it’s 9:56am, do you know where your howard is?

How has your first few months of being a VISTA been as you expected?

Since this is my second year serving at Millersville, I pretty much knew what I was getting into when I started in August. I have the same office, live in the same apartment and have been working with the same staff members. Although I am working with some new programs this semester, I am still working on many of the same ones from last semester. It has been so helpful to have the experience I gained last year to the events that we’ve coordinated so far this year. Our main Freshman Orientation Service event, Day of Caring, was so much easier the second time around! Even though I did a lot more of the planning this second year, it went (or seemed to go) much more smoothly than last years’ event. We also held our first annual Volunteer Fair here at Millersville this October 5^th. We had over 30 local agencies and 10 student organizations and departments in attendance and all the feedback that we’ve recievced has been really positive. I am so excited about how this event went.

How have your first few months of being a VISTA been different than you expected?

The only big change that we’ve had this year has been adding more responsibilities to what I’m doing with the after school tutoring program at McCaskey High School in Lancaster. We were supposed to have a student coordinator working with the district on the actual implementation of the program this fall, but he quit unexpectedly and I took over his duties Monday-Thursday afternoons at the school. I am glad that I have these extra responsibilities because they bring me closer to reaching my VISTA service plan goals for this year, but since it was an unexpected change, I had to move around some of my other obligations and it’s been a rather hectic few months. We’ve also made contacts with a counselor at Phoenix Academy, the alternative school for the School District of Lancaster, who was actually the PACC VISTA at Millersville 4 years ago. She asked for some help implementing a life skills/counseling type piece to occur weekly at the academy and we recruited the athletics department at MU to focus on wellness and goal setting and similar topics. Since this is the first year we’ve had this partnership, we’re kind of playing it by ear right now, but I am confident that it will be successful once we get all the kinks worked out.

What is one lesson that you have learned about yourself so far?

One thing that I have learned about myself from everything that has gone on this year is that I work really well under pressure. When we have a large, impending event I am able to make sure that everything is done efficiently and correctly without losing my mind. I have also had the pleasure of working with several people who have different work styles and personalities than me and I have tried my hardest to avoid conflict and continue to get things accomplished. Before I started working as a vista, I don’t know if I would have described myself as a patient person, but after seeing my progress working in these two facets of my job, I now know think that I would be able to describe myself this way.

Love, Audrey

so much of my life has been taken up by the volunteer fair this fall. we started working on it in June with the help of a PR 4 class. Together, we were able to put together a really amazing event that attracted almost 200 students and 40 community and campus partnernships searching for volunteers.

We had free pizza for all attendees as well as door prizes that were rafled off while people walked around tables set up in the SMC MPR from 11-2 on October 5th.

this event was definately a hit and we’re looking forward to planning more like it in the future!

We collected 36 boxes of food and $160 in donations at the John Herrs’ food drive on September 28th! All proceeds went to the LCCC Food Bank in Lancaster. We had a total of 23 volunteers throughout the day

Thanks so much to all the volunteers who helped make this happen & John Herrs’ Village Market!!!

The Salton Sea: Oh, shit, what is this? Am I dead? Linoleum? This must be hell. Oh no, what a cliché. I’ve had some time to think about it and it’s pretty simple after all. I think it’s like the man said, “Man is the measure of all things.” I should know. I ran the gamut. Tom Van Allen got his revenge. Good for Tom. And Danny Parker? He got gut-shot for being a lowlife rat. That sucks for him. As far I’m concerned, they’re both dead. So who is this guy? Tell you the truth, I still don’t know. But I like his chances. I really like his chances.

 I like this quote because it shows that even though you do things in your past that you may regret, it’s never too late to learn from your mistakes and start over.

 The Salton Sea: So that’s where I found myself. No, I should choose my words more wisely. This is the world I sought out. The land of the perpetual night party. Day swallowing night and night swallowing day. The crank compressing time like some divine piston on its awesome downstroke. We’ve been at this for three days… or is it four? Tweakers, lokers, slammers, coming and going, swearing eternal allegiance and undying love for one another, only to wake up after the binge and realize you wouldn’t walk across the street to piss on one of them if their head was on fire. Three days. Or is it four? I know what you’re thinking, but don’t give up on me just yet. Just wait ’til I’ve told my whole story. And keep your eyes open. Nothing is as it seems.

 The Salton Sea: Sometimes you see the world so clearly… and you know just what to do, and just when to do it. Just what you should’ve done, and when you should’ve done it.

I would like to be something that doesn’t have to think too hard. Something that is generally happy and not too complex. Perhaps a Labrador. I would definitely not want to be a food (who would want to be eaten?!?) nor an inanimate object—that just seems scary- trapped in an unmoving, incommunicable body??? Yikes.

i am so proud of how well this event went. after all of the planning and coordinating we had 250 students visit 11 project sites in Lancaster county. although the weather was not quite on our side, it was nothing like the monsoon of last year and most of the projects were able to go on as planned. The students who were assigned to the projects that did have to be cancelled were moved to other projects and everyone got to spend the day working in the community.

afterward, we had lunch at mccaskey high school and i really liked that a lot of the students mingled with community members who also participated in the events other than just sitting with other millersville students. after all, that really is the purpose of the lunch.

All of the feedback that we recieved was very positive and i felt like this second year running the event went so much smoother than last year. it’s so much easier to do things the second time around!

I think that many of my strengths lie within my personality. I have the ability to be (or at least appear to be) very friendly and outgoing most of the time. I don’t have a problem accepting others’ ideas and criticisms and I appreciate input on my ideas. I like to work in groups as long as the other members also contribute. If I feel that others’ aren’t giving an appropriate amount of input, however, I do tend to take over a bit, but that is not what I naturally prefer. I tend to be a perfectionist and I like to have things done on time, however I do work best under pressure and I have made a habit of being quite a procrastinator.

yikes i haven’t written in AGES. lots of things have happened and i will try to fill you in on most of them

after school corps- we started a partnership with the school district of lancaster to try to get more students in to tutor elem, middle and high school. we started small with summer school tutoring, but we are planning to have a huge recruitment in the fall of MU tutors to send into the city schools! YAY actually accomplishing something on my workplan!

we lost our scholars in service to PA program here this year. phennd decided that they had stronger universities that could use our spots rather than us. suck it hillary kane. i don’t really mind, i loved working with my scholars last year, but i hated the administrative side of the program.

i had my VISTA pso last week. i got to meet all the new vistas, plus i got to see the other returning vistas as we gear up for another year with AMERICORPS! meghan had the second years plan and lead workshops for the group so that we could be a wealth of knowledge and hopefully be less bored with material that we were hearing for the second time. i did the “leadership compass” with bethany and it was a lot of fun. that is my favorite workshop and bethany is awesome to work with, so it was a lot of fun. i’m going to miss last year’s PACC PANTHER group, but i already have a lot of love for my WOLF PACC.

ugh, day of caring is practically upon us and i feel like i have a handle on everything, but every time i say that, i get bombarded with more tasks to complete. i hope that this day runs really smoothly, espcially since we have an extra 75 students to coordinate this year– yikes!

howard is back and working in the office. things are going better. we don’t know what is going to happen with him not having a license yet, but he’s here and working (kind of) and for right now, i have no complaints.

more updates are coming soon!

audrey