First Week Interning

Well, as the title says, this is my first week interning for Michelle Gaseau. I really enjoy the working environment, the varied daily assignments, and the people here are great also! Everyone is very friendly and I am being eased into the world of Public Relations. In about one hour I will be interviewing Marc Fournier about the Recyclemania program here at Lasell and writing a story about the accomplishments Lasell College has made towards being a green campus! The best part about this internship is that I have no idea what will happen next, no work day is the same as the last, and that keeps things interesting.

Wrapping up the Semester with Some Holiday Fun

As the semester comes to an end, I look forward to many of the events that CAB, Lasell, and Center for Spiritual Life sponsor. At the end of every semester there is a school-wide symposium which I have never had the opportunity to actually observe. All four years going here I have been a part of it; whether having a presentation in Rosen or a project on display in De Witt hall. This Symposium begins next Tuesday and continues on until Friday. I look forward to seeing the interesting projects that students have been working on as well as the refreshments, and sense of unity that this particular event provides. There is nothing better then seeing your classmates and friends all dressed up presenting what they have learned, as I learn more about the people I go to school with and the different connected learning projects that have been offered. It increases my school pride dramatically when I see some of the outstanding projects students have put together here.

It is finally the Holiday season and I am beginning to see events like "the giving tree" and holiday fest show up on my agenda. I can not wait to attend Holiday fest today... I love the holiday season!!!

From Cradles to Lasell Village

Lasell College's media relations class hosted a fundraising event at the Campus center last Thursday. The event was called "Rock the Cradle", and it consisted of a dance party with food and drinks in which admission was either 1$ or a winter clothing item. Erin Dologhan's media relations class organized this event, which raised 200$ for Cradles to Crayon's "gearing up for winter" clothing drive. The fundraiser also collected many jackets and other winter gear. DJ Mr-Rea was on the turn tables during the dance, as there was also food, popcorn and drinks available. I attended this event, took many pictures and enjoyed the music. I think more people would have gone if the dance party was later in the evening, (it ran from 7:30-1030)

This morning I had the opportunity to attend probably one of the cutest events I have been to in months. Since Thanksgiving is on Thursday, children from the Rockwell Nursery school came to sing and hang out with the residents of Lasell Village. This nursery school children come for most holidays and many of the Village residents such as Mrs. Kaplan and Mrs. Thurber visit this school multiple times a week. I loved seeing the cute little kids dressed up as Native Americans singing and drumming (on their hand-crafted drums). The teachers were very nice and energetic as well. It was definitely a nice way to start my day, reminding me of youth and the purity of little children!

Project ACES

What a fabulous idea! Students from the Boston Renaissance School came to visit two Thurdays ago for Lasell's Awareness Confidence Education Success (ACES) program. CCBL ran a couple of days full of entertainment for these students as they explored the campus as if it were their own. The students were given campus tours, time to build their futures electronically, time to play basketball, classroom activities and time to simply indulge in our campus dining hall/ 1851.

I met these students to take pictures in the 1851. They got very excited when they saw that I had a camera and their leader James had them pose for some very cute photos. Next I followed them into Wolfe hall, where I watched as several of the classrooms were used for the students to play facilitated games.

It was adorable too, there were 44 students and many of them knew a lot about college already! I remember being that age and not knowing ANYTHING about college life. What a great Idea to give kids early exposure to college in order to mark it in their minds as an ultimate goal.

Light the Night Walk

I interviewed with Seth Mantie of CCBL Tuesday, in order to learn more about the successful Light the Night walk which took place Last Thursday night at the Boston Common. Seth informed me that Lasell had impressive participation/ representation, having had the biggest team out of 27 colleges, even big inner-city school colleges! We raised almost 1800$ for the Leukemia Lymphoma society as well and it was a unifying experience despite the cold. How impressive!!!

Fall Interviews

Wow.. This semester is flying by!

In the midst of school, work and figuring out what my life will consist of post December graduation, I have been learning a lot of very interesting things through interviewing people and writing for this internship.

Michelle and I interviewed Mairead Van Heest of Sodexo dining in order to get the scoop on how Lasell's dining has become "more green". I learned many things from this interview. As a student that dines in the cafeteriea, I was suprised that I had not heard of many of the things Mairead told us. After the interview I noticed that the tables started having informative fliers on them, regarding the changes Lasell has made.

I learned that the trey belt they installed this semester is more energy efficient because it allows for students to not have to use a tray in order to send their dishes back into the kitchen. I also learned that excess vegetable oil is being recycled and used to heat homeless shelters this winter. Lastly, regarding heat, NStar has agreed to use Lasell for a pilot study this spring, allowing for students to control their own heat consumption. Lasell in turn, is going to offer their students prizes for having the most energy efficient residence hall.

Some other things I have learned include Lasell's purchase of sustainable fairtrade coffee and Nalgene bottles that offer each student a refill of a 16 oz. beverage for the price of a 12 oz. beverage once refilled. There are also now candy bars available at the campus center whose benefits go back toward stophunger.

Last but certainly not least Lasell is going to offer a can drive, with hopes of entering the Guinness Book of World Records.

Lunch with Liz Walker

Before Liz Walker gave her breath-taking speech on Tuesday, Michelle and I (joined by a couple of other faculty) sat down in Valentine dining hall for a lunch chat with her. My first thought: what a powerful lady. Her presence alone radiated power as she probably stood at least a foot taller then myself, and knew how to start, entertain, and animate the conversation! What a lady, I thought. We chatted about a trip to Israel she had made, and her overall humanitarian work, Liz's activates for Women's rights, poverty, Sudan and domestic violence. She is also part of a church group. I was tremendously inspired by her sophistication.

And then it was time for her speech. Michelle and I grabbed a video camera from IT and made our way up to De Witt where we occupied the first row. Her speech gave me the feeling that you get at weddings and graduations. She related the subject of connection to how everyone in the world is connected, and brought up the irony and importance of real life. The irony being that there are so many people living their lives stressed out everyday, on their cell phones, making money,listening to static that the world has created for itself, forgetting to pay attention to their inner- most voices.

Walker calls these "voices" callings, that we cannot neglect. She based her speech around three themes: taking risks, answering your callings and connections in order to educate us about the importance of finding your innermost passion and taking risks in order to do what you feel you were meant to do on this earth. Discussing the true essence of life and continuously quoting Martin Luther King, Walker did an amazing job of making me realize A) how lucky I am and B) How I can't let my life pass me by without following my calling. I personally feel like I know what I was put on this planet to do. Walker said that callings were what your contribution to the world was meant to be, considering that we are all connected, in conjunction with everyone else.

Having lunch with Liz Walker prior to her speech showed me how humble she was on top of inspirational and proactive. I really look forward to hearing Liz speak again. What a lady!