It's gonna be a happy new year!

Oh yeah, I just quoted from the Broadway show RENT and made it this blog title, duh. And it's fitting too, seeing as we're approaching the new year.

Anyway, where did I leave off with you last? Oh, that's right, I told you about our next project, and informed you that we only had 5 days left of work/7 days left in NOLA.

All 'n all, in my opinion, our first spike was a success. And, I'll say it again, fabulous, fo' sure. We were lucky with truly amazing site supervisors, spoiled with our housing situation (that being in a Presbyterian church with a lot of accommodations such as laundry access, space, multiple showers, internet, etc), the city we were in, the organization we worked with, and the project itself of getting to build a house as a real team:

Here's what the house looked like, well, BEFORE it was a house...

what the roof looked like before it was a roof...

And what the house looked like when it started to look like a REAL house.

However, we did a lot more than the above. The New Orleans rain didn't like us all that much and decided to downpour during the last day of work therefore, not letting me take a picture of what we accomplished during our month. Like, we installed the windows, door, completed the roof: shingles and all, and started on the siding. Yup!

So, here's to wonderful memories of rainy days, pain in the ass nails (sometimes), rocking out to Taylor Swift on full volume, and so on, while working on our lovely house on N. Tonti St.

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As for the 3 day road trip back "home" right before our current break...

This time we took a different route, driving through Louisiana, Texas, Texas again (getting the chance to drive through where we will be living and working this upcoming spike), Texas some more, New Mexico, finally making it into Colorado back to Denver. Taking a pit stop at Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico! Which was a beautiful site.

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Wishing everyone the best in 2010; here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous one!

Just keep building, just keep building!

Totally forgot about this.

To make up for my epic fail here's a quick update for y'all:

• We only have 5 more days of work, and one more week here in NOLA.
• Got 8 more ISP hours in today working with Hands On New Orleans (http://www.handsonneworleans.org/) painting the inside of some family's home. Good times.
• We found out where we will be/what we will be doing for our next spike... we'll be in Wichita Falls, TX... working with United Way... filing peoples' taxes... It's not working with Habitat down in Nawlins but we'll be helping people/families who need it... with the tax filing and all... Plus, there are saloons and rodeos in town so yay! for new life experiences.
• Did I mention that we only have 5 more work days/one more week in NOLA?

Next post will be a reflection on our fabulous first spike with pictures, etc. for ya so keep on checkin' in!

We're totally not in Kansas anymore...

It's so great to be back in NOLA; been back here for a week and am having total deja-vu! Why you might ask? Because we're doing the same project I did when I came down the first time for disaster relief! We're building a house from the ground up, but this time I get the opportunity to work with Habitat for Humanity, which is awesome. Our project is great, and our site supervisors are amazing.

First, our 3 day road trip consisted of driving through: Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, a quick drive through Memphis, Tennessee, Mississippi, and of course Louisiana, before finally arriving to New Orleans!

The drive wasn't SO bad... but damn, it felt like we were in Kansas forever. Pretty much this is what Kansas looks like... flat, yup.

We got to New Orleans Monday night just in time to wake up nice and early the next day to start work!

N. Tonti is the street in which we are working on.

The week basically consisted of work, PT, and service learning. For some service learning we're watching the documentary "When the Levees Broke", I highly recommend seeing parts of it if you haven't already.

Yesterday most of my group went to the annual Po-Boy Festival (http://www.poboyfest.com/). And then later in the afternoon some of us decided to venture into the French Quarter and Bourbon Street for a bit.

Only a few days of work this week due to Thanksgiving! I SO wish I was going home in order to see the Towson University TIGER Marching Band in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade... but alas, I'll be giving thanks here in good 'ole NOLA with AmeriCorps. And yes, I just totally made a plug for the Macy's Day Parade in my blog about AmeriCorps, haha.

We're AmeriCorps members and we'll get things done!

NO MORE CTI!!!

Most of the week was pretty uneventful. However, Wednesday and today were great.

