Group 3 Post 3

I nanny for an amazing family with a 3 year old and a 7 month old.  I've been with them a year and a half and I could not be more blessed.  Moving back to Phoenix and leaving my friends in Flagstaff was really hard, then I lost my brother very unexpectedly.  Needless to say, I needed something (someone) to brighten up my life.  This family has done that and then some.  They're from South Africa and England, so they all have cute accents, including Zak, the 3 year old.  He's the cutest and funniest little guy I've ever met. He's got quite the personality and has no trouble telling you what he's thinking. A few of my favorite sayings:

"Natalie, I can't go to bed right now because I need to be free!"

"Natalie, I can't go to bed because I'm on a call"

 Me: "Zak, will you have two more bites of cucumber before you get down from the table?"

Zak: "Sure can, I won't let you down!"

Now imagine those in a little South African accent....it's hard to get mad at him (until it's his 8th time out of bed in an hour..then it's quite easy to get "cross")!

His sister, Gia is 7 months old and is the sweetest little thing in the world.  Unfortunately, we just found out she's allergic to milk, peanuts and eggs.  We had a scary reaction from her after she drank formula and spent the afternoon at the doctor's a few weeks ago.  So sad to think of her little body not being able to handle such common foods! I had to learn how to use the epi pen today- not fun.  

Sometimes I think, "do I seriously get paid to hang out with these two all day?"  We go to the mall to ride the train, we go to movies, the children's museum, the train park, and gymboree.  It's so much fun and watching them grow up is such an honor.  I'm one lucky girl!

Group 3 Post 2

Rather than attending a Career Services event, I decided to meet with Maryjo Zunk to discuss something that would be more relevant to me.  In this case, it was my resume for a possible job at NAU in January.

I was sort of dreading this meeting because getting downtown is a hassle, I was tired from working all day and I had no idea what we were going to talk about.  It turned out to be pretty helpful.  We talked about what should be included in my resume and in what format.  In the past, I have used a really basic resume model, and although it has always worked, I knew I needed to step up my game for this "real life" job.

We talked about the importance of matching up words in the job description with the skills that I have and using that in my resume.  She said it's important to make the headlines relevant to what you offer.  For example, don't use "Technical Skills" if your technical skills are lacking, or the job has nothing to do with using those skills. We decided I should have a "Leadership and Development" section because I have a lot of leadership training from various jobs and clubs.  I was a little confused on what I put in the "Education" section as I've gone to 3 universities.  We decided to list ASU then NAU and as a subsection, Queens because it was through NAU.

What stuck most with me is that I have to think about what I have that they need.  I think it's hard to think of yourself that way.  It's difficult to think of specific skills and attributes that you have that can possibly help someone else.  Especially going beyond the typical, "I'm punctual, a good communicator and work well with others."

Group 3 Post 1

For this free write I'd like to talk about one of my favorite events we did at my internship.

The Street Eats Food Truck Festival takes place in January.  It was a coincidence my company was a part of this because I had tried to attend it the year before, but wasn't able to get in due to an overwhelming attendance.  So this year, they added another day and more food trucks.  I think it went a lot smoother.

My company's job in the festival was to hire and book celebrity chefs to do cooking demonstrations.  Since I was little, I've watched the Food Network and the Cooking Channel.  I absolutely love food, cooking and baking, and get more excited about chefs than rock stars.  So, when I found out we were getting Chef Geoffrey Zakarian for one of our chef demonstrations, I lost it.  He is one of my favorite chefs of all time.  And by the grace of God, it was my job that day to show him around, make sure he had everything he needed, and basically hang out with him until it was time for the demonstration.  It was so awesome.  

The best part of the day was as I was walking back to my car, I got a call from one of the girls that works at the company saying we were invited to go to dinner with Geoffrey and his sous chef at Pizzeria Bianco.  I could have died I was so excited.  I raced home to a house full of family over for dinner, excited to tell them I wouldn't be joining them that night.  My sister in law helped me pick out an outfit and I left for dinner.  We got there and he ordered a bottle of wine for the 5 of us and one of everything on the menu, including another bottle of wine.  It was one of the coolest experiences of my life.  The festival went well, and the night was even better.  I got to have a conversation over amazing dinner with someone I've wanted to meet for a really long time. Definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Group 2 Post 4

I worked at my internship about 10 hours a week, between 2 days. A typical day would go as follows:

• Arrive and chat with everyone about how the week has been going.
• Log onto computer and check email
• Follow up emails or phone calls
• Check the "intern to do list"
• PHONE CALLS

I was one of 4 regular interns during my time with R Entertainment.  We had a few come and go but the 4 of us were there for most of the year.  Theoretically, we had an "intern do do list" but I was generally exempt from that because of the work I did on the "Check, Please! Arizona Festival." It was my job to contact the restaurants that had been featured on the show and get them to participate in the festival.  I had almost an entire legal pad of notes for what restaurants were interested, who was a definite participant, who to call back, who not to call and what steps they needed to take after my calls. Once we got the number of restaurants we wanted, I needed paperwork from them.  This included licenses, menus, chef bios and pictures and what type of protein they wanted donated.  We worked on sponsorships from different meat suppliers to get the protein donations.  It was nice to have Channel Eight, Arizona PBS behind us because they are such a reputable company and they had a lot of strong relationships already.  

Because it's a production company, events were a big part of my internship.  There were events that we were basically required to attend and help out with and others were optional- some we were even paid for! We did everything from selling merchandise at concerts to walking around with chefs at festivals to numbering chairs and selling beer. Basically, if someone needed help with something day-of, we were there to take care of it.

