angel tree is almost ready to go out. our secretary and student workers did a really good job of keeping track of all the gifts, so all we have to do is drop them off at the salvation army on thursday. we had 100 tags and we were able to give all of them out. As of now, we are only missing 2 and i think one of them is coming in later today or tomorrow morning, so i’m not too concerned. we also got a few extras, so i think that we should be all set.

one of the most annoying things about the end of the semester are all of the students coming by at the last mintue looking for community service for a class requirement. especially when they need something on campus because they don’t have any transportation. I have a list of things that i can reccomend to them, but i can’t guarantee anything. i’ve been threatening too to have them walk around millersville and pick up garbage if they absolutely can’t get hours anywhere else. not that i want to walk around in the cold with them, but i’d rather them complete their hours than just take the loss of credit and probably still pass the class.

i am very glad that i’m not going to be around for this civic engagement requirement next year. i think that even if it does pass, it’s going to take so much work to get the campus community behind this change in curriculum that it’s really going to be more of a curse than a blessing. my main concern is that students are just going to do whatever they can to complete the requiremnt that they’re not actually going to get anything significant out of the requirement. this could also give them a bad impression of how amazing service can actually be, and that completely defeats the purpose of the engagement requirement in the first place. too bad dr.allen doesn’t want to hear a single negative thing about this requirement and he won’t listen to anything except his own big fat voice. can you tell i’m not upset our staff meeting was cancelled this morning??? haha.

tutoring is going really well at mccaskey and we are now trying to expand to the boys and girls club program at king elementary as well. we just had out tutoring appreciation reception yesterday, which nobody really came to, but it was nice to recognize the tutors for all of their hard work. plus i got cake and a huge candy bar. i’m concerned about recruiting more tutors for next semester, but i guess that there is nothing i can do about it until the spring semester starts up. unfortunately, i don’t think that any of our current tutors will be around over the break, but a few of them are coming back in the spring. we are losing many of them to student teaching, but hopefully the ones that were teaching last semester will be interested in getting some extra experience. at the high school, we just hired staff tutors and it’s been a really big change for the high school students. they were used to being able to do whatever they wanted, but now they’re expected to complete work and only be on the websites that are academic and pre-approved. plus the snacks are later, because most of the kids don’t get back on task after snack. it is nice for me to have some disciplinarians in the house. the kids don’t really listen to me, they know i’m the pushover and i’m there more to keep them on task and form relationships with them. i do think that this heavy handed discipline that the teachers have been using is starting to drive the students away, but there isn’t anything that i can do about it. if the staff tutors expect the students to sit and do their work and the students show up to screw around, then they need to understand that they are going to get kicked out. i just get upset when they are asked to leave and i know that their parents aren’t coming until 5:30 or they need to wait for the bus. the staff tutors don’t make sure the kids go outside after they leave the library, so those kids are going to get into trouble wandering around the building, or if they do go outside, they have to walk home or wait in the cold. i’m not cool with that. it’s so hard to be consistant when there are so  many different people trying to run the show. but i guess that’s the world of education. i am so glad that i changed my major. thank god. i love tutoring for a few hours a day, but i don’t think that i could be in the classroom day in and day out not to mention having to deal with the bullshit buerocracy of the administration. it’s bad enough in higher ed, but at least here i have some autonomy. it seems like everyone in the high school is fighting for power and nobody really has any. but they like to think they do.

loveaudrey

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

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!

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.