Tea Parties and Princess Dresses...

This past week was my third week at Girls Inc. The week flew by so fast since we were doing so many things. Monday and Tuesday I helped the girls make tiaras out of recycled cardboard. We decorated them using markers, glitter, beads, feathers, and anything else we could find. The girls got really into it and ended up making some really fantastic tiaras. These tiaras were for the tea party that we were going to have on Friday. The girls were super excited all week. Wednesday and Thursday we made fancy gloves out of old tights or panty hose. Since the theme of this summer is Girls Inc. Goes Green we try to make sure we are recycling and reusing with all of our arts and crafts projects.
Friday was the day of the big tea party. The girls all came dressed in their princess dresses wearing their tiaras and gloves that they had made. They were all soooo cute! We made cucumber sandwiches and tea and gave the girls a chance to practice their etiquette skills that Ms. Marcia had been teaching them all summer. All in all the tea party was a success. I'm not sure what we have coming up this week but I'm sure no matter what it is the girls will make it fun. Talk to you guys in a week!

The Heavy Lifting

I have to say this week was perhaps the hardest week yet of my SoS but also the most enjoyable. Instead of spending time in the office filing or making copies, I worked with a two other ladies (one who works in the office and a teacher) to organize and move textbooks. I know it sounds simple right? Well, it sounds simple but in reality sorting over 280 boxes of textbooks and then hauling them all over campus to their correct classrooms can get really tiring. By Wednesday morning, we were definitely ready for a break. Although it was hard work, we really enjoyed ourselves. We laughed when the carts of books went flying down ramps and when we thought we lost the only master key to all of the teachers closets! I also enjoyed taking a walk down memory lane with my fourth grade teacher, who was one of the volunteers. Thursday we completed this huge task and started on another one. Friday morning we started boxing up books from the school's library in preparation for the move to a different (and bigger) location!

After a very tiring week, I was so glad to be able to have the weekend to relax. This upcoming week will be my last at Meadowbrook so I'm hoping to get as much done as possible!

Not in real time

These first few entries are not in real time because I've been totally slacking on my blogging.
I'm doing fitness related things at Noah's Ark Baptist in Naples

Week 1
My first week was the last week of May. The kids were putting on a mother's day show for Haitian mother's day which is the last Sunday of May and they really needed help. The show being a last minute thing really was lacking some stuff. So that's how i ended up "choreographing" a dance and helping put up the show in one week.
It was definitely stressful but it was fun because the kids are hilarious and take their shows seriously.
I have a video of one of the dances I taught some girls but it's taking forever to upload so I will have to put that up later. I think it ended up very good considering the time some of the kids had to practice was not much.

Week 2
Totally diferent from week 1. I've been researching and doing office work this week.
The only fun thing I did was help 2 friends from the church come up with workout plans and I also went with them to the gym Mon, Wed and  Fri. They are now officially my workout buddies.
I'm making my plans on how to go about starting my awareness campaign because i've got lots of information to share. They want me to do presentations for different groups at the church. Like one day the women ministry, the men, the youth, and then do general presentations. I'm excited about
I've also started studying for my group fitness certification. I'm kinda confused about which one to take because there are so many different ones. All in all it was an ok week

Long Time No Post!

So my apartment doesn't have internet and I can't use the internet at work for personal use and getting up at 6 and home by 6 is a pretty long day, longer than I'm used to. SO. For an update: my internship at the Supervisor of Elections Office has been UH-MAZE-ING. I seriously had no idea that I would be learning so much so quickly. May 24 through May 27 the Outreach Team held events all over Polk County. I learned my way around backroads that I never knew existed!
The most exciting event of the week wad the Auburndale 2nd Annual Ladies Expo and Luncheon. We offered registration services to quite a few ladies at the Expo as well as sample the best cupcakes in town (courtesy of It's a Piece of Cake by Maggie, aslo home of the best cakes in town). Sometimes I feel like my internship is more about food than it is about voter services.
At this point, I am looking forward to learning more about the process of arranging Early Voting and the ins and outs of getting ready for a major election.
I can safely say that I know how to work a high-tech copy machine as well as how to transfer a call to a different line, but I am anxious to learn more about the elections office.
This weeks most unique experience was visiting the Rohr Home, an assisted living facility. It was a very small building, so Victoria and I went room to room with our clipboards and American Flags to offer Absentee Ballot requests to the residents. I met a few folks that were nearly 100 years old. What a life!
Well, that's all for now folks!

