One Week to Go, Folks!

I have been majorly slacking on the whole blog-writing thing, but it has been a busy last few weeks in Harrisburg! I celebrated the Forth of July, attended concerts, and have been finishing up my time commitments at St. Stephens and my time at Dickinson College. It is absolutely crazy to me that I will be home in Mason City, Iowa a week from tomorrow. I am thrilled, excited, a little nervous, and astounded that the time is getting closer and closer with every second that passes by. I have had a lot of fun the past few weeks, which is great! I have been doing things that I love and I have made the time pass even faster.
Exciting news regarding my art class... I placed in the student show at the Art Association of Harrisburg and was completely and utterly SHOCKED. I placed second in mixed media and am very excited about it! I had so much fun in this art class and I learned so much. I am very grateful that I received a scholarship so I was able to take the class, I definitely hope to continue to do some of the mediums. I thought for sure, I would love charcoal, but I learned I don't. I learned that I really like using ink and pastel. I thought I would hate ink because it is so permanent but I think that is why I like it. I am usually a perfectionist and ink makes me work with what is laid down and I like that idea .

Waiting for fireworks to start

The Forth of July was a lot of fun! My house had a little get together with some of my housemates friends and we hung out in our Bishop's Garden and played Spike Ball (it has the concept of volleyball, where you have to hit the ball the size of a softball on your side three times before it goes to the other side), to get it to the other side, you hit it onto a net and bounce it to the other side.You keep going back and forth with your partner until the ball drops. The net is circular and you can spike it any direction, so you can go around in a circle. I had never played this game before, it is a lot of fun and can get VERY competitive! I am pretty proud to say that my partner and I won, twice. Along with Spike Ball, we had a little cookout and had BBQ foods; hot dogs, hamburgers, different salads, guacamole and chips, and then made mojitos and sangria. We also watched the fireworks, which was great because the fireworks are right on the Susquehanna River, which my house lives directly on. We had prime seats and the show was good. It started very slow but the finale was really good. It was really nice spending time with people my age and we had fun!

Kelly Clarkson

I have been attending my fair share of concerts in Hershey, PA the past few weeks. 2 weeks, 2 concerts. I saw Wiz Khalifa and Fall Out Boy the first weekend. Now, I am not a big rap fan, so the fact that I was listening to rap is a change for me. I listened to Fall Out Boy throughout middle and high school so I was pretty excited for them. Wiz Khalifa is not my favorite, but he did have stage presence and have most of the crowd  in the palm of his hand. He is not really my style, he is doing great in the charts right now, so I respect him for that but other than that, I wasn't much of a fan. The second concert I went to this past weekend was Pentatonix and Kelly Clarkson. This concert was more of my speed, it is not really a concert where drunk and high people out number the amount of sober people. I have been a HUGE fan of Pentatonix since they performed on the show The Sing-Off and I saw them and went to a CD signing of them about 2 years ago, since then, they have gone international and are Grammy Award Winners! They are completely A Capella and were even in the movie Pitch Perfect 2. The amount of sound that comes from 5 peoples voices is still amazing to me. They opened for Kelly Clarkson and there were so many people in the 4,000 people in the concert that came for Pentatonix, me being one of those people. I could have listened to them for hours, but they were only on stage for about 35 minutes. Kelly Clarkson was really good as well. She is Southern and is funny on stage. She talked about how the bugs were hitting her in the face and that she swallowed one. She also asked if she could take her shoes off on stage because she doesn't like heels. She has such a powerful voice and she, too, found her stardom from a TV show, American Idol. While in Pennsylvania, I have been able to go to about three concerts, which is great because I love live performances and listening to great music.

Fall Out Boy 

Things are really winding down, folks. I have finished my church commitments through St. Stephens at church yesterday. It was my last performance in the cathedral choir, which is a little sad. I really grew to like choir, mostly because of the people I have met. I have gotten close to the choir, especially the soprano section. The choir is full of very sweet and sincere people and I am happy that I had the opportunity to sing with them. They are going to have an exciting fall, they will be performing for the new Bishop in September and will be singing the National Anthem at a Senators game across the river.

Concert with my mentor

I am very excited for this weekend!! I will be going to the ocean for the very first time!! We will be heading to Assateaque in Virginia Thursday-Sunday and will be doing some laying out, kayaking, possible scalloping, looking at wild horses and doing some final bonding as a house because we are all going very different directions. Two of my housemates will be moving to Ashville, NC. One is in Chicago, IL. One will be in Boston, MA. Another will be in Florida, and the last one will be staying in Harrisburg. I, of course, am starting graduate school for Counseling and Student Personnel, College Student Affairs and am very excited but nervous to start!
I am excited to be near my friends and family but I am finding it a little hard to leave the people I have met in Harrisburg. I didn't expect to get so close to some of the members of church, I have been writing every one who has influenced me a small letter of appreciation. I hope they learned something from me, as I have learned from them!

Touristy Events Time!

I did a few things this past weekend that I hadn't done yet through my time in Harrisburg. It comes a little surprising to me that I hadn't done them before, but I can now cross them off my "to-do list". I went to the Pennsylvania Capitol, State Museum, and Governors Mansion!
I live roughly 4 blocks away from the capitol, but I, for whatever reason, had never gone there. I am very happy that I finally went! It looks really neat from the outside, but the inside is absolutely gorgeous! There have been four different capitols over the time. The first one was in Philadelphia, which I went to when I was in Philly. The second was in Harrisburg, but burned down due to wood-fire places during the winter.They started creating another capitol in the midst of this one, but the governor did not approve, so they recreated to the current capitol. I have learned so much about it!
First of all, it is a lot like Iowa's capitol in the sense that there is gold-leaf EVERYWHERE! In the 1800's, it cost over 13 million dollars to create this capitol, today it does not even have a numerical value because some of the largest parts of it are considered priceless. They have a marble-like granite in the capitol that is from Greece and the only places to ever have this type is the PA capitol and the Wisconsin capitol, there is no other kind like it anywhere else in the world. The dome roof weighs roughly 15 million pounds and the chandeliers in the House of Representatives weigh 3 tons a piece. The paintings and gold-leaf have only been restored a couple times since the beginning. One of the artists was even a woman in a time where women weren't even allowed to walk in the halls of the capitol, which is pretty cool! The capitol is very extravagant and beautiful! The tour of the capitol was short and sweet, roughly 30 minutes and we were able to go everywhere except the courts because they were in session.