Wednesday was Veterans' Day therefore, we had the day off. A very small group of us went to the Children's Museum of Denver for ISP hours. By far the best ISP. How much more fun can one have than getting to play with paint, clay, and interact with children for 7 hours of service hours? I don't know about you but personally, I'm more than content with a day full of artsy crafty stuff whether it's for service hours or not!

Today was induction marking the end of CTI and the beginning of our time serving the southwest region of the states (+ the gulf coast) as Corps Members (CMs) of AmeriCorps NCCC, Class 16.

Tomorrow we're en route for a 3 day road trip through Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and part of Tennessee (?), to New Orleans, LA where we can start, well, getting things done!

Ameri-terms

I realized that I've been, and will continue to be, using various terminology and acronyms used in the AmeriCorps NCCC world so here's a glossary of commonly used words that are associated with being involved with AmeriCorps NCCC. *Most definitions taken directly from the AmeriCorps NCCC member handbook.

AmeriCorps: The national service initiative that engages nearly 70,000 individuals in full- and part- time through NCCC, VISTA, and more than 600 state, local, and national nonprofit organizations.

(One of my first few posts already gave a description of AmeriCorps NCCC).

Corps Member Training Institute (CTI): This refers to the first four weeks of training for all AmeriCorps NCCC members. It is a time of preparation and readiness for the months of service ahead.

Individual Service Projects (ISPs): 80 hours of individual service required to successfully complete the program. This can be done individually, or with your team.

Physical Training (PT): A 45 minute work-out, individually or as a team. (We will be having PT a few times each week which consists of but not limited to: baseline (1.5mile run/walk, push-ups, sit-ups), jogging, yoga, any team sport, an exercise video, etc.)

Spikes: Projects that require teams to travel and live away from the campus for the duration of the project - usually 6-8 weeks. (We have 4 spikes during the program).

Team: The primary entity for each member. Every member has been assigned to a team with an assigned team leader. Teams train, travel, and work together. (I'm Sun 3 - team 3 of the sun unit).

Team Leader (TL): The immediate supervisor of members. TLs are responsible for the safety, well-being, productivity, and personal development of each member assigned to their team.

Unit: Five to seven teams compose one unit. At times, units will train for and travel to projects together. Much of the training during CTI will be accomplished within the unit structure. (Sun unit for me).

Unit Leader (UL): The AmeriCorps NCCC staff member responsible for their assigned members, and the activities of the entire unit. The UL is involved in planning most of the details for work and how it is to be accomplished at individual project sites and is also the first-line supervisor of TLs.

NOLA, here I come again!

Before I get to my weekly update I have to share the most exciting news of all of CTI...
WE FINALLY FOUND OUT OUR PERMANENT TEAMS AND WHERE WE ARE GOING AND WHAT WE ARE DOING FOR OUR FIRST SPIKE! I'm on Sun 3, team leader Scott, 10 teammates, and we're going to New Orleans to work on houses with Habitat for Humanity!

I've done work after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita down in New Orleans (and Gulfport, Mississippi) before and am curious to see what has been done since I've been there last. I'm also excited to be able to work with Habitat and more rebuilding efforts since that's the thing I've wanted to do the most while in NCCC.

Last weekend I did some ISP hours with a group, helping out at the Denver Police Department's annual Halloween carnival. I got to take pictures of kids with police officers. It was cute.

This week consisted of CPR and first aid training and certification with the American Red Cross, diversity training, and a unit day involving a mini-hike and a few free hours in downtown Boulder.

Downtown Boulder

View from the hike

I spotted a crazy huge house in the middle of the mountains in Boulder, CO. That would probably make a verrrry nice vacation home.

After we found out permanent teams towards the end of the week, the rest of the week included more meetings, spike prep work, and an ISP helping out a clinic that was giving H1N1 vaccines.

5 more days of CTI then we're hittin' the road to NOLA!

Snow day?

So, it totally snowed non-stop for 2.5 days this week. And we had off, due to snow.

