MIT-SUTD LeaderShape Institute 2013

MIT-SUTD LeaderShape Institute 2013

Bats (Formal)

Bats (Fun)

Deltas (Formal)

Deltas (Fun)

Sweethearts (Formal)

Sweethearts (Fun)

Faculty (Formal)

Faculty (Fun)

Over the last week, I was offered the wonderful opportunity to work for MIT at the first ever MIT-SUTD (Singapore University of Technology and Design) Collaboration Global Leadership Program’s LeaderShape Institute. This was pretty great because it meant I could get some experience with working with a pretty different student population (there were 28 SUTD students and 2 MIT students), earn money over the summer, and have a great time seeing how great this leadership development program really is! I have to say, it was one of the best experiences in terms of leadership development and community building I have ever seen.

A couple of months ago, I saw my program director email us about this opportunity. Within a couple of hours, I applied and a few days later, I was interviewed. I couple days after that, I was offered the position! It was a pretty quick process and I was so excited to spend a week working for this premier leadership development program that has been around for 27 years!

Another added perk was that I would get to work alongside a pretty diverse staff. I got to work with three peers: Justin Miller (PhD students at MIT), Tania Tuchapsky (an experienced educator), and Denisha Robinson (an internationally experienced educator and human resources professional). Added to that, I got to work with Jon and Kate from the MIT-SUTD Collaboration office at MIT and two amazing co leader facilitators from LeaderShape, Mike McRee (works at Delta Upsilon) and Linda J Tompkins (higher education professional at Cornell University).

So, there were so many benefits for me spending a week at LeaderShape as the On-Site Coordinator. I got to learn the behind the scenes work and the logistics of running an institute. Experience is experience in my world, so I know that even though I wasn’t a cluster facilitator working with students all the time, I knew that these skills would serve me in some capacity. I got to spend most of my time with the two co lead facilitators and learn about them and how the LeaderShape curriculum works.

On June 3, 2013, we headed down to Sharon, MA to the Wonderland Conference Center and started off our week!

I have to admit that I was a little nervous about how the SUTD students would take to the curriculum. But, those anxieties were eased instantly when they arrived and seemed so enthusiastic about the experience. Over the 6-day institute, I have to say that I saw students grow so much. A lot of them had trouble with making their vision statement and to think big, but after a couple of days, they truly took hold of the process and saw what positive change they could make in their communities.

LeaderShape is very intentional with the layout of the curriculum and all the activities are timed perfectly to challenge students at the right times. Things may not make sense in the order they are presented, but  hings make sense once each day goes by.

Another cool part about my experience working at LeaderShape was seeing how much the cluster facilitators grew in just over a couple of days. Most of them feared they would not be energetic enough or that the students wouldn’t take an interest in the program. Of course, as each day passed by, things improved and they were having a great time!

The days and nights were long, but the week went by quicker than I had anticipated. Some of my favorite parts of the experience was having meals in the dining room. The cooks at Wonderland were pretty amazing. I have to say, I think I got the LeaderShape 15 because I probably over ate at every meal. The students loved the food and especially loved the amount of salad dressings we had! It was kind of hilarious how much they loved the salad bar, which seems like a regular thing to most of us. Some sample meals included lobster, codfish, lasagna, full hot breakfasts, crab cakes, and stuff mushrooms. I didn’t expect us to have such great meals, but we did! With these meals, we got to mix in with students and have conversations about American life and Singaporean life, which was always interesting.

The student “daily inspiration” skits were also pretty hilarious! They ranged from Mario skits to Toms Shoes skits. They made us laugh, but also surprised us with how well done and thought out they were. Super creative!

By the end of the week, I was so happy to see all the students really engage in the curriculum and take it seriously. Knowing we reached the end of the week made me both happy and sad. I felt happy because I knew they learned so much and I needed some sleep, but sad because it was a great week! These SUTD students really embraced everything we threw at them and showed true appreciation for the work we put in to make sure they had a great experience. At graduation, it was so cool to feel the appreciation they had for the entire faculty team. I definitely would like to be involved in another LeaderShape Institute in the future!