Next stop on Friday afternoon was going to the State Museum, which is right next door to the capitol. This building is so much bigger than I imagined it to be! There are many different exhibits including geology, planetarium, anthropology and archaeology gallery, fine arts gallery, and a village that you walk through and watch the evolution of PA in front of your eyes. William Tell has a large statue right at the entrance of the museum and the mural in the back shows the evolution of PA as well. Walking through the museum could have easily taken hours, but we managed to crunch it into a small amount of time (between an hour and half-2 hours). They have many original documents and sketches that are considered Pennsylvania artifacts, so it is very historic!
On Sunday, I experienced something pretty neat as well- the Governors Mansion! I attended Arts in the Governors Mansion, which was really gorgeous! It was very hot and I managed to sweat my body weight- I'm convinced. But I was able to see my mentor, Tina, paint a sculptor in the gardens in less than 3 hours! There were many different artists from around the area and Central PA that came in to paint and have people watch them. I was even able to walk around in the governors mansion. The current governor has decided not to live in it, but in the past, all of the governors have lived there. I was able to see the formal dining room, the not-so-formal dining room. The studies or offices (there were multiple), the formal sitting room, the foyer, and a couple den like rooms. There were two grand pianos, lots of chandeliers, MANY paintings and murals of past state governors and representatives and lots of exquisite china and woodwork.

At work, I have finished the pesky tree. Just waiting for students' pictures to go in the frames, but it is all up and ready for pictures! I am pretty happy with how it turned out, I learned that I can do silhouettes of trees!
Work has been going slowly but surely. It is such a change from working with students every day to having no students around. I have been working with pre-orientation and finding places for students to volunteer during the day and working on promotional items to give away. We have decided on color-changing stadium cups, drawstring bags, and adhesive phone wallets that would hold a student ID or debit/credit card.

It is starting to come to an end in Pennsylvania. I am looking at just over a month left, the time has gone by fast and slow all in one. I am starting to feel very ready for the next step in life- graduate school. I am ready to be back in classes and learn things that I truly want to learn about. As I have been attending pre-orientation meetings and working with different offices at Dickinson, it has become so apparent to me that Student Affairs is what I am really passionate about. I am excited to see where graduate school leads me! I am also very excited to see my family and friends and be back to the familiarity of the Midwest where I can watch Twins baseball everyday!

Summer, Birthday, Arts Fest Adventure!

The past couple weeks have been a whirlwind of an experience. I'm sorry I failed at my bi-weekly writing, but the craziness has taken full force of me! A lot has happened the past three weeks including Dickinson graduation, my 24th birthday, Arts Fest, and normal craziness of work days, church choir, and other church commitments.
I am officially feeling summer in the Office of Community Service and Religious Life. Students are not coming in every day, I am not getting texts throughout the day asking me questions, my e-mail is much quieter and summer projects are dwindling but we are spreading out the time it takes to do them. I was unable to attend Dickinson's graduation two weeks ago, but I am (ever so slightly) thankful I didn't attend. It was rainy and the usual outside commencement was taken inside a toasty gym, rumor has it, that it was roughly 90 degrees in it- too hot for me! I am sad to see the students go, they are what make and made my job at Dickinson fun. I am pretty lucky that I can say that I will be doing similar work when I attend graduate school in the fall at MSU again. I was able to watch Ian McEwan's and Mark Ruffalo's commencement speeches online. Here is the link in case anyone is interested in watching them as well, I thought they were very good and had a great message. (lovehttps://www.dickinson.edu/news/article/1603/you_have_to_fight_for_what_you_love)
My summer projects are a little fun, I get to paint a tree in the living room of Landis House, which is going to be the "office tree" or the "student worker tree". I have sketched a tree on the wall with chalk and over the next couple days, I will actually start painting it and then putting up picture frames all around it that student worker photos will go in to symbolize that we are all Landis House staff together, we may not be in the same office, but we all work together, as a family. This project was thought of during Christmas and over winter break, but I am just now having time to dedicate to it and I am happy that it is actually coming a reality! The next big project I have is re-organizing and moving things in the CommServ Office. The CommServ office is a student work office, where all materials can be found: paper, markers, pencils, board games, sandwich boards, signs, service trip supplies... everything! This office is now going to be shared with two other organizations, so moving an entire office to a corner is a little tricky. I am in the process of talking to facilities and having them create shelving on a wall, finding bookshelves from the Dickinson storage, and figuring out how to condense so much stuff into few containers, take out of boxes, and rummage through an office where everything is literally everywhere. I am an organized person and (actually) like cleaning for the most part, so this is a good job for me to do. It is crazy to think that I only have about 7 weeks of work left and then I am moving back to the Midwest. I am feeling a tad bit torn about it. I am very ready to be back and start school, but I also feel a smidgen of sadness not seeing students again and missing members of the parish.

Birthday fun!

I am officially 24 now, folks. I was not happy to turn 23, because 22 was my golden birthday, but it looks like 24 is alright. Much better than 23 anyway, ha. It was a great birthday- definitely the best I've had in awhile! During our Friday morning meetings, my director brought donuts, and then the house and I started working on frozen bananas for Arts Fest which was Saturday-Monday. While we were working on dipping bananas in chocolate, the principal from the school came by and said that a box of food was delivered and it was for me. I opened the box and it was a big cookie cake from a bakery in MA. Inside was a little note and I learned my mom had ordered me a birthday cake and had it delivered to me! That was special for me because my mom usually bakes a cake for my birthday every year! The day was also special because the house and I kind of celebrated together. Chicken kabobs, mojitios, chips and guacamole, and watermelon were served and we ate outside, and the Harrisburg Sentors had fireworks that night, so we moved to the river and watched the fireworks. I got so many texts, calls, and birthday wishes that it all made it incredibly special!

