NIRSA 2014 - Nashville day 1

Nashville,  here I come! You can bet my cowboy boots are packed and ready to go!  I am attending NIRSA for the very first time this year and am so excited that I was given this great opportunity.  NIRSA is the organization that oversees collegiate recreation and educates those involved in collegiate rec about health, wellness, fitness, and recreation. 

Ellen and I stepped off the plane, grabbed our luggage and actually waited in line for a taxi! We met two girls from UNL in Lincoln and shared a cab to the hotel.  It didnt take long for the four of us to get to laughing and jammin' with our country music lovin' cab driver.  Is everyone who lives in Nashville required to listen to country music?

The hotel is the most incredible hotel I've ever been to.  It reminds me of Mall of America.  It also took me 15 minutes to walk to my hotel room, I asked a few people along the way who reasured me and said "just keep walking".  Finally,  a maintenance man saw me and must have noticed how lost I looked and helped me out.  Private balcony, indoor palm trees, flowers,  multiple restaurants,  it has everything and is gorgeous, photos to come tomorrow.   

Since the BVU recreation services department made this trip possible, it isn't exactly an MSW focused trip.  However, everything I learn here and the connections I will make will benefit me in any future projects with MSW. The values of MSW and focus on health and wellness marketing really fit well with what NIRSA is all about.  So much of this information will come in very handy as I am finishing up my advanced HR management research project about corporate health and wellness programs. 

Tomorrow, I will be attending a pre conference workshop called "Advocates for Wellbeing: The Role of Higher Education for a Healthier Nation".  Here's a quick summary of the workshop.

"As the health of our nation declines, institutions of higher learning are beginning to seriously address the issues related to America's health and make a commitment to educating our future generations. This preconference will explore best practices that embrace collaborative learning within health and wellbeing. It will explore creative and collaborative programs that enhance health behavior and outcomes on campus and within the surrounding communities."

So excited!  Tomorrow will be a great day!

Missing Links

After pondering this for quite a while I realized that I was extremely prepared for this internship.  There weren't any major links that I noticed I was lacking and could have used more experience in.

I have realized how extremely important it is to be involved in general.  Almost every single professional that I came in contact with was balancing a handful of completely different things at once.  Multiple different committees, organizations, side jobs, and having families at home.  It is so important to be able to find a way to be organized.  Being organized and keeping all of my tasks straight is something that I have learned through the classroom.

One thing that could be improved in the classroom, surprisingly, involves technology.  I think sometimes this piece isn't emphasized enough because educators thing that our generation knows everything about technology.  It would have been nice to have experience with sitting in on a conference call and the etiquette that goes along with sitting in on meetings from a distance.

Communication is another big aspect that many organizations struggle with.  Teaching students the when and why to communicate and which medium to use would be helpful and interesting.

Advice I would give others in order to make the transition easier is to get involved with a variety of organizations and have different jobs outside of school.  Much of my experience at summer jobs and part time jobs helped me perform well at this internship.

...from a career standpoint

As my last day here in Des Moines quickly approaches I wanted to make a list of what I have learned from a career perspective in the last three weeks. 

-The people you work with make all the difference.  I have been lucky to work with people who are excited to be at work and always have a smile on their face, willing to help out.  They all say good morning to each other and gather in the kitchen around noon to eat lunch and chat for a while.  My experience wouldn't have been nearly as awesome without having such a good relationship with my co-workers.

-Having a boss that cares and thanks his employees daily.  Mike Ralston is awesome at keeping everyone motivated towards the same goal and making everyone feel included.  It's not abnormal for him to make a lap around the office just to see how everyone is doing.  When I got to ABI he made me feel like part of the team and it was much appreciated.

-I'm not sure how career-related this is, but.....most people bring their own lunches everyday, and most of them eat at their desk.  Try to find something to do to get you out of the office or you might go crazy being there for 9 hours!

-Emails and calling into meetings keep everyone organized.  Kay and I were constantly copying or forwarding each other emails, especially when it came down to event planning details.  Get used to that little ding sound on your computer almost constantly. 