I Can’t Believe I Ran a Half Marathon

Completing my first half marathon with friends!

This past Sunday, May 26, 2013, I ran my first half marathon. A lot of people run half marathons, but not many do it with less than 3 weeks of training. It’s not like I signed up 3 weeks ago, I actually signed up for this race months ago. I just procrastinated and thought I could train starting tomorrow, which turned into months later.

Boston’s Run to Remember is a run put on by the Boston Police Running Club and supports community youth programs. It’s a run to remember fallen heroes in the line of duty. This year, the run meant even more as the recent Boston Marathon tragedy and horrible events that continued to happen, post-bombing, took the life of Sean Collier, an MIT Police officer who was actually signed up to run the race.

Months ago, I decided I wanted to set an ambitious goal for myself. I knew about this race through City Year friends who run it every year. In October, I ran the Mission Hill Road Race 5K with my best friend, Yaa, and decided that I wanted to take it a step further. I wanted to set a goal to run a half marathon, especially if it would be months and months away. So, paid my registration fee, just $40 at the time, and knew that I had to get myself more disciplined. Of course, I failed and waited months to even try to run.

Let’s just say, 3 weeks ago, you could see my huffing and puffing just to get to 1 mile. The distance to my current apartment to the front of Northeastern University is only 1 mile, but I remember having to stop and slow down before even completing a mile because I was so out of breath. When I attempted to do a 5K to meet my friend Downtown, I had to walk some stretches because I was so tired. How would I ever make it to 13.1 miles?

Three weeks ago, I decided to purchase some really sweet running shoes from New Balance. By chance, I asked the store clerk to give me some blue shoes to try on. Someone else who was in the store and just purchased his shoes told me I should get the limited edition Boston 890V3 shoes in purple, yellow, and red with glow in the dark parts. I saw them I knew that I needed them. I didn’t even see how much the shoes would cost me. They ended up being $115, which meant that now I was up to $155 in debt for this race. Soon after, I got some really nice running songs, which put me back $12. So now, I was about $167 in debt. There, that was my motivation for needing to get out there to run this half marathon.

On my first week, I got a kick in the pants by a co-worker at my job who ran the marathon (but didn’t get to finish because of the bombings)! He gasped when he found out my race was in about 3 weeks! So, he sent me a training plan and it was a reality check that I needed to do this. Therefore, I set out on my plan.

I was supposed to get out there on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and run 5, 3, and 5 miles with a long 9 mile run on the weekend, but I failed and did less than that. It turned out to be something like 3, 1, 0, and 0 miles, totalling just 4 miles out of the planned 22 miles. So week one was a little bit of a fail, but my body was not entirely used to running.

The second week was once again Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with a long run on the weekend. This time, I did much better. I was supposed to do 5, 3, and 5 miles, but I ended up doing 5, 3, and 7 miles with a long 10 mile run on Saturday, totaling 25 miles for the second week of training. After I did that 10 miles, I was feeling really confident and good about myself. I had no idea that I would just be able to continuously run 10 miles, especially that my running and training had not been good up until then.

For my final week, my nerved kicked into high gear. Anticipation and fear of the 13.1 miles coming up on the Sunday was a little too much, but I tried to run enough so that my body would continue to adjust to this new lifestyle. I was supposed to do Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday running with 4 miles, 3 miles, and 2 miles with two days of rest for the race on Sunday. However, I ended up only doing 4 miles and 3 miles, total of 7  miles, because I got very lazy on Thursday and it rained on Friday when I was about to go run. Therefore, I took 3 full days off.

Note that within this training, I had 2 massage appointments at the Boston Bodyworker. I had my massage therapist, Sal, do work on my back with focus on my legs. I got the two days before my long 10 mile run and one day before the half marathon race. Both times, the massage really did help relieve muscle tension and helped the blood flow. Although the leg massages are some of the most painful massages I have ever received, the benefits really did outweigh the pain.