10/26/09 - Meetings, meetings (the story of training month), with baselines in between. Baselines are kind of part of PT where you see how many push-ups you can do in a minute, how many sit-ups you can do in a minute, and a timed 1.5 mile run/walk. I have to say, I didn't do as bad as I thought I was going to.

10/27/09 - Meetings, of course. Well, basically it was one meeting on safety/tool safety for most of the day. Come 2pm we were free for the rest of the day.

10/28/09 - Unit time for a bit, meeting, and lotsa snow. Due to the snow we had the afternoon off.

10/29/09 - Since it was still snowing we had a snow day... Instead of staying in all day a bunch of us went into Denver for a few hours for lunch and to just get out for a bit.

10/30/09 - Rock climbing in the morning followed by a service learning meeting.

This weekend is another weekend off dedicated to getting some of those 80 hours of individual service done. Then Monday comes again, starting another week of training... 2 more weeks before we start our first project and then break!

Starting to live by the motto

"Getting things done" is the motto for AmeriCorps NCCC and we finally started to get things done over the past few days as opposed to sitting in long-drawn meetings.

10/20/09 - We took a trip to Mt. Falcon Park. Check out a few photos!*

View of the mountains and Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre from Mt. Falcon Park.

10/21/09 - As teams we went to various places to volunteer. My team went to The Food Bank of the Rockies. We got to clean out the fridge and freezer, and help put together food packages.

10/22/09 - Meetings all day.

10/23/09 - As a unit we went to a middle school and elementary school (which were right next to each other). My team removed rocks from a former flower bed so they could re-plant there and then we helped the rest of the unit (and other units that were there) start the beginning process of paving a track for the schools.

This weekend is a free weekend, then Monday begins a new week.

*I WILL be creating a photo album (on Facebook or another internet source that's meant for posting photos), so keep a look out!

Welcome to the mile high city!

It's ONLY been 5 days? Really? Yeah. Crazy, right? I feel like I've been here for about a month already. And that seems to be the general consensus around here. Anyways... just wanted to put that out there. Now on to the post.

Yesterday we had a day off. It supposedly reached a high of 78 and it was sunny, a PERFECT day to go out and explore some of Denver. Michala, Ashley and I got on the bus to the light rail with a whole group of other AmeriCorps folk but ended up getting on the train after theirs. Which was nice. We all agreed that we preferred smaller groups (more organization, less petty drama/arguments of where to go when). We ended up just wondering around a bit and came across a place for lunch, ate, and wondered around some more and headed back to campus in time for dinner. After dinner Michala and I braved the insane altitude change and went for a lil run. It was pretty brutal, hoping to improve by next week at least.

Today we had a campus standards meeting in the morning with our unit. Basically a meeting going over our handbook and the importance of it. At the meeting, we all had the opportunity to introduce ourselves, telling everyone where we are from and why we are here now. After that we headed into Denver with our teams for a tour of the capital building, and a mini tour of Denver for the rest of the day.

State Capital Building. They took us all the way to the top where we got a pretttttty nice view of the city. It was pretty sweet, not gonna lie.

City and County Building with the CO flag. Taken from the top of the Capital Building.

Drivin' time

AmeriCorps Adventures, Day #2.

This training day consisted of... driver safety! The first few hours of the day was spent in a classroom learning about the importance of safety while driving and operating the government van that we will be traveling in for the next few months, followed by a written multiple choice driving exam, and a whole lotta driving. Drivers' ed, anyone? Everyone was required to take the written exam, even if you didn't have a license and/or didn't feel comfortable driving such a massive vehicle around. After the written exam we split up into our groups of 10-12 while each member, essentially, took the driving part of the exam.

During the day of we ended up getting to see other breath-taking sites in Colorado such as...

right outside of Buffalo Bill's Museum & Grave in Golden, CO (Look Out Point)

and Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre.

From there we made our way back to campus followed by a Target run, dinner, and free time. Tomorrow will consist of going to the clinic for our physicals, followed by more logistical stuff, and ending with some sort of activity with all the members in my unit that our team leaders have planned.

