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

Philadelphia Round 2!

My new phone!

Let me tell you- this week has been busy and exhausting. I am presently watching clips from previous Olympics. I watched Tara Lipinski, Sarah Hughes and Charlie White and Meryl Davis skate, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte swim, and then moved into Winter X Games. For as much as I am not a snow bunny, I sure love watching it all. I am doing this because I don't feel like doing anything else. I went to church and sang in choir and then retrieved to my bed for the rest of the afternoon and messed around with my new phone and my laptop. Folks, I have joined the smartphone world! This is pretty big in the life of Katie, I will be able to get picture messages and even go on the internet, pretty exciting stuff!
This week was so busy and exhausting because I had something going on every night as well as working 8 hour days at work. On Monday and Thursday night, I had choir rehearsal to prepare for service on Sunday as well as a performance that is happening next Friday called Evensong. We are learning 5 new pieces of music and rehearsing twice a week instead of one to prepare for it. On Tuesdays, we always have community dinner. Lately, we have not had that many attend, we had 7 people attend this week. We prepared breakfast food including eggs, pancakes, and sausage. I think it went well and I had fun at it. We have guests in our house from 7 till after 9 most Tuesdays. On Wednesday I went to Red Robin for the first time with my mentor Brigette, who was in the house last year and I can confide in a lot. I really enjoyed Red Robin, it was tasty and I really liked the atmosphere of it!
Work this week has been busy because I had my event- Community Service Fair! I had about 15 different organizations looking for volunteers come and table and recruit volunteers. I thought the event went very well- logistically it went without a hitch. Sound, food, most of the organizations were all there ready to go. I had all the tables, chairs, and everything prepared and ready well in advance. I had about 50-60 students attend this event. At first, I was pretty discouraged. Coming from MSU where there are 15,000 students, 50 students is not a very good percentage- but Dickinson has less than 2000 students. I got feedback from the organizations and they said that they got interested students and that it was well worth their time for tabling for two hours, which is what I really needed and wanted to hear! I definitely think this was a good and successful event, but I think I should have done it last semester- lesson learned and notes for next year were made!
I return to my old desk starting on Monday since our administrator that was on maternity leave comes back! I am a little sad to go back, I really liked having multiple jobs and wearing different hats. I got to interact with students much more because they came to me with many questions, but I think I will keep busy with just my work! I also go the exciting news this week that I am officially taking students on a service trip... to Georgia! I am very excited about this and I hope it will be a wonderful learning experience for me! I will be in Georgia in March, which is coming up very quickly! Pretty crazy to think about, actually!

Absalom Jones

The Sycamore House headed to Philly on Saturday to meet the Episcopal Service Corps house in Philly and met up with the New York- Staten Island crew again! We met the NY group at our retreat in the Poconos. We arrived in Philly around 9:30am and Philly is about an hour and 45 minutes away from Harrisburg. The first thing we did when we got to Philly was go to Absalom Jones service in West Philadelphia (....born and raised, the playground is where I spent most of my days...). This service was an experience I will never forget! There was so much life in the church and absolutely no pews. We all sat in chairs around the outskirts of the room. This was primarily a black church and it was so much more easy going and uplifting. Members were much more "into the service". They had a whole procession where they took all the flags and walked around the church, they had an African drum session, full drums set choir, boys and girls club singers, and a powerful sermon. It was very different from St. Stephens, which is much more traditional and clear cut. The service on Saturday was very good, but was very long- it lasted about 3 hours. Which, put the rest of our schedule for the day behind because we didn't realize it would run so long. The next thing we did was go to Reading Terminal Market. And, WOW! I have never seen so many different vendors, so many people, so many smells, and so many different food options in such a confined space. They had Greek food, Chinese, Mexican, Seafood, bakeries, sit down restaurants, chocolate stations, arts and crafts, and everything in between. I was overwhelmed by everything. I have attached a link to the website because I don't think I can do justice in explaining it- http://readingterminalmarket.org/merchants. After the market, we walked to the Philly house and met the members of their house and played games, drank beer, and ate pizza with them and the NY group. I thought the day was fun, I wish we could have done a little more around the city, but it was a good experience.
This week seems like it will be less busy- in theory. I have choir on Monday and Thursday, with performance on Friday at 7pm. After the performance the Sycamore House is having a fundraiser called Party Gras, which is like a Marti Gras party. We have Crawdad's catering, king cake, and musical entertainment. All the money raised from this will go to the Sycamore House in funding the rest of our retreat to Virginia and for the house next year. I have never had crawdads or king cake, so all of this will be an experience for me! I will let you all know how it goes!