-Hospitality and event planning is something that I really enjoy.  Getting to pull together a big event without anyone seeing all the chaos that went on behind the scenes is really fun and energizing.  I enjoy keeping everything organized and writing it out in spreadsheets or documents.

-One of my ultimate life goals is to be able to work for myself, from home.  As much fun as I had being in an office, commuting isn't my favorite thing ever and I work more efficiently when I have more freedom. 

feeling thankful

I'm feeling thankful in a few different ways, first of all because I have spent the last two days writing tons and tons of thank you notes (these were supposed to be written by the class but got left behind at the office in the snow apocalypse). Also, I'm feeling thankful for this awesome opportunity to intern at a place that keeps me so busy and has made me feel so welcome. 

Today has been full of catch up work that we missed out on last week.  Like I mentioned, I wrote so many thank you notes it was crazy!  I worked on a few small tasks that came up as the day went by and started prepping for another large mailing.

State of Emergency : How Iowa Reacts

Today we were back at Camp Dodge to learn all about how the State of Iowa is preparing for almost any kind of disaster possible, and how they react when said disaster does occur.  We met downstairs in the Joint Forces Headquarters where there were semicircles of computers and speakers all pointed towards three huge television screens in the middle.  Each department in Iowa had at least one seat, so health and public safety, department of transportation, homeland security etc.  In the case of a declared emergency this is where each of the representatives gather to make important decisions.

We got the chance to split up into groups and have a conversation with different people who are involved in the process.  My group got to speak with a gentleman who was part of the intelligence team.  It was so interesting to hear him talk.  After a natural disaster occurs one of the biggest burdens that officers and citizens have to deal with is a rather large increase in crime.  Looters even come from out of state and transport goods back with them to re-sell!  He explained a little about how the process works.  There are different Fusion centers set up across the United States that all communicate with each other and warn each other of possible danger when they investigate or get leads from past crimes.  In the case of a large natural disaster these Fusion centers can look at past behaviors of certain groups of people and predict what they might try to do again.  When a certain group of people happens to go missing in a community following a disaster in a nearby area the centers are able to let citizens and officials know that looting and burglary is possible.

Our next speaker was Dr. Alec Zama who has lived under many different governmental structures in his life.  He is from Moldova, former Soviet Union, and grew up under a Totalitarian Regime .  He shared stories from his childhood and growing up as a young adult, and then moving to America.  The experiences he shared really made me feel thankful for all we have and the freedom we take for granted sometimes.

As a young child, Dr. Zama's father went to the court house to get a birth certificate printed for his son, he wanted to name him Albert.  They flat out refused and his father walked out, determined to name his own son what he and his wife had wanted.  The family and close friends called the baby Albert, no problem.  A few weeks later government officials came knocking on their door announcing that they had printed his birth certificate.  The Zama's were excited thinking that the government had finally given in and allowed them to name the baby, until they looked at the document and it said Yuri.  They still refused to call the child Yuri so he grew up as Albert, even though all of his legal documents said Yuri.  Naming our own child is definitely something we take for granted here in the United States.

He encouraged us to be thankful for what we have.  Even though we may have our fair share of problems here in the US, life could be way worse and we could have so many more restrictions put on our daily lives.

Tour of Des Moines & freak blizzard

Today was jam packed and I got a little worried when we started off the morning with the caterer forgetting our sausages for breakfast.  To say that forgetting our breakfast protein was the worst that happened was a blessing.  The whole day went very smoothly and was so much fun.  I was in charge because Kay was at an alumni event at Camp Dodge.  It felt kind of weird leading around a group of 40 adults and keeping them on schedule while answering questions like "Do I have time to use the restroom before the next speaker?"

It was fun to talk with different members of the class and hear about what they do and where they live.  I made some great connections and kind of miss them, in a weird way.  After spending three very full days with the group I made some friends and was having a lot of fun with them.

Our first stop of the day was the State Capitol.  As many times as I've been there starting in like 4th grade, it never gets old.  The building is so beautiful and there's something motivating about walking around next to our state officers.  About half of the class hiked up to the very top of the Capitol while I waited in the basement and flagged down the caterer.  They were with a really cool tour guide who let them go up even higher than the observation deck that most people get to see.  They described the last flight of stairs like the ones in Harry Potter that are just kind of hanging in mid air and you're not really sure how they still support weight.  Everyone survived and they said it was an amazing view.