Group 2 Post 3

Right now I'm writing in this blog because I'm avoiding a 6-8 page paper I'm supposed to write.  I have major senioritis and my motivation is in the negatives.  I really hope that if I take a break and work for a year or so before grad school I don't just say, "man I love not having to ever think about homework, I should never go back to school" because that would be something I'd totally do.

Okay let's see.  Something I think in theory I'd like to do some day is own a bakery/flower shop.  Two of my favorite things all rolled into one.  I think going to pastry school would be amazing (and expensive).  I took an intro to business class at NAU and swore I'd never own a business in my life after it.  But you can hire people to do the boring math parts, right? Cool. So my bakery would include yummy pastries and breads made from scratch.  Interesting flavor profiles, too.  Not sure what they'd be yet, but interesting and chic.  I would also sell baking supplies.  So like flour from a local mill, stuff like that.  We would also serve coffee and tea, also local.  We'd have a few tables inside and out as well.  The flower shop would sell individual flowers so you could make your own bouquet or we could design them for you.  The whole place would smell delicious all the time.  The decor would be clean and simple. Pastel colors with white so the flowers would pop.  I think about this place when I'd rather not think about what I'm supposed to be, i.e., homework.  I see this happening once I'm retired.  I'm hoping I can retire when my mom did (early 50s).  I'd open this little place up and spend my days baking and arranging flowers.  What more could I ask for? Oh, I know, someone to do all the accounting and cleaning :)

For now, I'll continue with homework and leave that little dream for many years down the line.

Group 2 Post 2

This free write post is about my college experience.

My first two years of college, I attended NAU.  I LOVED it.  The people were friendly- so friendly they would just smile and say hi to you on the street and wouldn't think twice about it.  The campus had a real cohesive feel.  I worked in undergraduate admissions and was an orientation leader and was part of an all-girls community service group as well as my freshman hall association. I was a biology major my freshman year- I had wanted to be a marine biologist from the time I was 5. I attended Sea World Camp, ocean camp at Catalina Island, went to countless aquariums and watched/read everything on marine biology. But once I got into college, I realized there's so much out there to learn about.  I wanted to see what else I could be good at.  One of the reasons I chose NAU was for their participation in the National Student Exchange program. I planned to spend a year in California or Florida getting specific marine biology education.

So I change my major to "undecided."  This made me the butt of many jokes, but I didn't mind. I still thought it would be cool to go on a student exchange.  The summer between freshman and sophomore year my entire family spent a week in New York City in a amazing brownstone apartment on the Upper West Side.  It was a dream come true.  I still don't know how we scored that place at the price we did! I thought it would be the perfect place to live and decided I would do my student exchange there.  My suite mate at the time also thought it would be cool to live in Boston as she had some family she didn't know that well there.  We both got in and couldn't be more excited.

Because not every school participates in NSE, the closest I could get to Manhattan was Queens College.  My experience in Queens could fill an entire book, but I'll condense it into a few sentences.  I had TERRIBLE roommates who fought constantly, making being in my apartment horrible.  Getting to the city took an hour including a walk to a bus stop, a bus ride, and a subway ride.  The closest grocery store was Target- a walk to a bus, the bus ride, and a 15 minute walk to a mall that Target was in.  I quickly learned that having my own car at home was quite the luxury.  I learned that semester that I'm capable of doing things on my own.  Before that, I was never alone.  I had my parents, I had my best friend of 14 years, I had my suite mates and other friends.  There's nothing like getting dropped off in an unknown city without knowing a soul to make you feel alone.  But I got through it.  It was not glamorous, it was not the time of my life like so many of my friends' experiences abroad.  It was terrible and I hated it.  But I grew so much from my time in New York.  And looking back, I had some really incredible moments.  And I miss the city (not Queens) like crazy.

My major in Queens was Urban Studies.  It was something I didn't even know existed until I looked at their classes.  I had one really amazing teacher that sparked my interest in the subject.  I realized this was something I could see myself studying for the next 2 years and realized I couldn't do that at NAU.  I had to make my first major life decision and decide to leave the place I loved for ASU.

Now, my experience at ASU has been quite similar to my experience at Queens College.  Everything that could go wrong at both schools, has.  I try to give it a chance here, but literally everything has been a struggle.  Between admissions, advising, class selections and graduation, there have been problems all along the way.  It's frustrating because working in admissions and orientation at NAU, I know how these processes are supposed to go and that's not how they happened.  The silver lining in this, is that I want to take these bad experiences and use them as fuel to bring order to universities like these.  I have decided that I want to attend grad school to get a masters in student affairs.  I've seen a school run like a well oiled machine, and I have seen two schools run like chickens with their heads cut off.  As a student at all three, I can definitely tell you which is more inviting.

Group 2 Post 1

The company I interned for was R Entertainment.  They are a production company specializing in booking artists for casinos, culinary events and managing tours (comedy, concerts, etc).  As an intern I did a lot of behind the scenes work, as well as work day-of.  For example, my biggest project was with Channel Eight and their 'Check, Please! Festival at CityScape.'  It was my job to call all the restaurants featured on the show to get them to participate.  I made spreadsheets of who we contacted and what forms we needed form them, acted as a liaison between the restaurants and the company and answered any questions they had, as well as help with set up, clean up, and anything in between on the day of the festival.  This even included calling and running to 3 different Target stores and Ikea to look for a grill pan for a picky chef!  Many day-of activities they asked us to do were making sure chefs or artists or bands had everything they needed, making sure they were on time for their appearances, numbering 1,000+ seats for concerts, or coordinating where vendors were set up.

In case anyone is interested, here's a link to their website :)
http://r-entertainment.com/

And if you read this before September 15th, you should vote for the Check, Please! festival in the "best culinary festival" category for the Phoenix New Times!
http://readerschoice.phoenixnewtimes.com/