Cut and Glue

I'm down to my last couple of weeks at the CSL. Where has the time gone?? I've been cutting and gluing for the past couple of days so I thought I'd take a break and blog...(I know! I'm making excuses!) But in my defense, I need to cut 100 pages into five sections and then glue them on to brown paper lunch bags. When I finish I should have 500. And I probably have to do it again when I glue on the stories.I'm pretty sure I don't want to cut nor glue for a very long time after this. All I can say is that the freshmen better like it! We have been working on projects in order to get ready for the Hunger Banquet, which is on August 17, 2010 at 5:30p.m. in the Rinker Field House. These bags are advertising initiatives giving freshmen information on how they can get involved. Sometime along the way, we also have to ask for food donations, make a banner, and finish planning. I think asking for food donations will be the hardest part for me. For some reason, I don't really like it when they say no. haha.

Well, last week I think I had mentioned something about the Pepsi Refresh Project. I logged on at 7am on July 1st thinking I would submit my already written project. But nope...there are already 1000 entries. The lesson learned: submit the project at midnight on August 1st. You guys will have to stay tuned for when I bug you with thirty days of reminder e-mails! :)

Otherwise, Stetson is just cruising along summertime. Florida doesn't quite beat Jack Kelly's 111 degree weather in NJ. But it has been raining almost everyday. Surprising, huh?

Heat Waves

Hey Everyone! I hope you all had an awesome 4th of July..even those out of country! This Reflections blog rocks, and by the way...no other school has one this strong. Woo! So, my car told me it was 111 DEGREES here in NJ today. Yeah. WHAT!? Well, I just put a substantial post on my bloogg so check it out!:

http://northsoutheastcoast.blogspot.com/

Also, so you don't think I'm totally slacking off here..check out some of the new Bonner Training videos I've been working on:



There's some more, but all of these are kind of still secret..so you never saw these, right? ;)

SoS Weeks 4 and 5...Avoiding Pink Eye and New Training

Week 4 has definitely been a challenge to get through. Its the last week of FAU's Mid-Summer session, so we have to make sure that students who receive extended time on exams have turned in all of their paperwork, check to see if the exams have been received my professors (regular font, large print for vision-impaired students, audio recording for physically impaired students or blind students, etc.), double check that the students accomodations have been approved, and finally, once the student finishes the exam, we have sure be 100% positive that each and every exam is delivered to the correct office to the correct professor. Needless to say, there was PLENTY of work to be done during Week 4, but it was all worth it for all of our appreciative students. One memory in particular that was very touching to me was one I met a graduate student who was physically impaired in a wheelchair. I had worked with him before but never realized that extent of his physical impairment. As I was leading him to his personal testing room where he would receive 2.5x's extra time on his final exam, I opened up the audio recording program on the computer since he is unable to use his hands. I thought he was only unable to write, but it turns out that he can't use his hand at all except for the joystick on his electric wheel chair. When we were in the testing room, he asked me to put the headphones on his head and then had me adjust them about three or four times until they were comfortable. This made me appreciate every little movement that I am able to make with my hands.

Later that week, I learned about Asperger's Syndrome which is also known as High-Functioning Autism. I was told that Asperger's students are extremely bright and are often the most intelligent students in a course. They absorb material like sponges, and retain large amounts of information. There disability is seen in social situations...they literally have no regard for how to act in social settings. They don't know what is appropriate or not and have a hard time communicating at all with others let alone communicating effectively. Most Asperger's students are male and their speech is often about random topics that have nothing to do with the task at hand. I witnessed the struggle that Asperger's students go through when on of our Asperger's students used our computer lab for two hours before informing us that he was infected with Pink Eye. Because of his disability, he didn't realize that it is innapropriate to be in public settings with conjuctivitis. We kindly asked him to return only when he had a Doctor's note and quickly went to work disinfecting the lab and the rest of the office. I really felt bad for him, though.

Week 5 has been the most challenging week thus far. Our Coordinator of Notetaking Services is taking off for vacation in England until July 20th and I have been chosen to learn her position and fill in for her. I never realized how much paperwork, computer records, and filing had to be done in order to pair one of our disabled students with a volunteer notetaker. There were literally moments during my training when I wanted to quick, because I was so incredibly frustrated with all of the crazy details to remember. Thankfully, our Coordinator is one of the most patient women I've ever met. I was finally getting the hang of things by Thursday, and by Friday, I was barley asking her questions on how to put the data in the system, match the student with a notetaker, file the paperwork, inform the volunteer that they have a volunteer position, while simultaneously contacting professors who are being stubborn about informing the class that a volunteer notetaker is needed. I am learning to balance all of the tasks at hand, and realize that all of my work pays off when I see that relief on a disabled student's face when they are informed that they have been matched with a volunteer notetaker for one of their courses. Let's see how this week goes...I'm on my own without help! Bring on the challenges!!! hehehe