While at the capitol we  got the opportunity to sit down with Senator Mike Gronstal and Representative Linda Upmeyer.  They introduced themselves and then basically opened up the room to questions, which was kind of fun.  We talked about No Child Left Behind and women in politics.

 Our next stop was the Iowa Judicial Building.  I was excited because I had never been inside this building, it wasn't as exciting as the Capitol, design wise.  Still very beautiful but it was plain and very quiet.  We followed a similar format as the Capitol and were greeted by a Judge and a Justice.
 The picture below was taken as we were walking out of the Judicial building.  Everyone was making comments about how beautiful the snow was with the city in the back ground.  Little did we know that in a short hour and a half the ground would be covered and there would be 0 visibility with 50 mph winds.  A nightmare for anyone traveling home at rush hour, myself included.

Our next stop was the World Food Prize, which I could not wait to see.  The building was the former Des Moines Library and sat right on the river.  It was gorgeous!  The World Food Prize is focused on feeding the world in the future and honoring the progress we have made this far.  The photo below is actually of the Garst Family Farm in Coon Rapids, which I thought was really cool.  

 This glass globe was huge.  It was stained glass and lit up in the middle, probably about 5 or 6 feet diameter.  We got some time to walk around in Howard Buffet's 40 Chances exhibit.  The photography geek in me totally loved this.  Check out the website for more information:  http://www.40chances.com/photos/

By the time we walked out of the World Food Prize it was the craziest white out blizzard I have ever seen.  The radio and TV reporters were telling people not to go anywhere so I stayed at the office until about 7:30 pm.  It still took an hour and a half to get from downtown Des Moines to West Des Moines, which usually takes a maximum of 15 minutes.  I was totally exhausted and ready for bed.  

Humvee rollover, convoy gunman, & helicopter mission

Today has been so awesome!  It's only 1:00 in the afternoon and I've already been flipped upside down in a humvee, killed the enemy with a sniper rifle, learned the steps field medics use to treat a wounded soldier in battle,  and had the opportunity to fly over Des Moines in a helicopter.  

The humvee rollover simulation was very realistic and I was totally not ready for it.   We suited up in about 30 pounds of gear and loaded into the vehicle.  I ended up in the drivers seat, which was the most difficult position to get out of in the case of most rollovers.  Oh well, I like a challenge,  no problem, right?!  ya they weren't kidding! We rolled over three times before coming to a stop on our roof.  So here I am hanging upside down from my seatbelt with this awkward gear on and a helmet halfway covering my eyes, plus when I released my seatbelt I managed to get stuck underneath the steering wheel, like by the gas and brake pedals. Don't ask me how.

Three of the doors were jammed closed (locked) so I had to climb  to the back seat and across to the opposite side to get out.  It was such a challenge and an adrenaline  rush at the same time but ut made me think about what our soldiers go through.  

I tested my accuracy in the rifle range simulator and decided that I need a lot more practice.  Laying in the prone position we had to load our rifles and then watch this huge screen so the enemies couldn't sneak up on us.  The first round I took 74 shots and hit 8, not bad for the first time but not great either. 

I learned that the furthest confirmed kill with a 5 caliber is a distance of 1.7 miles!   The rifle range simulator room can be used for practicing a wide variety of hang guns, rifles, and canons.  Videogames can serve some logical purpose and provide job training!

I was so happy to wake up to a cold but calm morning.   I was going to be so bummed out if we didn't get to ride in the blackhawk.  It was everything I expected it to be and more and the view of the river and downtown was so cool!

I was so impressed by how well organized and informative our session at Camp Dodge was this morning and I know we got the opportunity to experience things that many people besides those in the military don't get to.  We each left with an MRE as a gift.. I'll tell my aunt Diane I'm making supper tonight and she has the choice of maple flavored pork sausages or asian beef strips.  Friday I'll be back at Camp Dodge for another session learning about the history. 

I'm currently loving the warm atmosphere and pretty flowers inside the botanical center as we go through a congressional election simulation.