Free Write: Student Veteran’s Association event planning

Recently, there have been many meetings regarding the ASU Salute to Service Week. Since I am Vice President of the Downtown Chapter of Student Veteran’s Association, I have been attending many of these meeting. They are really quite interesting in how they come together.

One of my main responsibilities to these events is to secure funding, design, and place the order for the shirts being given to the veterans who attend. The whole process is pretty straightforward, however the Budget Allocation Committee approval process was a lengthy one.

This event is named Evolution of Service and is being held at the student center on the downtown campus of ASU. Many of the bigger organizations are taking part in this event so there will be a large amount of resources devoted to things like giveaways, food, and activities. I am really excited about it and hope it turns out well!

Interview Profile

Upon choosing a person to profile I chose my supervisor Cathy. She works for the governor in one of his advisory councils. She has a long history of public service, particularly in aging issues. Her responsibilities include coordinating events and structuring the agenda for the council. She has a master’s degree from ASU in teaching and is really great at her job.

Some advice she has given me about jobs is to find one that I am passionate about and have a good amount of interest. She has been very encouraging because she has a great knowledge of public service positions in the Arizona State Government. Also, she knows many of those who hold positions I aspire to have one day.

I am not really interested in her particular position, but I do like what she does for the council and will consider that maybe one day I will like a job like hers. Cathy is a wonderful person and I hope everyone has a person in their lives to give them great advice like she does!

Free write: A Quick Internship Update

At the office...

The other interns and I have been working on some really interesting projects lately. At first they seemed really monotonous, but as we started to work on them they have become pretty cool.

One project I am working on has to do with constituent service. This is the area I am most excited about because we get to use our working knowledge of the areas of the city to allow constituents to be more productive without all of the typical headaches (or at least trying to limit them).

Another great thing about working directly with the public is they give very real and honest feedback. Sometimes they are not the easiest things to hear, but it allows the people to interact with their representative’s offices with their concerns. It makes me feel great because participating in our democratic system is a big interest of mine and I get joy out of learning more about it!

Free Write: Technology is a pain sometimes...

I am really intrigued as to the fact that every time I work on these blogs, I find that I run into some sort of issue! Working with tech and electronics has never been a problem for me, so to learn on the fly is very new to me.

Since I have never blogged before, I find it an interesting way of communicating and documenting our experiences over this semester. Also, the comments have been really nice and constructive. Over time, I have seen the types of comments left on public websites and have always been hesitant to post anything. For this I am really grateful because I did not know what to expect.

The worst problem I have found is when I use Firefox to do my work in this class, it always makes me anonymous. In Safari (I have a Mac), it works perfectly and properly displays my name in my comments. Its kind of a weird thing, but I guess its one I had to learn the hard way!

Career Service Post

For my career service post, I visited a career fair in the A.E. England Building at ASU Downtown. This was a very informative event where I was able to talk to many different people about questions I have not been able to have answered. An example is talking to the representatives from some of the federal agencies that were present. I found that once I was able to discuss these jobs in person, I found that these positions are definitely not for me at this time.

The most prospective table was the Teach for America table. I met a couple of outstanding TFA alumnae who were able to spark an interest in me almost immediately! They were very generous with their time and made the learning process very quick and enjoyable.

It is almost certain that I need quite a bit more thinking to do before making a decision on what avenue to take after graduation, but initially I think TFA is a good choice for now!

All in all, this event was a great time and was very beneficial! 

Free Write: Thoughts on Gluten-Free Food

I have found that there are many different things that make food enjoyable. Aside from the different tastes we have, the one part that I really take a big interest in is the texture. An awesome food can be completely messed up and actually turn disgusting if the texture is off.

This leads me to this section of foods that are considered gluten-free. There are many different foods in this category and many are similar diets that one who does not mind having gluten finds themselves eating. An example of this is white rice or potatoes. However, it is the more processed foods that are traditional sources of food—like pasta and bread—that make it difficult for some to adjust.

I have a family member in my household that is gluten intolerant. She has not been shown to be allergic, but she has very bad problems when she consumes gluten products. So to show support, I have tried the different things she makes and brings to the kitchen that are free of gluten.

The hands down, best thing I have had that was gluten free is the Pillsbury™ Funfetti® Gluten Free Cake & Cupcake Mix. I could not tell the difference between this and the gluten version. Believe me, I tried! It is really a great product and shows that it is possible to still have some things that are familiar after going gluten free.

 

I will admit, the vast majority of things I have tried are really hard to get used to. This isn’t because they taste bad, it is almost always because of the difference in texture.

So from someone who has tried a bunch of different gluten-free products, if you keep an open mind about it and try it a couple of times instead of only once, I think most people will find it all not that bad!