Tree Planting

Hey all! So, we did a tree planting Friday afternoon with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. You can check out the press release I wrote (they made a couple changes, like taking out the exact location...) http://green.indy.com/posts/college-students-teaming-up-to-plant-trees-2. We ended up with 98 students representing 6 colleges from Indianapolis and a few guests from the community. I was very happy with the turnout and the fact that we accomplished so much in such a short time! I have a few pictures to share:

Kind of hard to tell-but this is part of the finished product! This section goes all the way down to the green interstate sign.

Check out that team work :) And yes-the shovel is supposed to be upside down. They are measuring the depth of the hole compared to the tree.

A little school spirit showing through


An "arial"-ish view of most of the group hard at work.

It was very inspiring to see so many people working so hard-especially on a Friday afternoon the week before finals! The weather was beautiful and we finished the day with no injuries beyond some blisters. I was proud to be part of such a great, hard-working group of students, faculty, staff, and community representatives!

In other news-the Environmental Leadership Retreat is approaching quickly. It has been a little crazy trying to nail down the final schedule as we've had a few changes come up last minute. I know that everything will fall into place and be fine, but it has been a little frustrating at times. We had someone back out of a spot, but thankfully we were able to fill it pretty quickly so we still have a full roster. I'm looking forward to the week-it will be fun to have such a diverse group of students from across the state coming together and learning so much while having the chance to do some hands-on service in Indianapolis. I sometimes forget that Alternative Breaks can take place so close to home. I think it will be a very eye opening experience and I'm really looking forward to it!

We went to 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins tonight! I had Rocky Road ice cream for the first time in years and it was absolutely delicious-and super cheap :)


Finally, this is an article that Maggie sent out to the staff earlier this week. It is pretty light-hearted and an interesting point of view. I would recommend it (clearly I do if I'm putting it on here...) Read it to learn how volunteering makes the heart grow stronger. http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090428/LIFE/904280304

Picture update...

Carson in his soccer uniform showing off his new comic book

We learned that Carson could touch his nose with his tongue and he was very proud to show off his new trick!

Baby Brooke playing at Nana and Papa's house


All smiles in the car on the way to Illinois :)

Reflections on the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act

This is a few days late, but I am still sorting out my thoughts on the whole Serve America Act... incase you didn't get the chance to check it out, here are Obama's remarks before he signed this act: http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/newsroom/statements_detail.asp?tbl_pr_id=1302

I pulled out a couple of quotes from his speech that really stuck out to me

"It’s the same spirit of service I’ve seen across this country. I’ve met countless people of all ages and walks of life who want nothing more than to do their part. I’ve seen a rising generation of young people work and volunteer and turn out in record numbers. They’re a generation that came of age amidst the horrors of 9/11 and Katrina, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an economic crisis without precedent. And yet, despite all this -- or more likely because of it -- they’ve become a generation of activists possessed with that most American of ideas, that people who love their country can change it. They’re why the Peace Corps had three applications for every position available last year; why 35,000 young people applied for only 4,000 slots in Teach for America; why AmeriCorps has seen a 400-percent increase in applications in just the past four months."

I love that my generation has been drawn to service. I guess I hadn't ever thought about the fact that we are the "generation that came of age amidst the horrors of 9/11 and Katrina" despite the fact that so many of my friends have gone to the Gulf Coast to help with relief efforts. It is inspiring that there are so many people my age that want to do great things and really leave their mark on the world. The next quote I pulled out is where I get a little concerned about this...

"That’s why this bill will expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots today to 250,000 in less than a decade."

That is a drastic increase. I think that is possible over a decade, but within the VISTA program alone (there are several AmeriCorps programs) 3,000 of those spots have to be created and filled before September 1, 2009 because the funding will end September 1, 2010. The process of creating my position was a several month process, then it took about 2 months for them to fill the position. I worry that the positions being created are not being well thought out, and therefore the VISTA will not be able to make as strong of an impact. I worry that organizations don't understand the overall VISTA mission and the purpose of having a VISTA in the office and they will end up using the individual that fills the spot as more of an internship/free labor kind of thing. I am also concerned that some people are deciding to join AmeriCorps just because they can't find a job elsewhere. Which that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if they find a "real" job 6 months into their position, how many people will quit instead of finishing their year? I love the VISTA program and all that it stands for and it will be very interesting to see it develop over the next 4 months as they create all of these positions and attempt to fill them. I truly hope that this is not an issue of people just doing it because they can't find another job, but rather this is something they have thought about and since the job market is rough, they decided that this was their push to join and make a difference.

I hope I'm not sounding stuck up and saying that people are joining for the wrong reasons-I'm not the right person to be judging the motivation of others. These are just my initial reactions to the Serve America Act.