Sunday morning finally arrived. After 3 weeks of training, having a strict diet, and listening to my body, I finally arrived at the start of the race. As soon as the clock started, I knew that all this work would be put to good use. Getting constant encouragement from friends that I would in fact do this was very helpful and I kept this in my mind all 13.1 miles. I kept telling myself, and a lot of times, yelled at myself, to keep going and that it was just another mile.

I have to say, the race was really nice. Running through Boston was just beautiful and seeing many people of Boston run for a real cause was just totally inspiring. I never saw myself as someone putting my body through pain to cross a finish line, but let me tell you, it is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had so far. It’s something about running past each mile marker and realizing once you past Mile 1, how quickly you get to Mile 12. It’s about that moment when you just have about 1.1 miles to go.

In my mind the entire time, I kept thinking about how just 3 weeks prior to the race, I could not even run 1 mile without stopping. When I got to Mile 12, I nearly cried because I could not believe I just continuously ran for 12 miles and would in fact finish the race running and not feel like dying while huffing and puffing. I won’t lie, the final stretch to the finish line was a little excruciating. I could see the finish line but it seemed so distant. Slowly but surely, the crowds starting getting more dense and I realized I finished.

Seriously. Finishing this half marathon left me with such a high feeling of success. The race is physical, but in a lot ways, very mental. For me, it took a lot of self motivation to get myself to keep going forward. I saw lots of people actually stop and walk while getting water. I never stopped a single time, even when drinking water. I even skipped some water stops because I knew it wouldn’t be helpful. I saw many people stop to use the bathroom. I never stopped once. I maintained a strict diet and made sure I didn’t need to use the bathroom before running. It took tons of discipline. All those days when I told myself I just wanted to watch TV or take a nap, I didn’t. It takes intense focus to run 13.1 miles. Although I have distractions of racers and seeing friends whiz by, music blaring in my ears, and a course to follow, it takes focus on the goal to finish strong. For me, it took 2 hours, 26 seconds, and 37 milliseconds, but I did it. I actually thought I would take 2:45, so I beat my own goal in my head.

Post race picture!

Now, I start thinking about my race time and what my race time would be if I actually trained ahead of time! I could totally improve that time! I think I might want to run another half marathon within the next year, or maybe wait until this race comes again next year. For now, I am just still so shocked but happy that I ran this half marathon and did not chicken out and run the 5 mile run. Thanks to everyone who mentally supported me and told me that I would be able to do this.

I thought I could never run a half marathon. I couldn’t believe I signed up for a half marathon. I couldn’t believe I was running a half marathon. I can’t believe I ran a half marathon. I still can’t believe I ran a half marathon.

What I leave with now is confidence that if I set a goal, and a really ambitious one, I can do it. It’s a lesson that I will bring into other aspects in my life. Don’t tell me I can’t do something, because sometimes, if I try hard enough, miracles and crazy things can happen! Remember that time when I only studied 7 days for the GRE? Well, now I can remember the time I only trained 3 weeks for a half marathon.

More photos from the half marathon: HERE

Official photos and finish video (click the next button to see my fully finish): HERE

NASPA Annual Conference 2013: Orlando, Florida

I’m going to go back in time and go back to the month of March. I attended the NASPA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. Because the conference put me back over a thousand dollars, I think it warrants a blog post! But, in all seriousness, it was a a great professional development opportunity and a look into my future as I move forward within student affairs.

New friends at NASPA!

I decided to go on somewhat of a last minute basis. What happened was that back in October, I registered thinking I would attend the conference. Then, I changed my mind and said, I am going to take my first year as a learning experience here in graduate school and not attend any national conferences and only attend regional ones. Well, that changed quickly as I realized I couldn’t cancel my fee. So, fate told me that I should attend! I got all my finances in order, booked my hotel, flight, and room, and met some people over Facebook!

I arrived in Orlando and was loving the weather. Hot, warm, and slightly humid. It reminded me of California summers, although this was only spring weather. I checked into my hotel, the Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista Resort, but immediately left and took a taxi to the World Marriott Center Hotel and Convention Center to try to make a volunteer meeting, but I missed it completely. So, I had some time to hang out. I was so exhausted, but realized I had a long day ahead of me. I decided to stop at the NASPA bookstore and got some discounted books.

