Make a Difference Day and Project Reveal

This past Saturday was Make a Difference Day, with many service projects taking place in Community Gardens all over the city. Every NCCC team headed out to different locations to lend a helping hand (similar to Trinity’s annual Do It Day). My team started the day at Luther Burbank High School. The school had a great garden program years ago until the teacher who had been running it retired and the program disintegrated. Now they are starting the garden up again. This Saturday was their kick off event. We helped out by building raised flowerbeds and got to work on our great new construction skills. By the end of the morning we had something tangible to show for our time, which was a very satisfying feeling. We also got to meet some very enthusiastic and dedicated students who had all come out to work on the garden as well. The other NCCC team worked more with the kids than we did, but it was clear that the garden had a lot of student support.

At lunchtime we had a bit of a picnic and then came back over to the garden area just in time to see Dr. Oz arrive at the work site and do a press conference with the kids. It was rather unexpected and slightly hilarious to see Dr. Oz walk by.

For the afternoon we went off to a different site. This time we were at a community garden in a neighborhood close to our campus. Part of the garden was well cared for, but the rest needed a lot of work. We grabbed shovels and rakes and started marking out new plots. The soil was hard and rocky and this was hard work. As other teams finished at their various worksites, many others came to work with us as well. The garden was crawling with corps members by the end of the day. It was raining and cold, but overall a satisfying day of outdoor work. It was great to finally get some work done!

Saturday night we went out to dinner as a team. After dinner there was one more stop to make. Abby drove us to a Barnes and Noble. She gave us 15 minutes and told us to go to the children’s section and pick out of favorite childhood storybook. It took some serious searching, but I finally found my favorite: Corduroy. I had also picked up Runaway Bunny and an American Girl book. We all went around sharing our books and explaining why we picked it and then it was time for the big reveal! Abby had taken us there to learn of our first project. We will be working in an Elementary School in Sacramento, in the area where we are currently and will continue to be living in. We will each shadow a classroom teacher during the day, acting as a classroom assistant. We will also each have a specialty class and then as a team we will be running the after school program at the school. It will be challenging and exhausting work, but I am very excited to be working with kids! And these kids definitely need our help. The kids come from rough backgrounds. Abby told us some statistics about the student body. There is a 44% drop out rate in elementary school and 93% of the students live at or below the poverty line. We start working there November 4^th and will be there through December 14^th. I am both nervous and very excited to get started!

Green 2 Takes on Sacramento

This past week has been full of more trainings, many of them based off working as a team and getting to know the people we will be spending the year with. Community mapping. The trainings have definitely been more interactive and interesting since we have been in teams and the long days, though still exhausting, are not as snooze inducing. One day our task was to spend the afternoon getting to know Sacramento. The training was called Community Mapping. We had a photo scavenger hunt and got to go all over the city taking photos with specific numbers of team members doing specific things in each different location.

We had to be done by 5pm and we managed to take the last photo at exactly 4:59pm, with enough time to take a photo of the clock as proof of our perfect timing. We were one of two teams (out of the seven in our unit) to finish with every assigned photo taken!

In Other news: I had my first experience driving the 15 passenger vans we use to drive everywhere. These things are enormous and I must admit I was a little nervous to drive this tank of a vehicle. It went perfectly fine though and I know I will get used to it. By the time I drive my little Toyota Camry again it will feel so small and wonderful!

Also, in another training, I had by first Americorps training in construction. We learned about tools and then as a team built a box to put in our van. We also got to wear our super cool hard hats, boots, gloves, and protective eyewear (all of these items make up our PPE- Personal Protective Equipment).

A Weekend in San Francisco

After the big move on Friday, we had the weekend off. As soon as we had been assigned to teams on Wednesday night and found out of schedules for the coming days, my pod-mates and I had decided to take the days off as a wonderful opportunity to travel down to San Francisco. All eight of us left around midday on Saturday. We got off in San Francisco at the Ferry building and starting walking down along the piers. Then Alyssa Simpson came to pick me up! She was easy to spot coming down the street in an enormous silver pickup truck with a mattress in the flatbed. Alyssa, Greg, and Dan had just gained access to their new apartment and were starting to move in a few items before for the big move in the following weekend. Alyssa and I picked up Greg and Dan and then headed off to see the apartment. The apartment is in the Castro and is a first floor of a well-kept house. It is a great space, complete with dining room, kitchen, living room, and the best room, the sunroom.

I was originally going to meet back up with the pod for the evening, but I ended up spending the night with Alyssa, Greg, and Dan, and it was really wonderful to have that time with them. We went to dinner that the home of the good family friend of Alyssa’s, Carolyn and Jim. It was a great dinner with great company and I was happy to included in the event.