Holy, mountains!

Look at that! That's what I get to see everyday when I eat my meals!

Yup. So, today officially marks my first full day as an AmeriCorps NCCC Class 16 Member. It's still hard to believe it's only been a day and a half, it feels like I've been here for a week!

Yesterday I left NY at 10:30am (EST) and arrived in Denver at 1:00pm (MT). The day basically consisted of handing in paper work, meeting as many new faces as possible, and dinner.

Today consisted of breakfast, our first community meeting as a corps (where we got introduced to all the AmeriCorps staff and team leaders, and got more of an idea of what we all got ourselves into). Then we split up into our units to do more logistical stuff, lunch, some free time, and we got our uniforms, and dinner.

This first month will be spent at our home base in Denver on the campus of Colorado Heights University. During the month we will get trained in CPR, first aid, disaster relief, and other safety issues along with our physical training (PT) sessions so we can all get in shape and prepared for our first project. After the first month we will be off to our first project before our break in December. On our return from break we will have 3 more projects to complete before we complete the program at the end of July. In addition to our projects, in order to successfully complete the program, we have to complete 80 hours of individual service. Not too bad.

What else? Hmmm... Wondering how many people are part of the Southwest Region Campus, Class 16, of AmeriCorps NCCC? Well, there are about 200 or so of us. That 200 or so is divided into 4 units (Earth, Fire, Sun, Water). Then the units are broken down into teams (4-5 smaller groups of 10-12 people). Those teams are the people in which we will be working with during our projects. During training we'll be switching around so I won't know the people in my work group until we embark on our first project. All I know for sure is that I'm part of the Sun unit.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Ameri-what?

And the countdown continues...
T-minus 3 days.

Damn. Wednesday is approaching WAY too fast.

So, people keep asking me what I will be doing during the next 10 months. To be honest, I still have no idea what to expect. Here is an overview of the program taken directly from the AmeriCorps website which describes the program much better than I will ever be able to.

AmeriCorps NCCC Overview

Service Through Teamwork

AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is a full-time, team-based residential program for men and women age 18–24. Members live on one of five campuses, located in Denver, Colorado (where I will be!); Sacramento, California; Perry Point, Maryland; Vicksburg, MS; and Vinton, Iowa.

The mission of AmeriCorps NCCC is to strengthen communities and develop leaders through direct, team-based national and community service. In partnership with nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies, and faith-based and other community organizations, members complete service projects throughout the region they are assigned.

Drawn from the successful models of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s and the U.S. military, AmeriCorps NCCC is built on the belief that civic responsibility is an inherent duty of all citizens and that national service programs work effectively with local communities to address pressing needs.

How AmeriCorps NCCC Works

AmeriCorps NCCC requires an intensive, 10-month commitment. Members serve in teams of ten to twelve and are assigned to projects throughout the region served by their campus. They are trained in CPR, first aid, public safety, and other skills before beginning their first service project.

AmeriCorps NCCC members serve communities in every state, but live and train at five regional campuses. Sponsoring organizations request the assistance of AmeriCorps NCCC teams by submitting a project application to the regional campus that covers that organization’s state. The campuses provide assistance in completing the application, developing a work plan, and preparing the project sponsor for the arrival of the AmeriCorps NCCC team.

It's the final countdown...

Hello Blog World,

So, I leave for AmeriCorps in a week [that's 7 days]...

Am I excited? My apprehensive than anything. Hey, it's 10 months full of adventure, traveling, community service, and meeting new people - all of which are totally up my ally. I'm in grad school for Fall '10, so I know I'll be back home in no time. I also know that I'm in no rush to jump into the "real world" as of yet therefore, yearning for an experience in which I will be embarking on in a few short days. Meh, I guess being a litttttle apprehensive is a normal feeling to be having.

I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon here in order to document my AmeriCorps adventures.

More posts [and photos!] to come!

Follow me as I help save the world...