Arts Fest with my mentor 

I was outside a lot this week, got a little tan and a little burnt, but Arts Fest was successful! Arts Fest is a annual event that happens on Front street in Harrisburg, aka directly in front of my house, and our house sells things to raise money for the Sycamore House. Throughout the year, we receive donations of books and then we sell them at Arts Fest, we sold chocolate covered frozen bananas, and then bottles of water. In the past, they had not sold water, but that proved to be a hit because we sold 9 cases of water in 2 days. Over the weekend, we raised $1,164.84 and we are going to donate about half to Nepal for earthquake relief efforts, but the rest will go into a fund for the next year's house so they can go on a retreat and have money for food the first week or so they get there. Arts Fest was cool in the sense that so many vendors from all around came to sell their works. I fell in love with a woman who used pastels and they didn't look like pastels at all! She created a life-like rottweiler and she focuses on animals, mainly horses. It was incredible. I am finding that pastels are one of my favorite mediums in my Monday night art class. It is so fascinating to me to see how people create something like that, so talented!
This upcoming weekend will not be nearly as exciting. I am hoping to relax a bit and spend some time outside, it has been getting warm out again, so we will decide as we go!

Hershey Park Adventure!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day! I have been blessed to have an incredible mother, who has supported me through everything, was there for me when I needed to sort out my options, and who has given me unconditional love. Love you to the moon and back, Mom!

This past two weeks at work have been incredibly laid back and a little emotional. Dickinson was on finals week last week and this week is finishing up finals and then Senior Week- there has been no programming, no students in Landis House and no students to have meetings with. The whole year has kind of stopped this past week! It has been weird not having meetings every day. This summer will be filled with projects like organization, helping a tad bit with orientation for next fall, and then organizing things for the person who is taking over my spot. Next year, there will not be an Episcopal Service Corps member, there will be an actual staff member, so that will also be a change! Last weekend we were able to have a great end of the school year with students by going to Hershey Park in Hershey, PA! I absolutely love roller coasters, so I was excited to go to an amusement park. I was a bit skeptical about going there because I had no idea if the rides would be good or not. They were good :) My favorite was Skyrush, but really, what a rush! The following link is a video of what it is like to go on the ride (https://www.youtube.com/embed/hpvVBDz1rXM?rel=0&autoplay=1&enablejsapi=1)  You go down about 75MPH and my bottom was literally off my seat, it was so much fun! If the wait wasn't so long to go on it, I would have ridden it again! The other ride that I really liked was Great Bear ( https://www.youtube.com/embed/WujrDNgFcus?rel=0&autoplay=1&enablejsapi=1), it was much more twisty and upside down than the Skyrush! I was also surprised that there was a Wild Life experience, which had alligators, eagles, wolves, elk, foxes, owls, and a lot of other animals that you could walk right next to and look at! We had 9 people all together come on this adventure and spent the whole day at the park. It was a lot of fun and I am very happy that I could have shared this with some of my students!

Also this week I have been working on pastel drawings for my drawing class. I am thinking about submitting my work into the class showcase, which any one who is taking  a class is eligible to submit up to 3 pieces of work, so I am seriously contemplating that!

Big things are happening regarding this upcoming school year at Minnesota State as well! I have formally accepted a graduate assistantship position and will be working with first year, undeclared students with advising! Part of my graduate assistantship is I get paid $9,000 for the school year and they pay for 9 of my 12 credits of classes and I work 20 hours per week.  I am very excited that I have officially committed to this position. I am officially committed to the program Counseling and Student Personnel, College Student Affairs. I have committed and signed a lease to live in a house with 3 of my friends. This are really happening, people! Just have to get to August to make it all happen! My last day of work at Dickinson College is July 16th and then I go on a retreat with the Sycamore House and then I move back to Iowa on July 21 or 22nd. I am currently trying to find a flight that isn't super early or not very long layover in O'Hare, I will most likely buy one this week though!

I hope you all have a great day and week! The weather in Pennsylvania has been HOT. Already in the 80's, I'm not prepared for all this weather! I am a little crazy and would rather be cold then hot!

Happy Mother's Day!

The Past Month

Hi all! First let me apologize for not writing a blog in roughly a month, I feel I have been lacking motivation to write and/or not a terribly exciting week to write about, but it's today I have lots to talk about!
First off, I just got back into Harrisburg yesterday from spending a week at home with my family and friends. I flew to Minneapolis last Friday and stayed till Sunday. I was in Mankato for a couple days to see friends and then my mom picked me up and I spent the rest of my time in Iowa. Let me tell you, going home came at a perfect time. I was feeling out-of-it, not terribly motivated (I'm usually a highly motivated person), and just homesick in general. So, even though the Midwest weather proved itself correct, meaning its unpredictable and the sun didn't know where to be happy or sad, I had a wonderful time at home in the 40 degree weather and clouds and rain. While at home, I ate my mom's home cooked meals, saw a lot of family and friends, and relaxed. On Tuesday, I didn't even get out of pajamas, which is insane for me and rarely ever happens! This was the last time before I would come home permanently so it was very special to me since I hadn't seen my family since Christmas. I will be leaving the East coast in late July to come to graduate school in Minnesota. There was a slump for me after service trips to now that just moved slow, one of my favorite sayings is "Moving slower than a stampede of turtles through peanut butter" and that is definitely how I was feeling. I feel more refreshed now than I have since March and its nice to be able to leave the East coast for a little bit to enjoy the simple things in life. Looking at stars at night, not hearing traffic all the time, seeing the windmills off of I-35, Iowa sunsets, less traffic. I miss all of those things, I am definitely ready and excited to come back to Iowa and Minnesota, but I will enjoy my last few months in Pennsylvania, I am hoping it will go by fast.