I got the following (postings from the NASPA website:

Identity and Leadership: Informing Our Lives, Informing Our PracticeAlicia Fedelina Chávez and Ronni Sanlo, Editors Foreword by Kevin Kruger Identity and Leadership offers experienced and emerging leaders a window into understanding the deep intersections of identity and professional practice as well as guideposts for individual leadership development. Through personal narratives, the contributing authors discuss the significant impact of their identities in terms of race, ethnicity, culture, sexuality, gender, socioeconomic class, nationality, disability, spirituality, and religion on their roles as higher education leaders. A model of identity, leadership, and social justice with ways of being and doing is provided and illustrated through the author narratives

Decisions Matter: Using a Decision-Making Framework With Contemporary Student Affairs Case StudiesBy Annemarie Vaccaro, Brian McCoy, Delight Champagne, and Michael Siegel Foreword by Susan R. Komives and Mike SegawaDecisions Matter is an innovative guide designed to help novice student affairs professionals develop effective decision-making skills. Written by seasoned student affairs educators and practitioners, this book contains a systematic method for solving a wide range of complex problems. The book features 30 diverse case studies that reflect real-life scenarios faced by student affairs professionals on college and university campuses. The cases involve a variety of functional areas and institutional contexts to prepare readers to make decisions in different educational settings.

Soon after, I met up with Leigh! Then I was able to meet up with Joe, someone I met off a Facebook group, of whom I was supposed to be roommates with but now we were conference buddies. We attended the first time attendee session together and went to the opening plenary/session/keynotes together. Sekou Andrews did a really poetic opening and wanted to stick around the entire conference to form his closing. Dustin Lance Black was super inspiring and his story both made you laugh and cry, often within seconds! He was so good and it was so awesome to see him speak live. He is also really cute in person if you are wondering. We couldn’t have asked for a better opening pair of speakers and an opening keynote address from Dustin. Wow! After that, I went to the big post opening reception, but found myself overwhelmed by the thousands of people that weer out in the pool area!

I found Emily, my old Director o the Center for Student Involvement at UC San Diego and we went around to talk to people and chat. Eventually, I ended up going to her room to help her prep for her session that she was presenting at!

I eventually got back to my hotel and realized I lost my hotel keys. What the heck? I called the cab company and nothing. I called the hotel. Nothing. So, I had to request new keys. Then, the keys didn’t work. It was not my night. So, I got new keys and finally I was in my room and ready to knock out!

The next morning was an early start because I needed to get the free shuttle to the Marriott. I got some breakfast and headed to a morning session on (Re)framing Faith: LGBQ Minorities Multiple Identities in College. I attended the New Professionals and Graduate Students Knowledge Community Conference Consortium meetings to discuss articles we read and got a chance to network with some new people. I attended another session on college men and leadership. I met for lunch with Joe and Nasreen (a friend I met through Binh). I attended an evening session on Civic Engagement and Civic Mindedness. After that was the Region I Business Meeting in what was possibly the tiniest room, ever! The evening was filling with some receptions, including the UC Alum Reception and the Regional Reception, which was Harry Potter themed.

The next morning, I had two meetings with the NPGSKC, in the middle, was the Leadership and the Color Line session about engagement of college men, which was really interesting! After Joe and I had lunch, we couldn’t really stand or walk or do anything. So, we went out to the patio area and lounged and napped for a good couple of hours. Lauren joined us! Then, I was off to the NPGSKC Business Meeting and then mid way, left to go to the NASPA Business Meeting. I got to see Laura Wankel of Northeastern take her role as the new Board Chair.

Then, I left and rested before Joe picked me up so we could get some drinks at Downtown Disney.

The next morning, we both had an early morning because we wanted to attend the session on Beyond Surviving: LGBTQ Christian Men. It was super interesting and probably my favorite session from NASPA. Josh Moon Johnson presented on his book. After that, Sekou Andrews did his closing. His closing was just so heartful and meaningful and he presented his story on his struggles of becoming an artist and how student affairs helped him in his time in need during college. he challenged us to do great things in our world of student affairs so that we could help students the way he was helped. Awesome!