Happy Earth Day!

Hello all! Happy Earth Day :) In honor of today, turn off your tv and go read a book, take a walk, or do something good for the Earth! This is an interesting article about the view from youth in our country on the environment:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/kids-worry-about-environment.php



To help celebrate Earth Day, ICC is sponsoring a tree planting this Friday. We are going to have almost 100 volunteers from 5 Indianapolis colleges and universities coming together to plant 100 trees in one afternoon. I think it is going to be a cool event and I'm really looking forward to it! And, the weather looks like it is going to be fabulous-high 70s and sunny :) In relation to the event, I wrote my first press release yesterday/this morning! I'm pretty excited about that.

I forgot to tell you last week that we had our Presidents and Chancellors Board Meeting. It was interesting to listen to all of the technical stuff that goes on that I don't usually hear about-stuff about the budget and all that. The staff did a great job setting up the day-they had different people from our campuses come in and give presentations and we did a tour of the Keep Indianapolis Beautiful building that is super green. It was pretty neat to see all of the advances that have been made towards green buildings and hearing the numbers on how much energy it saves.

I went to Carson's first soccer game last weekend-he's so grown up and played so well! I'm guessing that if he keeps playing he will end up being a mid-fielder. He has endless energy and naturally runs back on defense rather than always trying to score. He saved several goals! Again, I need to upload a bunch of pictures onto here, I have some cute ones of him in his soccer uniform!

Work has been keeping me very busy with so many big events coming up. I applied for a grant to cover my registration for a conference in July...my fingers are crossed that I get it! I will find out in a week or 2 if I did. I've also been trying to get food donations for our retreat-it has been harder than I was expecting but I have gotten a fair amount of stuff and I am waiting to hear back from several places still. That's about it for now-I will get pictures up here soon, promise! Happy Earth Day everyone!!!

National Service Presentation

Hey! So I am going to do a presentation with Emily at Butler about National Service 101. In preparation for this, I was updating an old powerpoint presentation she has with the new numbers and it was very inspiring. Here are the stats that I wanted to share to show just how great the impact of national service is on our communities and around the world:

Indiana Senior Corps:
More than 8,600 seniors in Indiana mentor more than 3,900 young people with special needs, help more than 380 homebound seniors maintain independence, provide services to more than 1,400 groups across the state.

Indiana AmeriCorps:
More than 570 individuals will respond to education, environmental, public safety, and other pressing needs in communities across Indiana. Since 1994, more than 7,900 Indiana residents have qualified for the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award totaling more than $24.4 million.

Illinois AmeriCorps:
More than 73,000 people of all ages and backgrounds are helping to meet local needs, strengthen communities, and increase civic engagement through 150 national service projects across Illinois. This year AmeriCorps will provide more than 2,300 individuals the opportunity to provide intensive, results-driven service to meet education, environmental, public safety and other pressing needs in communities across the state. Since 1994, more than 17,000 Illinois residents have qualified for AmeriCorps Education Awards totaling more than $59,100,000.


Peace Corps:
Since 1961 195,000 volunteers have been trained serving in 139 countries around the world.

Current Peace Corps volunteers:
7,876 volunteers
60% female 40% male
94% single 6% married

average age-27 years old
median age-25 years old
5% of volunteers over 50 (oldest=84)
94% have at least an undergraduate degree

And finally, a couple of notable Peace Corps Alumni:
-Samuel Gillespie III, Senior Vice President, Exxon Mobil Corp (Kenya, 1966-68)
-Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix (Swaziland, 1983-83)
-Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut (Dominican Republic, 1966-68)
-Donald J. Putrimas, Vice President, Warner Bros. (Brazil, 1976-78)


As for the notable AmeriCorps Alumni, it's still a relatively new program so I couldn't find any major people...yet. Check back in 10 years and I'll let you know what I'm up to at the time :)
Go national (and global) service!

Easter Weekend!

Hello all! Sorry I didn't update all last week-it was a pretty low-key week so I didn't really have anything exciting to report! I got to go home this past weekend for Easter and it was such a good weekend :) I rode home with Crissy, Brian and Brooke (Carson spent a long weekend with Nana and Papa) and it was great to catch up with them! It's always so much fun to get everybody together, and it's always nice to go home for a bit.

Saturday I went to my best friend Amanda's bridal shower. That was weird...it was my first friend's bridal shower and it made me realize that we are all growing up faster than we'd realized. I got my bridesmaid dress for Leigh's wedding and I love it! It's an indigo-ish color and its super cute! I still need to get my dress for Amandas. It will be a busy summer! Saturday night we went to eat at the Blue Cat, a little restaurant in Williamsville that is delicious and has a guy come in and play music. It's a really fun atmosphere with awesome food! Sunday we went to Granny and Grandpa's house :) It was so good to see everybody and our brunch was awesome! I really enjoyed our time there.