Visiting two of my favorite little girls

Dickinson is closing up it's semester. Next week is the last week of classes for students and the following week is finals and senior week. Graduation includes baccalaureate and graduation outside the building Old West which is original to the campus when it first started. It is also symbolic because when you are a first year, you have a ceremony of walking up the stairs, as if you are walking and committing to Dickinson when you get here. Graduation is opposite, you are walking across the stage and down the stairs, symbolizing that your time has come to an end and you are graduated. One thing that will be really cool is the Mark Ruffalo, the actor of the Hulk in Avengers, he was in Foxcather, 13 Going On 30 and countless more movies, will be doing the commencement speech because he will be working with Dickinson  next year with a huge sustainability project. I hear about 500 people attend graduation, but I suspect with Mark being here and Avengers coming to theaters very soon, I suspect there will be many people from the community who just want to come check him out and see him speak.
This will be my 3rd week (technically 4th, but I missed one week) of my basic drawing class I am taking through the Art Association of Harrisburg. This class has been very fun! It is very small, there are four of us in the class and the teacher. So far, we have worked on grey scale and trying to get used to the different types of pencils we are using and then we worked on drawing cubes and cylinders. We learned if you can draw a cube, you can pretty much draw any chair imaginable. Drawing cylinders lets you draw any type of can, but it is also a stepping stone to drawing a cup and saucer. I have practiced many of those, I could probably sell them for about a million dollars, if I do say so myself. They are pretty nice, but I am also biased :)
On Saturday, I will be going to Hershey Park with my office and some students. I am very excited for this!! I haven't been on a good roller coaster in what feels like 30 years and I'm not even 24 years old yet! So I will be taking full advantage of that and hopefully enjoy time in the sun!
I DID IT! I actually completed one of my New Years Resolutions! I read all of the Harry Potter books and have (almost) watched all the movies. I only have to watch the movie, which is broken into two. I was surprised that I really enjoyed the books, I was so anti-Harry Potter when it came out, but I wish I would have read the books when I was in 5th grade, when they came out, because I was the same exact age as the characters and when they grew, I would have grown with them. Oh well, I am finished with them and actually enjoyed them. My brothers favorite character is Peeves for devious reasons, I would say mine is Dobby because he is special and adds a bit of humor but I also enjoy Sirius Black and Fred and George Weasley.
Also, my favorite day happened. If you know me and my love for Miss Congeniality, you will understand.

I think I will move blogging to bi-weekly occurrence, but it may be weekly every of often, I will just keep you on your toes :)
Happy Monday!
Katie

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! (a little late...) Yes, I am a day late in wishing that but this weekend was filled with lots of great company, Harry Potter, tons of candy, and beautiful flowers!
This was my first Easter away from my family in Iowa and the first Easter I have ever spent at a Episcopal Church. Let me tell you, St. Stephens looked incredible! I asked my mentor, Anne, who works in the flower guild of the church, and they spent hours and hours on the arrangements at the alter and the garden in front of the pews. I can easily see why it took hours, the garden had little butterflies that moved and floated with a little waterfall. The alter was a sun and was huge. The decorating went all the way down to having put Koi fish into the baptismal water. Because I am in the cathedral choir, I had a pretty busy week. We sung at Maundy Thursday and then had practice after that. We sung at Easter Vigil and then sang in 2 of the 3 services on Easter Sunday. I have never seen so many people at our services before until Easter. It was completely full of people and it was great to see. There were children, which our church does not traditionally have a lot of small children but this weekend there was! They had a large Easter egg hunt in the Bishop's Garden on Sunday and all the kids were very excited to get more candy from what the Easter Bunny had already given them.

I was very lucky and I was able to join Tina and her family for Easter. I spent three nights with her and when we weren't singing in the choir, we were most likely watching Harry Potter and stuffing our faces with candy. As many of you know, I decided that I was going to read and watch all the Harry Potter's for the first time. I was very anti-Harry Potter for years, and this year for one of my New Years Resolution was going to be read and watch them all. Which was great, because all three of the kids love the movies and the two oldest have read the books as well! I had over 19 hours of Harry Potter ahead of me, but unfortunately, we ran out of time. We only got through 6 of the 8 movies. I was not able to finish the last book before Easter, so that gives me time to actually read it and enjoy reading it- everything happens for a reason!
All the kids did very well with their lent this year and every year they get what they gave up for lent. I did not get very far in my lent. I lasted about 2 weeks. I gave up bread for lent which proved to be impossible when I went to Georgia with the service trip. Regardless, the kids did great and got rewarded! One of them gave up all meat, and for Sundays lunch/dinner got London Broils from the Easter Bunny. Tina went Vegan so she got cheese and we had cheese omelets in the morning for breakfast. I am so grateful that they opened their house to me for so many nights and included me in all of their family outings.
I am also very excited for tonight (Monday) because I start my art class at the Art Association of Harrisburg. It is a class every Monday until June from 7-9pm. This class is basic drawing and I will be working with all kinds of mediums that I have not worked with before. Ink, charcoal, pencils, pastels, and a few other methods will all be used! I am very excited to meet new people in my class and to be working with my hands again! I have always loved being crafty, especially with scrapbooking but this will be a new skill for me, which is very exciting! I'm sure I will dislike some of them, but I hope to create a new hobby that I can carry over to when I go back to the Midwest.

This week at work will be pretty laid back compared to the few upcoming weeks. I will focusing on programming a party for service trips called Service Trip Extravaganza. I am also still working on the President's Honor Roll and I hope to complete that this week!

Giant Gummy Bunny 

From Georgia to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania to Minnesota.

First night on campus at MSU

Gorgeous sunset in Mankato

I feel like I have been a world class traveler the past few weeks! From taking a group of Dickinson students to Georgia for a week, to coming back to Pennsylvania for a week and then traveling to Minnesota and back. I feel like I am finally getting my feet on the ground and into a routine again. I went to Minnesota for a graduate assistantship interview for Learning Communities. I had moved into top two for this position and it was required to physically be there for interview, so I flew to Minneapolis on Saturday for my interview on Tuesday and then flew out Tuesday night back to Pennsylvania. Being in Minnesota was very relaxing and felt very normal and like I haven't been away for much time. My friends Monique and Rebecca were kind enough to offer me their futon on campus at MSU and we made dinner together, did some grocery shopping, making a stop at Pet Expo to play with the bunnies, chinchillas, ferrets, guinea pigs, and looks at the iguanas. I was able to connect with my friends that I hadn't seen since last spring and got to talk with my friends that I will be living with next fall. I was a bit nervous when I got there that things had changed, I feel like I have changed a lot this year and I feared that things wouldn't feel right when I got there, but I was very pleasantly surprised. My visit in Mankato was filled with lots of hugs, laughter, and catching up!