After that, it was a goodbye to Joe and time to pack and depart to Boston!

All in all, the conference was great. It wasn’t as great that no one from my first year cohort attended, but it was good to challenge myself to do this alone. Yes, there were 2nd years that went, but I rarely saw them. So, it was a good first annual conference and I’m glad to say that I met some awesome people and have a better feel for how these things work. It was good to volunteer some of my time at the registration desk. I also know how expensive it can get with taxis and food! So, I hope that there are many more conferences to come!

More photos from NASPA can be found here: 
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10101502599076234.1073741825.3327081&type=1&l=86016bf22a

A Mess of April

I haven’t posted a blog post in a while. I realized that. Time and life has taken over and every time I logged in to start typing a post, I would stop and work on something or do something else instead. I never got around to finishing my blog post about the NASPA Conference in Orlando that happened in March. I hope to eventually get that done and posted. It will probably be shorter than usual.

Anyway, April was stressful. There was about 4 weeks of school left and tons of papers and projects to finish up. There were many presentations to prepare for and this semester was just off in general to me. Well, then April 15th rolled around. I remember waking up and feeling extremely lazy. April 15th, 2013 was Patriot’s Day and the Boston Marathon. I remember wanting to finish a season of Mad Men so I stayed in bed. 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm. Time flew until I looked down and looked at a tweet my friend from Colorado sent me.

The tweet said something to the effect of, “Are you okay?”

I looked at it and seemed very confused because I was more than okay besides the laziness I had conjured up that day. Then, I looked at my other notifications on my phone and Facebook posts about a bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, which is about a 20 minute walk from my place.

All I could think was, “WHAT?”

I quickly got up from my bed and went to my living room to see all the news coverage and helicopter footage of the scene. Soon after, phone videos of the explosions. Pure and utter chaos here in the city I call home and feel more familiar with now than California. You can bet that my eyes were now glued to the TV and not on any of the projects and papers I expected to get done on what was my day off from school and a day that is usual fun for people from all around the world.

The next couple days were pretty grim. Some schools remained closed, business could not open, and part of Boylston Street was barricaded. On Thursday night, photos of two suspects caught on camera leaving bags and walking from the blast sites were released by the FBI and were circulated far and wide so that the general public could help find these men. Then, hours passed and I got home from school and turned on Glee to get my mind off of the long day. Once it was over, I switched the DVR to regular TV and noticed Breaking News from the MIT/Cambridge area about a policeman who was shot and later pronounced dead.

What was happening?

Well, this ended up being an all night ordeal as a chain of events led us to Watertown, MA, which is just west of Cambridge. A firefight broke out and people were ordered to stay in. Apparently, a bomb (that didn’t explode) was thrown at police officers. One suspected was cornered, but before anything else could happen, the other suspect (brother) ran over him and took off.

After an entire night and day of being part of a city-wide lock down, the lock down was lifted. Minutes after, a man reported seeing blood on his boat and saw one of the suspects hiding in the boat. Then, eventually, the suspected was apprehended.

People took the streets and celebrated the Boston Police Department for all the work they did throughout the week and those 24 hours.

Now, the city is recovering. Boylston Street has since been reopened, but it’s such a grim feeling to know such tragic events took place. I think what we are left with is a more unified city and at least for me, a feeling of gratitude that I can live another day and that the people around me and the people I know are safe. I had too many friends who were in the area of the finish line who had narrowly missed the explosions because they couldn’t get to the area due to the crowds of people or they decided to leave the area for whatever reason. For that, I can be thankful that they were not there. But for many, they were unlucky to be in the area and many people’s lives are forever changed because of the tragic events of the Boston Marathon bombings.

A lot of new information is now coming out about what happened and what was planned further from this event. I think it’s just so eerie and chilling to know that something like this could happen here, but it shows a grim reality too that things like this happen all around the world. So, for that, I can say that we are lucky that bombings are not an everyday think in America.

