An SES Weekend

This past weekend was packed with all things concerning special events. Now if you remember from last year, I took a trip with Special Events Society to Disney World last spring break. The spring break trip was announced for this year; we're going to California! One must apply to be able to go on the trip and with such an increase in members, over 200 to be exact, I had to step up my SES game.

On Thursday I stepped out of class and directly into my car to volunteer at the EUHOFA Gala being put on my the University to volunteer. Rae and I volunteered along side lots of other Johnson and Wales students including the staff from the Johnson and Wales Inn and Leigh and Keith ( a cute freshman couple that I gave a tour of the campus to last year). I still haven't really figured out what exactly EUHOFA stands for, no one else really knew I either. Anytime I would ask, I would get the same response, "Europeans in the hospitality industry - very important people." The event was heavily over-staffed, they stuck us in the coat closet to work coat check. The event coordinator felt so bad about not having anything for us to do, she let us eat and leave early. And that is why volunteering at events is by far one of my favorite hobbies.

SES @ Yankees Stadium

Friday, SES set up a field trip for us in the Big Apple. For $50 I had the opportunity to take a coach bus to the city, tour Yankees Stadium, Radio City Music Hall, and the New York Public Library, and included dinner at Planet Hollywood in Time Square. The idea of living in New York City really overwhelms me, more so before I took the trip than after. Life is so different. The problem is that the majority of the jobs in my field of study just so happen to be in the city. I warmed up to the idea a little more as the day went on. My favorite tour of the day was touring the library. The other 2 were great, but they were tours for just regular people who want to see the facilities where the library tour was conducted by the events coordinator of the library. I find it so interesting that this library is so much more than just a library, it is an icon. I didn't realize that the library was a popular place to get married when I first watched the Sex and the City movie. I truly thought Carrie was being really unique and untraditional for her big wedding, turns out it is the most popular place to get married in the city. The woman who gave us the tour has the best job ever. She's not an event coordinator, she is actually head of marketing for the Library and handles the movie shoots that happen in the library and then she deals only with space rental for the library. The beauty of events in the library is that it is purely a space you are renting out. It works great for the client because they are not restricted to using any particular caterer or anything like that and it is great for the library because they don't deal with the clients but they deal only with the planners. The job skips over all of the hassels of the event industry.  There was also another highlight to this trip: the Forever21 in Time Square. I thought I was over shopping at Forever21, but this one had the best stuff and it was 4 stories! It is like it's own department store! I bought a few things... After dinner, we loaded up the bus and passed out.

Saturday I worked my last paid Open House (JWU Preview). I got a new job! At the start of winter trimester, I will no longer be a tour guide, but I will be the new Commuter Relations Assistant at Student Activities. I will have my own office, I am so excited! So this is where it begins, I am the assistant to the assistant director of Student Activities...kinda funny.
After the Preview, I went home and took a short nap and then went and volunteered at another event with SES. The event was TV Diner's (a Massachusetts tv show that goes around and reviews restaurants in the area) Annual Gala at the Lexus Dealership outside of Boston. The event was a fundraiser for homeless children (sounded kinda sketchy...more vague) it was $100 a ticket open bar and all you can eat samples from various restaurant booths. Our job was to serve hors' d'oeuvres and  keep the event space clean so basically clearing tables of stemware and dirty plates. They gave us baskets to load all of the glassware and dishes in to take to the back, meaning the half empty glasses of wine would swish all over the place. By the end of the night I had never smelt so much like alcohol and been so sober. We had a few issues with the caterer boss lady throughout the night (the troll they call her). Sydney had to demand for us to get a break, some water, and a little food. Definitely one of the more labor intensive events I have done, but in the end I had a blast. Once again, I got to go to a fancy party for free and get lots of free food and desserts at the end.

In the time that I have procrastinated to study for my finals, I had a chance to perfect my resume, volunteer logs and my SES California application. I turned it in tonight! So excited, I hope I get to go. Until next time...

America has spoken...

2010 Midterm Election Results
House of Representatives

This past week's midterm elections proved to be hugely successful for the GOP's. Congrats to them taking control over the House of Representatives!  Finally some balance in our legislature. Some states just still don't get it though, including: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California, Nevada... It's interesting how the states that are bankrupt do not connect economic policies with the people they elect into office. Why is it that Texas is the number 1 place to do business in the country and why is Rhode Island the 50th? Every time we talk about it in my classes with the liberal professors and I talk about how the government is spending too much money, they always talk about the money we're pouring into the "war" and not education.. not really the issue. It's a great tactic I guess, no one can deny bettering education, same thing goes for the environment. It still doesn't justify the wasteful spending, wasteful being the key word. Do Rhode Islanders think their state is bankrupt because of the 10 republicans in the general assembly?? We did go up to 18 for the next year, Travis Rowley (Rhode Island Young Republican Chair) predicts 30 for 2012. I wish them the best of luck. I do have more optimism for this state, the fact that it was the Independent and Republican gubernatorial candidates that were neck and neck in the end proves that the state is over traditional liberal politics around here. It makes sense that the Independent won, I have noticed that people up here do not feel comfortable affiliating with any particular party. The word Democrat and Republican really turns people off up here.