Words of Enouragement

My interview was the reason I was there and I think it went really well! It was an intense day filled with many different sections of interviews and meeting with a lot of different people. My interview started at 9:30am with Sip and Chat with current Learning Community Coordinators. This was great because I could talk to them about how their year is going and then relate to them about what I did as being a Learning Community Coordinator for First Year Elementary Education for two years. If I get this position as Graduate Assistantship for Learning Communities I would be working with 7-9 LCC's every week and talking about what they have for planning, deal with any issues relating to students and then do some advising. Meeting with the LCC's for coffee allowed me to ask about the changes that have gone happening this year and what I can expect next year, if I get and accept this position. After coffee, I went and met with Interim Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Education and a very strong background in the education department. I had met her a few times with the Dean's List ceremonies for College of Education and I was happy to meet with her again. I was very surprised that she remembered who I was and certain characteristics about me. For our interview, we just had a conversation about what I was doing this year and what I have come to realize about Harrisburg and Mankato, Our conversation was my favorite part of the day and I am very happy that I had her to start out. Next, I moved to an interview with the Area Director of McElroy Residence Hall. This interview was much more question based and related to student affairs and student life on campus and how I can work with others. This section lasted about 45 minutes and it was much less conversation driven. I think it went well, they had given me questions that could potentially be asked, so I knew what to expect going in. After meeting with the Hall Directors of McElroy and Preska Residence Halls for lunch in Carkoski. It was very casual and I could get their perspective of what a Learning Community GA would do and how I would work with them on a month to month or daily basis. After this I had two more interviews, one with more LCC's and then with the current GA's for Learning Communities asking the same questions that I had been answering earlier in the day. The day felt very long but I am happy that I went to Minnesota for it. I feel much more clear on what I would be doing throughout the year and what everyone's expectations would be of me.
This week at work has been good, it is much less crazy now that service trips are over and I was only there for two days this week. I am currently doing some research for the President's Honor Roll, which would allow Dickinson to have more prestige, in the sense that the President of the United States is honoring it. So, I am doing research on community service that Dickinson does, how many families it affects, how many students are involved, and giving concrete examples on what part of the community it affects.

Jenny the goat

This weekend, we had a midyear retreat with the house and we went to a barn that is renovated and owned by someone in the church who was kind enough to have us spend the night in the barn. We talked about what is going well this year, what can change, how we are going to make the changes and what we can do to make this year great. There was an incredible fire pit so we had a bonfire  and then came back in and sang karaoke for a while. The farm also had two goats, Mollie and Jenny, and then a beautiful Golden Retriever, Duke. I was very happy to be with the nature and around animals and able to see the stars at night. Those are things that I definitely miss not being in the Midwest.
I will be back in the Midwest in April, which will be nice to see my family in Iowa. I am excited for that. I will be joining the Sell family for Easter and singing in the choir on Easter and on Monty Thursday this week. I will be doing lots of singing, that's for sure!

Fuller Center-Americus, GA

Hello all! I'm not even sure where to begin because so much has happened in the last 8 days! I have spent the last week in Americus, Georgia with Dickinson College students working at the Fuller Center for Housing for their spring break. I am incredibly happy with how this trip went, we had some hiccups along the road but I had a wonderful set of students and I am incredibly pleased and thrilled with all the work they did in 5 days through working with the Fuller Center.

Finding Geocashe

Day 1 (Saturday) : We left for Georgia last Saturday  in 4 degree where and ended up spending the night in Columbia, South Carolina, which is about an 8 hour drive from Carlisle. We got to Georgia by driving 3 minivans, two which were from Enterprise and were insanely nice. I didn't realize that fancy vans had full on outlets in the car to charge laptops and all of that jazz. The vans went smoothly and we only "lost" one along the way, meaning they took a wrong exit and we had to meet up with them at the next exit. When we got to our hotel, it was fairly nice, however... one of our five rooms had the case of the bedbugs (many of them), so I had to go to the hotel desk and complain to get another room and that it was not acceptable. While we were there, there was a cheerleading and baseball tournament somewhere nearby and there were a ton of children running around as well. Though the rooms weren't the greatest, the food in the morning was pretty good. I had grits readily available at any moment and they had good coffee. We left the hotel on Sunday to drive four hours to get to Americus, Georgia. 
Day 2 (Sunday) :When we entered Georgia on Sunday, we went on a hike and had a picnic at Lake Oconee. This was a very nice location, the lake was large, lots of picnic tables and it was a great day for a hike. While we were hiking we found a geocache, which was really cool since I had never seen that before! Inside the box was a tiny Beanie Baby, a pair of sunglasses, a little notepad and pen, and other random objects. We wrote in the notebook that we are on a service trip, but we have been lost for days and contemplating cannibalism, we have lost 3 students due to dehydration and we left a mini deodorant, and other small items. When we started on the hike, we thought it would walk around the lake, but the trail ended, so we had to turn around and walk back.  After the hike, we loaded the vans and headed the remaining 4 hours to Americus. When we arrived we stayed at United Methodist Church. The church was really cool, it had a full kitchen with two refrigerators, microwaves, stoves, and it was supplied with cups, bowls, and plates. Right off the kitchen was the room where all 11 of the girls slept, we were surprised and they brought us all cots, so we didn't have to sleep on the floor! The four men stayed in another room on the opposite side. The floor in the kitchen and dining area was black and white checkered and they had different tables and booths to sit in. They also had a room called Foundry, and that is used for youth group, but it has a foosball table, ping pong, and air hockey. When we arrived that night, they prepared supper for us and we got to talk to some of the members of the church. There were two bathrooms for us to use and a shower in each, so it was wonderful to have those facilities. We also played a lot of fun games throughout the church. There were 3 floors and a sanctuary that made perfect locations for hiding spots for hide and seek and the opposite game called sardines and live action Mafia. This church also had a full daycare and preschool, where about 80 children come everyday. I was shocked to find out that their youth group has about 40 students, which is totally different from St. Stephens in Harrisburg, that has less than 10 students. The youth director, Charles, was so very helpful and wanted to know what he could do to help, he was welcoming and kind to all 15 of us there.