Since this event, I have read some really inspiring scholarship applications that discussed experiencing bombings in Iraq. I discovered a show on HBO called Vice that had an episode that featured young children and teenagers who are now discussing how they were convinced that they should be suicide bombers and were brainwashed to think they would be safe after a bomb detonates on them. It made me think about what happened here and once again I felt extremely lucky that bombings are not a regular thing in the US.

I think all in all, I can only be grateful for where I am and for my own safety.

So, with this, you can imagine that April was just a time warp and was sort of mess. I think I lost a lot of sleep and rest during the last couple of weeks of April, which I am totally still feeling now. I have had to deal with some trying experiences, but I think this has been a new experience.

Walking to the site of the bombings and Copley Square to see the memorial rebuilds my faith in humanity. Seeing the countless Boston items, marathon running shoes, hats, notes, letters, pictures, and other countless things as a memorial is just really awesome to see.

I think it will be awhile til life returns to some state of normalcy.

Sorry if this blog post is a random collection of thoughts, because it is! To add to the randomness, one day after the bombings, I was called up by CNN to work the “Breaking News” coverage. I met John King and Wolf Blitzer and told Anderson Cooper what kind of pizza options he had from Uppercrust.

Seriously, I’m not joking. I wish I was. But, it’s always a good experience.

All of the Above Conference 2013: Presenting on Work &Personal Values

A couple of weekends ago, I was given the opportunity to develop and present a workshop at the All of the Above (AOTA) Conference held at Dean College in Franklin, MA. It was an opportunity that was presented to me the week before the conference, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to work alongside my co-worker, Jess, at MCPHS on this. It was my first time ever presenting at a Student Affairs related conference, so I was super excited for it!

The workshop, entitled, “I Got The Job Interview, Now What,” focused on what to do once you get an interview and how to prepare for it. We discussed theory of work values and personal values and how these can be great things to reflect on before an interview and how you can ask really intentional questions in an actual interview, usually those that are formulated in order to dig past the surface level questions.

For example, there is a lot to say about institutional fit. One article I read recently is about job interviews at the Placement Exchange (TPE) happening today and the rest of this week into the weekend at Orlando for the NASPA Conference (in which I will be at starting Sunday). This article, Finding Fit and Success at TPE, hits a lot of points that my presentation hit upon. The tips are exactly what the end point of our workshop culminated in. You must ask questions that dig deep. Sometimes, there are times you just have to observe a work environment and see if you like it or not base on what you see.

In our presentation, we discussed broad values, then went into personal and work values. These lead you to develop intentional questions that ensure that the job isn’t the only bringing you in, but that the work place definitely fits with your own identity formulated by values.

I think back to my days prior to City Year. I knew I was coming in with a passion and value for social justice, education, service, and leadership. When I did my interview, I knew that I could talk about those things. I asked questions to ensure that not only I fit the organization, but that it would fit me. Even before the interview, I would ask about what the service model looked like and I talked to alumni of the program, who told me what they valued about the organization. I knew after all of this that the organization would fit me just as much as I would fit it. Asking the right questions in an interview won’t just help you get the right job, but it will definitely help you take control and ensure that you are taking the right job if it’s offered to you.

Recently, I interviewed at an institution that I knew a lot about. I knew that it believed in the same things I did. I knew that social justice and service to humanity are at the forefront of people’s minds at this institution. I arrived on campus and met people, from higher administration, middle administration, and students. From all levels, I knew it wasn’t just me who needed to prove I was going to serve in a good capacity here. Instead, I asked lots of questions and really wanted to know why all these people continued their employment there and why these students liked being students at this particular institution. Well, a couple of days later, I was offered a position and I happily accepted because I asked the right questions and they confirmed that I too really wanted to be there for the upcoming year. This institution I’m talking about is Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, a private research institution with a liberal arts focus,that was founded as a nonsectarian Jewish-sponsored coeducational institution. I would have never thought I would want to do my practicum experience at a Jewish related institution, but as soon as I began my interview process and started asking questions about this and that, I felt like I needed to work there to gain a unique experience.