The next morning, Alyssa and I woke up before the boys and walked to a nearby farmer’s market, before strengthening rain pushed us back indoors and Alyssa’s Dad came over to cook a wonderful Sunday morning breakfast. Alyssa’s friends Annessa and Tamara also joined us for breakfast. Alyssa had to keep working on things for the apartment, so I went to a coffee shop with Annessa and Tamara until it was time for me to meet up with my Americorps friends (who were on a bus tour of the city).

To meet them, I took an old-fashioned streetcar downtown. It was certainly not he most efficient mode of transportation and it took forever, but the driver of the car was incredibly entertaining. He talked both to people inside the increasingly crowded car and to the passers by on the street. An Australian family next to me was endlessly entertained by his antics and I was in turn entertained by their delight.

Now reunited with my Americorps friends, we had a great dinner and then got on the greyhound to head home to Sacramento. It was a very relaxing and fun weekend. Thanks to Alyssa for hosting me! It was so nice to be reunited with some Trinity friends!

Welcome to Green 2!

After dinner on Wednesday (Oct. 13^th) all corps members gathered on the field. Our pod leaders had given us each an envelope. Once we were all on the field we were instructed to open our envelopes and discover the color the string that was waiting inside. Then, based off the color we had, we split into four groups in different corners of the field. These were our units! I am on the Green Unit. We met the Unit Leader and the Support Team Leaders (STLs) that work primarily with the Green Unit. We also played a couple of games and learned our call and response Unit Cheer: “Hey Green Unit” “Yeah” “Hey Green Unit” “Yeah” “Show me how to get down” “No way” “Show me how to get down” “Okay” Then all together “Boots on our feet, we hammer to the beat, turn the world around, and we get, get things done, get get, get things done!” Not really the most exciting cheer, but it works. By this point in this event, I was getting nervous. I knew that the team reveal was up coming. Each of the four units are made up of seven teams and your team is who you spend your year with, so it is definitely a plus to get a good team. I was bummed to be separated from my pod and nervous as I looked around at the many unfamiliar faces and other faces I knew and knew I did not want to be paired up with. Then came the moment of truth. The Unit Leader and STLs began to call our names and hand each person another envelope or a bag. I got a bag with a bottle of bubbles in it and then set out to find the others who had the same type of gift. This was my team. This was Green 2.

Now we had a task. Each bottle of bubbles had a word on the top of it. We went under a light to put a sentence in order and the scavenger hunt to find our team leader had begun. Our first clue brought us to our team’s kitchen, where we had to search high and low for twelve green glow-in-the-dark rubber mice. Each mouse had a word on the bottom of it that formed our next clue and brought us to our next clue located at our “muster stop” where we gather each morning. At the muster spot was a puzzle of the United States that we had to assemble and turn over to discover our next clue and be sent to the laundry room. In the laundry room there was a sign that said “Call Sharon” and then a phone number written out across the machines. I was the first one to whip out my phone so I dialed and put my phone on speaker. Sharon (who we at the time thought must have been our team leader, but was actually our TL’s sister) asked us a series of questions, the answers to which were a license plate number. Finally reaching a conclusion to our search, we headed out to the parking lot, found our van, and waited for our Team Leader, Abby, to arrive. I am so happy that Abby is my TL. She is wonderful, dedicated, sweet, and a great leader. Once we were all in the van, Abby started driving. We had no idea where we were going, but we put on some music and starting singing and dancing around in our seats. It became clear that this was a fun group of people. Abby took us to a frozen yogurt store and we gathered in the parking lot with our treats, going around and introducing ourselves before heading back to campus. All around it was a great evening and an exciting start to my time with my team. It was a little hard in the coming days to make the transition from pod to team, but I quickly came to love my team and I am very much looking forward to a year with this fun and exciting group of people. (Also, Brett is Hilarious.)

Two days later, on Friday night, we also switched rooms, to be rooming with people from our team. My new roommate is Maya. She is 18 years old and from Minnesota. She is a lot of fun and I am glad that we are living together.

First Days

Hello Everyone!

It has been five days since I have arrived in Sacramento and I can honestly say this is the first real opportunity I have had to take a moment and write to you all to tell you the goings on in Americorps NCCC. The last few days have been a fantastic mixture of constant activity, meeting people, hanging out, and sitting through unbelievably boring training sessions. From now on, I am going to try to keep updates coming fairly regularly, but can’t make any promises because I don’t really know if I will always have internet over the course of the year.

I suppose it would be best to start at the beginning….