PaintingTrim

Day 3 (Monday): First day at one of the work sites! We went to the new downtown office of the Fuller Center for Housing and got to find out more about this organization and get our hands a little dirty. The Fuller Center is branched off of Habitat for Humanity, Millard Fuller worked for Habitat but later got fired for conflict of interest. Millard was a millionaire by the time he turned 27 and he found his marriage was crumbling because of money and he decided to do what the Word of the Lord said to do, so he started the Fuller Center for Housing. Fuller Center builds homes for people who do not have any other options and it is a fairly complex application. Each applicant has to do "labor equity" which means they have to be involved with helping the house and they have to be able to pay back their affordable mortgage, because their mortgage is what creates others homes. We worked very closely to a man named Kirk who is the one that got us to Americus, he gave us directions and helped show us the town later in the week. He has done so much and has had a variety of jobs, but his passion is Fuller Center. We also met an incredible man named Thad this week. Thad is a recipient of a house because he got in a car

Playing Chess with Jordan

accident when he was 38 and became paralyzed and he needed a home to let him become independent again. Ever sense he received his home 20 years ago, he has been heavily involved with Fuller Center. He is the one who taught us how to use power tools, he was motivation and encouragement for us all week and he truly cared that we were there. On the first day, I worked on touch up paint around windows and helped take down ceiling tiles and repaint them because they had over 25 years of smoke damage to them. Other students help sort over 10,000 tools for the tool library and others created a floor and helped knock down a wall. That night, Kirk invited us to play chess with some children that live in a Habitat house, though Fuller Center is separate, they still have a large connection. Playing chess is hard and I played an 8 year old and lost miserably. Jordan has been playing chess for 1 year is very good at it. The kids at chess were all happy that we joined them and we could tell that it meant a lot of them that we joined. We ate pizza for dinner that the church provided and then played a game of Sardines (opposite hide and seek).

Improvements of the office!

New floor

Day 4 (Tuesday):This was our last day at the office site, and I got to use a power tool called a plainer, which took part of a door off to make it even and be able to shut better. This door for the bathroom locked many students inside and had them cry for help to get out, so I am happy I could relieve some emotional problems by helping the door not be stuck. I also was able to teach some of the guys how to use this tool, which was pretty cool! The tool library got finished, all ceiling tiles were painted and put up, the floor was finished and we were able to work with Thad and Kirk more closely again. After the work day, we joined Charles and his college students for dinner and worship a few miles away. I had fried chicken, fried okra, mac and cheese, and buns for dinner, I don't think that could be any more southern. After worship, Charles took us all to Sonic for ice cream and then we headed back to the church for nightly reflections and a game of Mafia.
Day 5 (Wednesday): First day at the house location! This house is for the Lewis family, which is a husband and wife and their four children ranging in age to high school junior to 10 years old. We got the house at 10 am and the drywall installers just finished an hour or so before, it was completely dusty, wood floors, and exposed drywall. Our jobs for Wednesday and Thursday was to prime and paint all rooms, install tile floor, paint doors, and trim and any other jobs that were asked. Also on Wednesday, I had a very special day, I spent the night with my brother in Dublin, GA! He drove 1hr and half to come get me and take me back to see his house for the first time. We ate tatortot casserole, watched Man of Steele and Foxcatcher and just caught up with each other! This was the first time we had seen each other in a year, which is incredibly exciting! I spent the night and returned to the house site the next morning. 

Thad and I

Day 6 (Thursday): I arrived back to Americus in the morning and today was the day the doors arrived and I helped lay down grout for the floor tiles. I received a lot of positive words from Thad about laying grout, which was incredibly meaningful! He was so helpful in teaching me what to do and how to do it. It was a great feeling seeing the change from drywall to fully painted walls to floor being laid in the kitchen, hallway, and bathrooms! An incredible change!! That evening, the students prepared dinner and then we played one of my favorite games- Newly Georgia Game, which is like the Newlywed game, where they answer questions about their assigned partner. Not all of these students knew each other and they did really well during this game! They had many laughs and all had positive words about the game! At this point, everyone was starting to feel the long days and manual labor. We normally went to bed around 12:30am and got up before 7am. Our reflections all week had been great and I truly felt like I have gotten to know the students and we all felt like we really did make a difference in Americus. We had random people on the street stop us and thank us for our work and dedication to Americus. We had people stop us at restaurants and thank us. We were event featured on the front page of the Americus paper! Everyone is so appreciative of all that we have done, which I thought was really cool and wasn't expecting it in the slightest. Through talking with people in Americus, people do not really travel far away from here, but if they do, they usually come back. I asked Thad if he lived anywhere else or travelled far  and the furthest he has ever travelled is Miami, Florida, which is one state away. I found that very fascinating. 

Giant Peanut in Plains, GA

Day 7 (Friday): This was our last official day in Americus, we spent the day travelling and learning about the city. We went to a local elementary school and read to the classes. I read to a 2nd grade class Hooway for Wodney Wat, which is one of my favorite books, ever. They all enjoyed the story and all the students were fascinated about why we were in Americus and how old I was. After that, we went an saw the Fuller Center offices and how everything happens and gets scheduled. We then went to Koinonia Farm, which is a self- sustaining farm that has amazing chocolate, pecan trees, blueberries, grapes, and corn fed beef. We stayed here for lunch and had tilapia and hush puppies. There was a gorgeous farm dog there that was wounded from a fox, he was protecting the land and  I was able to pet him for awhile! His brown eyes totally melted me! We then went on at Andersonville, which was Georgia's largest Prisoner of War and Missing in Action camp! This was very interesting and moving. I was standing on land where 13,000 men and some women had died for fighting during the Civil War, we also saw the cemetery and all the different monuments that other states gave to Andersonville. The cemetery reminded me a lot of Arlington, which is a place I really want to go during my time on the East coast! We then moved to Plains, Georgia which is wear President Jimmy Carter is from and I had peanut ice cream! Plains is very proud of their peanut heritage and Jimmy Carter, it is plastered everywhere! They had really neat antique stores and I saw all sorts of things from baseball cards, to comic books, to stained glass and everything in between! We went out to eat that evening at a restaurant named Pats and then finished the night with reflection and a game of Mafia!
Day 8 (Saturday): This was our day of goodbyes, we said goodbye to the 80 degree, sunny weather and started our trek to the north again. We drove to Roanoke, VA where we were planning to spend the night at a local hotel, but the hotel had broken windows of people trying to break in, it is known for prostitution and drugs.... so we didn't stay their. We completed our drive home that night and arrived back at 3am (today).

