here to read my article on Project Sunshine.
Click here to visit Project Sunshine.

* Habitat for Humanity, Bergen County
Habitat for Humanity builds low-income housing. My volunteering has included both demolition and construction projects.

* Family House
"Michal was a wonderful asset to the patients and/or families at Family House Shadyside. Her ability to communicate on all levels with caring and compassion made them all feel welcome and at home. It was wonderful to have her as part of the team at Family House."
Kay Bebenek, Manager Family House Shadyside

Family House is a "home away from home" for families and individuals visiting Pittsburgh for treatment of terminal conditions/illnesses. As a volunteer, I contributed to the comfort and safety of patients with terminal illnesses, and their families. I also helped prepare for the opening of Family House's newest site.

* Pittsburgh International Children's Festival
As a volunteer, I contributed to visitor experiences and smooth programming. This included overseeing children's activities, helping staff before and after shows, distributing surveys, and answering visitor queries.

* Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
At the Phipps, I presented hands-on learning opportunities to visitors in the Discovery Garden; I also visited schools to present outreach classroom programs.

* Transition a recovery facility
Transition is a recovery facility for adolescent males. I worked on research and database maintenance for the organization's networking campaign.

* Jump Start Girls! and The Shadow Puppet Workshop
This program used Shadow Puppetry to guide Latina girls in solution finding. The issues discussed centered around the struggle between acculturation and maintaining one's ethnic heritage.

* Levindale Geriatric Center
I volunteered for several years with residents at Levindale, in both the dementia unit and other units.