Thursday October 7^th- Day 1 (One of the longest days of my life so far): Knowing that my flight was leaving Laguardia at 6:05am I knew I would have an extremely early morning. The night before I was set to leave (Wednesday Night) I stressfully fussed over every aspect of my preparation, repacking my bags and even changing which duffel bags I was using to properly utilize the space available. I had originally intended on one checked back, a carry on, and a back pack, but when I realized that my one checked bag was frightfully close to being overweight, I was forced to reconsider. Two checked bags it was, and it turns out this was certainly the right decision, as American Airlines does not charge any checked baggage fees to people flying on government purchased tickets (thank you americorps!). Knowing that I had to get up, I slept very little the night before I had to leave and was up and out of bed at 2am. We were on the road to the airport by 3 and easily made it the airport by the deserted highways. Once on the flight I discovered that there were a few other people seated around me on the plane, who were also headed out to Americorps and it was nice to have introductions and travel buddies for the rest of the journey. After a layover in Dallas, just quick enough to grab a sandwich, we took our second flight and landed in Sacramento where Americorps Staff greeted us at baggage claim and we met several other corps members. Then we headed off in vans to the Sacramento Campus. The rest of the day involved all sorts of introductions and check in procedures. This of course included moving into our dorms and meeting roommates. I am in a double, a pretty spacious room which, along with the basic furniture, includes a sink and refrigerator, and is connected to another double with a shared bathroom. My roommate is a recent high school grad from rural Oregon. She is a very nice girl and we definitely work well together as roommates, each very considerate of the other and neat and tidy in our room. For now, for the first few weeks of training, we are all broken up into temporary teams, called pods. Brytnie (my roommate) is not in my pod and as a result we have not spent a huge amount of time getting to know each other, but I am happy to have her as a roommate. After settling into rooms we had several different meetings and we were all walking zombies by the time we were done and could finally head to bed after a slightly overwhelming day. I fell asleep almost immediately once my head hit the pillow at 9pm, a solid 22 hours since I woke up in my bed in Norwalk.

The next day we got to meet our pods and team leaders and I feel this is when our time really started. I love my pod and we are constantly talking about how much we wish we could stay together for the year and not be broken up to be put into other, more permanent teams. My Pod, Pod 29, consists of eight people (five girls and three boys) and our team leader Will. Our first activity together was uniform fitting! We had quite a bit of down time while waiting in lines and were able to talk and start getting to know each other before we explored the wonderful world of coveralls, parkas, fleece vest, khaki cargo pants, cargo shorts, hard hats and other fantastic gear. (I promise I will put up a picture as soon as possible.) The uniform also includes steal toe boots which we got yesterday and what is jokingly referred to as the Ameri-tux which consists of a white Americorps polo shirt and the fancy-shmancy black cargo pants.

But back to Pod 29. That night after dinner we ended up talking at the table until everyone had left and we moved on to a pod member’s room to play apples to apples and later catch phrase. It was a wonderful bonding evening and we have been somewhat inseparable ever since, rather reminiscent to how new friends act at the beginning of college. I would say that this first portion of Americorps is very much like a combination of Freshman fall mixed with summer camp.

Ways CTI (Corps Training Institute) Is like Freshman Orientation:

1) We are all new here and pretty much no one knew each other before arriving, so we are all in the same boat and fully prepared to answer the staple questions of: what is your name? where are you from?

2) We were issued id cards and lanyards and told to always wear them.

3) We travel in packs. At Trinity, each fall you can pick out the new freshman because they travel around campus at all times with at least 4 other Trinity freshman (all wearing their lanyards of course).

Ways CTI is like Summer Camp:

1) Constantly scheduled activities, including evening activities such as capture the flag, movies accompanying themed dinners (we had a baseball themed dinner followed by screening of the Sandlot), and kickball.

2) The Pod functions in a very similar way as the cabin grouping at camp. Our schedule is by Pod and each time we go to a workshop or training, attendance is taken by calling out Pod numbers and having the pod members cheer.

3) Similar to number 2: Pod pride is like cabin pride.

4) Room inspection: Our rooms are checked for cleanliness every Monday and it really brings me back to the days of cabin inspections.

Now, that all being said, I loved both Freshman year and Summer camp, so it makes sense that I am very much enjoying myself here too.

Other possible topics of interest: Yesterday we were trained and certified in CPR, AED, and First Aid. I had unfortunately just taken this all day course this summer, so it was a little frustrating to sit through it again, but of course it is a very worthwhile certification. Today we had Red Cross disaster training. Sounds cool, but this is terribly terribly wrong. It was probably the most boring lecture experience ever. We learned nothing that wasn’t already common sense and it lasted far too long.

Last thing that I will mention now is PT (Physical Training): Today was our first day of PT. We had our baseline test to measure our current personal best. This test places us in our workout groups for PT throughout CTI and will be use as reference for us to be able to track our progress with physical fitness throughout the year. The started with a group warm-up at 5:30am, followed by push-ups, sit-ups, a mile and a half run, and then sit and reach test. I was pretty happy with my performance and felt happily energized at the end of the test. Hopefully this means I will be in a good workout group that will push me in a healthy way.

Alrighty: That is all for now. I hope you are all doing well and that you enjoyed the update. Keep checking back for more!