Andersonville Cemetey

Dog and Koinonia Farm

Tonight we will be having a closing dinner to finish up our trip on a positive note, which is good! I will be back in Harrisburg tonight, which I am excited for my own bed! This week has been incredible, I feel like I have grown up so much this week and I gained great relationships with students and truly solidifies that I want to work in Student Affairs! I am so blessed and happy that I was able to be apart of this trip, we had a great team and I am very pleased, moved, and appreciative of everything that happened this week!

Crossing Things Off My To-Do List!

I think this week has been very productive in many ways. Work has been pretty busy because we leave for service trips in less than one week! Also, my graduate school interview happened and is in MSU, Mankato's hands. I also finished my first book binding book and have started to work on my second!
As I stated, service trips are heading to their destinations in less than one week! I will be going to Georgia with 11 students, 2 student leaders, and another administrator. We will leaving next Saturday around 8:00am for our Americus, GA adventure. We will be driving our way to Georgia, which is about 12.5 hours but we will be stopping in hotels on the way their and back for one night each way. We will have 4 people in each room so it will be a little tight, but that is what service trips are all about- getting to know each other in close corners and helping however we can! We will be at The Fuller Center during the day and we are spending nights at a local church. This church is allowing us to use their full kitchen and 2 full bathrooms, so we will be able to shower! I am getting very excited for this trip for multiple reasons; I have never been on a service trip before and I will be seeing my brother. I think I will definitely learn a lot from this experience, I will be learning new skills involving handy-work and carpentry but also how different students work together in a week. I am sure I will learn new conflict-resolution strategies as well as get to know the students. This week at work, I will be preparing about 14 first-aid kits to put in each vehicle that is going on trips, helping create contact lists, making and printing maps and road instructions to put in each van, sorting out t-shirts and water bottles for each trip for the students, and taking in coffee and tea fundraiser forms and placing an order for that! I am starting to brace myself for a busy week- I think it will go very quickly but it may be very tiring in the process.

Color Scheme for second book, also all materials used. 

Cover of first book with button

First attempt at book binding

I have officially finished my first book in book binding! This is the second week we have had this class (we didn't have it last week because of snowy weather). I am thrilled that we were able to finish it this week! I have been thinking about it a lot the past two weeks because I have been wanting to finish it! It does not look perfect, but that isn't the point of book binding, it is supposed to look hand made. I love the creative aspect of it, being able to cut or tear paper the way you want it, decorate however you choose and then be able to bind with whatever color binding you want. Binding was not easy, but I also do not have a background in sewing, if you know how to sew, this would probably be very simple. When I first go to class, I didn't realize that you binded with two needles, which is why it is called 2- Needle Coptic bind, this upcoming week, we are going to try to do 4-Needle Coptic bind, which is exactly how it sounds, using 4 needles. We are having our class on Friday evening next week so we can finish the book, we had "homework" this week to cut each of the pages which are called signatures, and decorate our covers, then we will actually bind it in class since that is what is the hardest part. I have loved learning this new craft, if you know me, I love being crafty. I love painting and scrapbooks, I know a little about how to knit and crochet and cross-stitch, so this is a new trade for me! I will try to make the second book, which is a little bigger, more clean and neat, but still colorful and fun.

Interview Ready Picture

As stated, graduate school is now in the hands of MSU, Mankato. On Friday, I had my individual interview with the program Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs, I feel that my interview went really well! I think I showed my personality well, I just hope I didn't scare them by being overly excited and eager to do whatever they ask. They asked some questions that I didn't expect- one was what was the last book you read and why you read it. I was genuine when I answered, I have been reading Harry Potter the past month and now on the 4th book, I was genuine with my answer but after thinking about it, I don't really know if I should have said that particular book, not that it is a bad thing, but because it's not related to psychology or anything related to an "adult" book. They also asked questions about self-awareness, conflict mediation, counselling. and about why you want to be in the program. I will find out in two weeks if I will be accepted into the program or not. I did receive praise from Dr. Lewis about submitting in graduate assistantship forms in weeks early, because I was not their to meet and greet with the different directors of programs, I am not able to ask questions, so she said it was great that I turned them in early so they could read them before they meet other candidates.
Other exciting things that will be happening soon- I will be joining Tina's family for Easter and will be watching Harry Potter movies all day, everyday! Tina and I will soon be watching Pitch Perfect to prepare for Pitch Perfect 2 in May. We are going to call this marathon "Pitch Slapped" and may involve a fruity drink. I am very thankful for Tina and her family, they have been so welcoming to me the second I got to Harrisburg, I spent my Thanksgiving with them, attend art museum events, Tina has given me countless rides, picked me up and took me to the train station and many other things! I'm very lucky to have met such a special family!
I will most likely not write next week, so stay tuned for a long blog! Till next time.
Love,
Katie

Service Trips and the Scary Future!

This week has been a week of ups and downs! It feels like February is barely chugging along. You would think since it is the shortest month, it would be by quickly but that is not happening for me! One of my favorite expressions in the world is "It's moving slower than a snail with a limp" or "it's moving slower than a stampede of turtles through peanut butter." This week has been a series of highs and lows but I think it is ending on a high note. I am really hoping that once February ends, things will pick up and be more exciting- I can go outside more, anticipate nice weather and do some more adventures and possible go home in April.