So, as student affairs professionals will tell you over and over, try something different and explore your options. That’s what I am doing. Yes, I am passionate about social justice and service, which Brandeis offers, but I didn’t think I would be at this particular institution. I think that my presentation was very timely, as it focused on those personal and work values. I wanted to feel like I could be myself at work and would not be judged for it. I wanted a place I could be a Gay-Asian-Thai-American-Buddhist-Male without that affecting my passion for community service and social justice. I value those parts of my identity and I wanted that to be okay with where I would be gaining experience before becoming a new professional in the field.

All in all, I’m thrilled I have my first experience developing and presenting at a conference. Next week, I will be at my first National NASPA Conference in Orlando. I have the task of reading 3 readings for the New Professionals and Graduate Students Knowledge Community (NPGS KC ) Conference Consortium where I’ll get to discuss the articles and talk generally about our field. So, I hope to have more blog posts to come about all this exciting stuff and the conference coming up!

You can view the presentation I did by clicking HERE.

Active Citizen City Trip 2013 – Chestertown, Maryland

I know it’s been awhile since my last blog post. I’ve been pretty bad since the new year began. A lot of things have happened and it’s already nearing the middle of February! So, I decided I can’t get away without writing a post about my Active Citizen City alternative break trip to Chestertown, Maryland!

After a really quick fundraising push, I was able to raise enough funds to go on my alumni trip to Maryland! Seriously, I thank all those who made it possible for me to do that. I sometimes can’t believe the awesome people out there who believe in me. Anyway, enough about me and about this awesome trip!

So, I fly into Baltimore and then eventually meet Brit (from the University of Delaware). We drive to the other terminal and I meet Liz and Jasmina. Then, we’re immediately on the road towards Chestertown, Maryland. It’s definitely a different sight to see out the windows. I’ll spit out a fact about Maryland here. Did you know that Maryland is the wealthiest state in the United States? Who knew.

Anyway, arrived at the farm and then met some more active citizens and Sara who runs the entire operation at the Mid-Atlantic Border Collie Rescue. We are greeted with dogs, cats, and more dogs. Animals galore and I’m loving it in just the couple of minutes I’m there. After putting my stuff down in the Cottage, I return to the big house to get a first taste of late lunch as we wait for everyone to arrive. Of course, I’m hungry. I thought this was an alcohol and other drug free trip, because I believe someone has places an addictive substance in my food! I’m totally joking about that part, but the food is that good that I keep on eating, earning me the early reputation of the hungry alternative breaker who can eat and eat. Yep, of course.

So, we go out to play in the large yard for what’s known as “Yappie Hour”. The dogs are free to roam the large yard and play with the many tennis balls that litter the field. It’s a lot of fun to see these dogs just socialize and have so much fun. If I was a dog, I would love this yard.

Anyway, more breakers arrive and we finally see Jill, the Executive Director of the thing we know and love: Break Away. Soon enough, we’re all enjoying dinner and then it’s time to start our first training session. Tonight, we’re all a little tired from travel and we have training and an “active citizen” discussion. We are a bit tired, so we all head to bed quickly and get ready for what we didn’t know would be an entire day of service (this isn’t the Alternative Break Citizenship Schools, ABCs, model of 4 hours of service and trainings for the rest of the day).

We wake up at the crack of dawn, at 7am, to a chilly morning. We head out and get ready to walk the dogs down the empty road behind the farm that leads to, you guessed it, more farms! The dogs are hyper and we’re all not used to them yet. We’re all learning our ways to walk the dogs properly and be firm with them. Some people don’t like to be firm with their dogs, but it’s totally okay, since they are domesticated animals and they need to be told firmly that they cannot jump on people or that they need to continue walking. Pulling on their leashes to get their attention or to get them off of someone is also okay. They will not choke, just don’t pull them too hard!

After that, we have our wonderful breakfast tradition for the week and then do some major service! It’s all a pile of poop. Literally. I wish that was me joking, but after seeing the dog Grace do her thing herding the sheep, we then dig up one years worth of sheep droppings from under an overhang that will be used for the garden that we will be building. Talk about an ice breaker! It totally stank. Literally, once again! But, it was so much fun and was a great way to not feel cold from the weather! You can believe we needed to shed our layers within a couple of minutes.