Molly (Mom and Dad's cat) is about to have kittens again and I get to keep one! I'm really excited about it and so are all of my roommates. It will be so fun to have a real pet! I really want a dog but I don't think I'm ready to have all of the responsibilities that go along with a dog, so I'm pretty excited for the kitty. I hope it's cute and super playful! I feel very grown up getting a real pet...

I have some pictures from Easter that I will try to remember to put up tonight or tomorrow. Back to work for now :)

Camping!

Hello all! I haven't really worked much since I last updated, but I had a fun weekend! I thoroughly enjoyed my 3 days off, even if it was a little hard to go back to work this morning. We went camping at Turkey Run and it was awesome. We hit the nicest day we have had in awhile and it actually snowed today, so we beat the bad weather! We got in some awesome hiking for about 4 hours, played a little frisbee along the way, then made our fire and dinner and just took time to catch up. It was so much fun and I can't wait until our next trip! I love that we have been doing more "outdoorsy" things-I enjoy it so much and it's great to have a good group of friends that enjoy it all, too! Here are a few pictures of our adventures:

A little boy band pose on the playground

Part of the trail we hiked-don't worry, it isn't as dangerous as it looks, Mom :)

Beautiful. We were walking through a really dark area that was narrow and it opened up into this area where the sun was shining. It was gorgeous!

Group picture

Pretty-who knew Indiana looked like this?

So, there's a sneak peek at our camping adventure. Hope you enjoyed it :) We came back on Sunday then Sunday night I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with a couple friends from work and Beth and Jarod. We enjoyed some wings and a few rather intense games of trivia. I struggled maintaining my lead at the end of the game, so I don't have any wins to my name...but I talked trash with the best of them :)

This morning Lindsay and I had a meeting with Chris, the guy who will be leading our bicycle tour of brownfields in Indianapolis for our retreat. We are really looking forward to it, Chris has a ton of great ideas and this is the first time he will be leading a bike tour like this so he is as excited as we are! It was cool to see everything coming together and to find the common "themes" across all of our speakers and service projects. Also, our application deadline was on Friday and we have a waiting list! Woo!! I was very proud of myself because they didn't think we woud get enough people signed up by the deadline, so I exceeded that expectation :) A few things at work have gotten pushed to the side in the last couple of weeks with working on the retreat so I'm hoping to get stuff back on track this week. I'll keep you posted on how that goes....

I am going to Crissy's tomorrow night for dinner with her family and Mom and Dad. They are coming to take Carson to Illinois for the rest of the week until we are all together for Easter! I am excited about Easter, it feels like it has been a really long time since I've been home and it will be good to have everyone together. Alright, off to prepare for the NCAA men's basketball championship! Go Michigan State!!!!

Guest Panelist

Hey all! I had a cool experience this week. One of my former professors invited me back to her class to be a guest panelist about individuals who take a non-traditional career path with a Psych degree. A lot of students in the class were students who were in my orientation group I led 2 years ago, which was fun :) It was weird to be on the "teaching" side of things in a Butler classroom, but really neat at the same time. There were 2 other Psych grads who are now in nursing that came to talk about their experiences as well. I got to give the professor teaching this course in the Fall my business card (I felt very professional) and she said that if I am still in Indy she would love to have me come back and speak again! I also got to go back to Butler yesterday with Liza and her daughter, Katie, who is thinking about going to Butler. She is a Junior this year and starting the whole college search. It was fun to get to talk about what a great school it is and to match her up with clubs and organizations that fit her interests. She seemed pretty excited and Liza said she had a great time and is really interested in going there now! Too bad Butler doesn't give recruiting bonuses...

It has been very quiet in the office this week-2 people are on spring break with their kids, 1 person is out at a conference, and everybody else has been in and out with off-campus meetings and whatnot. Maggie and I had a lunch date today which was fun-we reminisced about childhood vacations and told some entertaining stories. This afternoon I got to teach her how to make graphs and charts on Excel-my Info Management class really paid off...I got to teach the Executive Director something! Good work Butler.

Today is like my Friday! I had to use the remainder of my comp. time from Atlanta within 2 weeks so I took tomorrow off-I am going to sleep in, eat lunch at Arby's with Lew, clean my room, read, then go to the outlets tomorrow night. Saturday morning we are leaving to go camping for the night-hopefully the weather holds out- then back to the grind on Monday. It should be a very fun weekend and I am looking forward to it! Then, hard to believe, but the following weekend is Easter-yeah! I'm excited to go home and see everyone :) I really can't believe it's already April. This summer will be here before we know it!

I hope you all have been having a great week so far- Happy (almost) Friday!