Have a wonderful week- I am going to continue to be lazy this evening and watch the Grammys. Hunter Hayes is nominated, so you know I will be watching!

Love,
Katie

Good things are happening!

Happy Sunday! This has been a pretty emotional week both physically and mentally. I have got some news that I am very excited to share with you all! But, I will save that till the end :) This weekend has been very good- I have had some time to relax and even bake some cookies for Tina's birthday that happened on Friday! This is my first time making peanut butter blossoms on my own. I have helped rolled balls with my mom countless times over the holidays but have never made them all on my own. They turned out very good! I am proud of myself! I really do enjoy baking!
This past week has been busy at work. Spring Break applications were getting turned in this week, but they started off very slowly. On Thursday, we had 11 applications turned in. For the 4 service trips, we need at least 44 students, so I was getting a little nervous about that. The service trips will be going to Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and South Carolina, with 10 people going on a trip (at least). On Friday, I heard that we got 53 applications turned in that day, so we are definitely over the amount of students needed for the trips, which also means that we have students to pick from that would be best for the different service trips. Interviews are taking place next week and I may be helping give them on Thursday evening.

Community Service Fair Poster

Tomorrow, I have a pretty large event happening from 12-2 in the Student Union. I am bringing a Community Service Fair to Dickinson! This fair will have 17 different organizations from the Dickinson College community, Carlisle community, and Harrisburg community. The different organizations will talk to students about the different volunteer opportunities that their organizations holds for them. I have many different groups including the YMCA, Salvation Army, Dickinson Farm, Therapeutic Horseback Riding, and Project SHARE. I am hoping a lot of students will come to this event, I have not promoted it as much as I normally would have because I am sitting in the office more as the administrative assistant, but it is in a high traffic place, right at lunch time, so I hope people will stop in!
On Saturday, St. Stephens had a brass/organ concert at 7pm. This event was incredible! St. Stephens choir directors brother, Jonathan, come in and preformed a concert for the community with the help of a brass section from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. I have never heard such a loud sound inside the church before. I never realized the different acoustics it had and how incredible things can sound in it! The organist is well known internationally and even has a Grammy. He performed a song by Bach called Jig Fugue and told the crowd that it is originally a harp/piano song, not organ. So if you are able to see his feet, watch them because he literally does a jig to play the song. I had to ask questions about the organ, I have heard it hundreds of times, but I don't really know that much about it. In a standard piano, there are 88 keys and 3 foot pedals. In an organ, there are 66 keys and 44 pedals, which explains why he was doing a "jig". I was very pleasantly surprised about this concert, it was much better than I thought it would be and I definitely enjoyed it!

Interview Email

Now for the exciting news! As many of you know I have turned in my Counseling and Student Personnel- College Student Affairs application and was waiting to hear back about an interview. Well, a day after all my references were submitted, I got an email stating that I have moved on to interviews! I am very excited for this opportunity! I found out this exciting news via email from the secretary on behalf of Dr. Jacqueline Lewis. The email stated that group and individual interviews will take place on Feb. 20th in MSU, Mankato and there will be a lunch with professors and staff and then an opportunity to meet with the different graduate assistantships available in the fall. I emailed back asking if there would be subsidizing costs for me to fly back to Minnesota or if I am able to do a Skype interview. They will be reviewing my application and letting me know of their decision! This is all starting to feel real! I am very excited to move on to interviews, I am not guaranteed a spot in graduate school, but I don't feel very nervous about not getting in- which I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing! We will just have to see. I am eager to find out if they will be sending me to Minnesota, I think it would be great for me to meet the professors and they can meet me personally to see if I am a good fit for the program. Wish me luck!
This upcoming week is going to be busy! On Monday night I have choir rehearsal, Tuesday is community dinner, Wednesday I am going out to eat with my mentor, Brigette, Thursday will either be interviews at Dickinson or choir rehearsal, Friday is Friday meeting and I am going to get a smartphone and grocery shopping! Busy week ahead for me, I am sure I will be sleeping a lot over the weekend!

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Katie