I still remember when Sara told us we didn’t need to make it clean and didn’t need to be “desperate” when it came to digging up the poo. Well, we definitely got desperate and dug all the poop out and made it clean to the bottom mat. I wouldn’t eat off of it, but I’m sure Sara was proud of our team work in digging up all that poop in record time! I can’t believe how proud we were of digging up poop!

Once it was on the back of the tractor-trailer, we spread it thinly on the garden area that we would begin to  build. After that was completed, we covered the entire area with newspaper, placed wood chips on top, and made it flat so that things could really meld together to form fertile soil for growing vegetables that would eventually get donated to a food pantry. Talk about the circle of life!

Because this blog is being written so much after the trip, I’m totally going to skip a ton of stuff. What I can remember is that we then did service at the St. Benedictine Church/Complex where we learned a lot about their women’s transition programs and where the food would go once it starts to grow in the garden we were building.

On another day, we cleaned the grounds and prepared the area for gravel being dumped all over the yard for the drive way by a gravel man. It was so cool to watch this truck lean and tilt and drop lots of gravel..or more like tons of gravel, that we then had to spread around the driveways. Towards the end of the day, I just plopped myself on the ground because I was so exhausted.

A separate group got to finish the garden cold frames and covers. They brought them in and installed them.

All in all, this trip was amazing. Paired with training in the evening and seeing and meeting so many new people while also seeing some people I only heard about, and of course, seeing Jill once again.

At the end of the trip, I took a road trip to Delaware in Brit’s car and Matt following us. We then switched cars after a short break and we headed for Baltimore so I could fly back home.

I wish I was more reflective when finishing this post, but words sometimes can’t describe what an awesome experience is. I think it was what I needed for this semester. I needed to return to my alternative break service roots and I am more than excited to pilot this Active Citizen City initiative here in Boston. I’m not going to lie, it’s going to be a hard 12 month pilot, but I think in time. things will come from it and will help launch year 2 of this initiative.

Fundraising My Way to Active Citizenship

Fundraising is not new to me. I have fund raised my behind off in college to get to do the awesome service work and support the philanthropic community at UC San Diego. I fund raised my way to serve at City Year Boston. I have fund raised my way to serve in communities in the United States and abroad!

I recently announced that I will be co-directing the Active Citizen City alternative breaks alumni organization here in Boston for the next 12 months. I am attending a training next week to do service at the Mid-Atlantic Border Collie Rescue and will get trained on how to start-up this organization. That is all very exciting. The hard part is paying for the trip when I absolutely have no money to do to do!

So, I turned to fundraising and in-kinding. My sister donated my flight to me as a Christmas and Birthday present! That was great! But, I had to raise $125 for the program fee, which covers food, lodging, and materials. I discovered a cool little website called Chip In, where I created my own donation page!

I actually did this over a two-day period! I was able to raise $162 online and $13 offline for a total of $180! That’s such a great feeling to know that those that support me know I am doing it for a greater cause. It’s a great feeling to know people believe in you and have your back when you need it most. I’m so grateful for all the donors!

Thank you to Rachel Tran, Ashley Portillo, Chapin Cole, Roxy Pirnia, Eneida Jauregui, Jennifer Javier, and the Valerio Family for donating towards my program fee for me to attend. If you still feel like donating to my cause to help me out even more, you can do so by clicking HERE.

I am excited to blog about my training and service experience next week in Chestertown, Maryland. I know we were asked not to bring our laptops, but I actually need to blog, keep up with reading that will be on my computer, and I need to Skype with Raina, my Co-Director, about what happens, because I know I will forget something if I don’t do a report back every couple of days. I also don’t want to feel like I can’t get progress since I’m the only ACC team attending alone. I know it will be such a learning experience, and I’m glad to see my favorite people (Jill) and meet new people from Break Away.

The best part of this was knowing that I always get things done, including fundraising successfully. Thanks again to all those who supported me, continue to support, and will support me in the future in all the crazy things I tend to do with my life! Active Citizens, UNITE!