Americus, GA is located at the Red Star "A"

Service Trips are fast approaching and people are scattering around the office trying to get things done and send 55 students on service trips to Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, and Michigan. I am working on the logistics of getting t-shirt sizes sent in and printed, working on maps and booking hotel rooms, working on coffee and tea fundraiser, making sure all students have turned in and signed their waiver and all of that jazz. There are so many things that go into a service trip that I had no idea happened. There are so many factors going on- the office, the location we are going, the organization, service trip leaders, service trip participants, and then the weather. All of things are going on simultaneously and its hard not to miss something. I have multiple Post-it notes going and I am constantly checking my to-do list and calendar. I am very excited to go to Georgia, it will be a great experience for me because I have never been on  a service trip before! We will be helping at the Fuller Center in Americus, GA. This is an organization that is much like Habitat for Humanity, it was actually a part of it and then separated a few years ago. We will be building during this week- I am not sure what we will be doing yet, but I will assume its a house. I do not have much experience when it comes to building things, I can use a hammer and paint but when it comes to saws and drywall, I am not very helpful! I will definitely be learning new skills at this! I was looking into the statistics of Americus, GA and about 42% of the city is in poverty, only about 45% of the city has a degree above a high school diploma and most of the families are single mothers. This will be an eye-opening experience for me. I am learning that my role of an administrator is actually just to remain on the sidelines until I am needed. Things like credit card issues, getting lost, conflict management, and working with the organization first hand are things that I will be focusing on when things get tough but in the mean time I will be working just like the other students and letting the service trip leaders run the show, which is really cool! I am excited to see students lead and see different personalities come out. I think it is important for students to take initiative and do things and this is a great opportunity! I met all the students that will be going on this trip today and I think we have a good team and it will be a smooth and easy week of service!

Beginning of the snow

One downfall this week was pretty crappy weather. The East cost keeps getting hit with storms and cruddy weather. Harrisburg got about 5 inches of snow on Saturday but that snow and some ice caused my book binding class to be cancelled as well as hold my friend back from coming to see me and Pennsylvania. But, have no fear, she will be coming in April! So, I will patiently wait for that! We were able to catch up via Skype and she gave me advice and helped me calm down for my individual graduate school interview on Friday.
I had a panic moment on Friday when I received a Skype phone call on my smartphone that I recently got and it was the CSP program I am applying that for grad school and either I didn't understand what was happening or they got the wrong day, but I had a group interview that I thought I had next week. I had to leave Friday morning meeting and go on Skype. Because I was not anticipating this, I was wearing an Iowa sweater, slightly wet hair, jeans, and sat in a stairwell leading up to the 3rd floor in my house. The interview was a little awkward because I was the only person that was not physically there for the interview but I was able to give my opinion when it came to talking about a case study. I have confirmed the date and time for my individual interview on Friday and I will be completely ready for it. Having my group interview on a different day really caught me off guard, the good thing was I didn't have time to feel nervous or anxious, I just had to do it. I only hope I made a good impression on them, especially since I didn't look as nice as the people who were physically there. Also on Friday, I had an interview with Residential Life at MSU for a graduate assistantship program that I think went really well! I have applied to six different locations at MSU for this including: New Student and Family Programs, Learning Communities, Greek Life, Community Engagement, IMPACT, and Res. Life. I am eager and excited to interview for these, but I am not that patient when it comes to finding out if I get into grad school or not. I do have a back up plan if I do not get accepted- I will apply for educational leadership at MSU if I do not get into CSP. I would still be able to do higher education with Ed. Leadership, which is what I would like to do for a career!
This upcoming week is a big one- grad school individual interview via Skype, getting closer to service trips, starting and finishing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and going to Beauty and the Beast for Layla!
With me luck with my interview- words of encouragement appreciated :)

Now, that's a party!

Sycamore House

The Sycamore House had a party fundraiser in the Uppercroft of the church on Friday! We hosted an event called Party Gras and all the proceeds from this event went to the Sycamore House budget- this money is used to travel with, buy new materials, and prepares. This event was much like Mardi Gras because we had lots of beads and streamers, live music, Cajun food, and fun decorations! I spent my Friday morning creating different cards to put on the raffle table; I used lots of feathers, markers, and then put it all together. I was a little nervous about the attendance of this event because right before the event was Choral Evensong and those who attended Evensong were encouraged to come to Parti Gras and the attendance for Evensong was very small. But, I was definitely proven wrong! This fundraiser raised over $1,000 for the Sycamore House. The live music was really good, there were a few older couples that went and danced to songs and were adorable. This is one of the first times I had Cajun food, my stomach doesn't handle spices well, so I've always been nervous to eat it. I tried "alligator bites" but was disappointed to find out it was catfish, I ate jambalaya, king cake, and corn bread. We had the restaurant Crawdaddies cater and it was a hit! The raffle prizes were a range of different things from a Posh Spa Basket, Yellow Bird Cafe' gift card, Little Amps gift card, to St. Stephen's Cathedral framed drawing- there was everything in between. This event was fun to dress up for, I was able to wear my sparkle purple sequence shirt and it was totally appropriate and I wore my new Toms!

Valentine's day package

Earlier this week, I received a wonderful Valentine's day package from my mom that had two new pairs of Toms, my favorite oatmeal, chocolate, and face wash. I was very excited to receive this package! On Valentine's day, I didn't do anything that exciting. I went to a class at Susquehanna Art Museum and learned how to book bind. We did not get completely finished with the project, but it is very interesting. I didn't realize how long and time intensive it is to create a book and bind it together. I can't imagine what it was like in the old days and making leather bound books by hand. This book binding class is happening for the next 3 Saturdays and its fun to work on! Tina is the Art Education Director at the museum and she tells me all about the fun and different activities that go on at the museum!
Work this week went really well, I have been busy working on service trips! As mentioned before, I am taking  a group of students to Georgia. I am working on making different routes we can take (all service trips will be driving to their locations). The drive from Carlisle. PA to Americus, GA is about 13 hours and students can only drive 10 hours in one day, so I am working on booking hotels and finding the best possible routes. I am doing this for Georgia and South Carolina. Service trips are happening from March 7- March 15th, it is coming very quickly! The office is working hard to make these trips the most successful as they can be.
This upcoming week is a rather exciting one- I will be having a visitor come! My former IMPACT Graduate Adviser is coming to Pennsylvania going to spend Saturday with me! I am very excited for this because she is my first visitor that I have had since coming to PA! I am trying to figure out all the different things we can do in one day- maybe go to Dickinson, see the market, Midtown Scholar, that sort of thing! We will see!
Also, this week I have a graduate assistantship interview with Residential Life at Minnesota State and I have my Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs interview on Friday, February 27th. All of this is really coming together, I am trying to be as positive as possible for the interviews, I am not very nervous about them, but I want to prepare myself for best (and worse) case scenario!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Love,
Katie