P.S. I am all for you believing that liberalism is the best way if you can back up your reasons factually and not just by telling me that my conservative politicians are idiots. I am sick of being insulted for my beliefs. You are far more convincing when you are expressing your beliefs with data instead of personal attacks.
That's my political rant for the time being. Until next time...

Freak Week 2010

The week of Halloween is Freak Week, 1 of the 3 major weeks UIB puts on throughout the year. Major Week means we have a different program every night of the week. A lot of the events are traditions but we experimented with a few new ideas. We tried dry erase marketing by just writing our events on the white boards in classrooms and personal white boards and we were getting lots of results by looking at attendance at the events at the beginning of the week. Towards the end, the marketing began to fizzle and so did our numbers. People were also heading out to the clubs instead of staying on campus. We program fun, free, or inexpensive events/activities for students and secretly provide alternatives to drinking. Alcohol usually wins over a school dance but we made the best of the dance Saturday. The important part of the dance was that everyone who came had a good time and some of the students who came probably wouldn't have had anywhere else to spend their Halloween night. After a while we all started to have a sense of humor about the low attendance and we decided to set up stanchions outside of Wales Hall and stand in line like we were waiting to get into a club like the clubs across the street. We got a lot of confused looks from people who were on their way to Ultra of Coliseum but we actually tricked a few people and they actually got in line with us. After a while most everyone had left except for UIB people so we started doing karaoke because no one was really dancing anyways. Francis started off by singing Green Day then his famous cover of Tom Petty's Free Fallin'. Greg and 2 other guys from the sailing team  got up and sang Backstreet Boys, then we got up and sang Spice Girls, it was nostalgic of our childhood.

UIB E-Board + Sott
Nightmare on Pine Street Vidoe Dance Party

Paint October Pink!

Ahh I finally have time to sit and post a blog. I know it has been a while and maybe you think I have fallen off the face of the earth. I have been busy as usual, but in all honesty, I have been meaning to post a blog for weeks now, it has been on my to-do list but I kept getting tripped up on the title. Once I get a witty title, I'm usually pretty good on the post from then on.

I know we are well into the month of October now, like I said, I have been meaning to blog about this for a long time now. I'm sure you have noticed that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and boy does Providence love supporting breast cancer awareness. Not this past weekend that just happened, but the weekend before was Providence's annual Flames of Hope, the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Waterfire. This is one of the largest events held in Providence every year and the Special Events Society plays a part in the production of the event. I had the honor of working behind the scenes during the torch processions, where hundreds of people who are either battling cancer currently, in remission for cancer, or any one who is caring for someone or who has lost someone to cancer carries a torch and walks down to the basin and lights the Waterfire. It is a really emotional ceremony, there were certain points where I got teary-eyed myself. Gloria Gemma weekend is a beautiful thing in Providence. The whole downtown turns pink, the State House is lit pink as well as a few other buildings for the month of October.

Next weekend, the President's Leadership Council will be participating in the Making Stride Against Breast Cancer Walk at Roger Williams Park. I am getting a really late start on fundraising. I set a goal of $100, a very manageable goal I think. I would really appreciate some support from all of you who follow my blog consistently. A small donation goes a long way. I am only asking $5. It's easy just click here!

It feels good to be blogging again. You will hear from me again shortly, I promise. Until next time...

So much to blog about, so little time.

Everyday I have thought of some great topic to blog about and then never find the time at night to ever post it. I can't believe it is Wednesday already and week 4 for that matter. Time flies. This past weekend was super busy one. I conducted PLC interviews, we had several UIB programs, as well as the Newport Mansions Food and Wine Festival with SES.

PLC 2010 Spring Banquet

Friday I had the opportunity to interview lots of great freshman for the President's Leadership Council. Johnson and Wales continues to raise the quality of students they are admitting so pretty much everyone we interviewed was fantastic and qualified. That made interviews very difficult because we had to cut some great students from the council. We have about 40 new additions to the council this year and I am very excited about the council this year. It is easy to get bogged down by the culture of students here at Johnson and Wales. There is such a dramatic difference in students here, there is one group where JWU is there dream school and they are here to succeed and another group of students who have wealthy families and that can buy them into a college degree even if they forgot to take their SAT's. It is refreshing to get together with a group of students who are elite and all here for the right reason and that is PLC. Honestly PLC saved me from this school. I hated it here until I got involved with the council. We interviewed so many students who were just so passionate about their major whether it was culinary, baking and pastry, or international travel and tourism, even criminal justice. I enjoyed hearing what their most favorite thing about JWU so far and what they thought there was still room for improvements on. So refreshing.

4 out of 7 UIB Eboard Members

I love my UIB family. Our E-board this year is incredible, we all get along. I enjoy all of the time I put into it. This weekend a few of us actually got a chance to hang out outside of UIB events and went to Waterfire together. We found a spot on the grassy hill overlooking the water basin at Waterplace, it was so fun to just hang out with people and relax outside. We had awesome weather this weekend, perfect 74 degrees ( my absolute favorite).

Marble House
 Newport, RI

Sunday Rae and I volunteered at the Newport Mansions Food and Wine Festival with the Special Events Society. Coincidently, Sharon, our friend we made at the Life is Good Festival was in charge of the kitchen pavilion we were scheduled to work at. What a great contact we made, I guess that's a huge part of SES: networking. It was so fun, we assisted in wine pouring and serving samples. I cannot stress how great volunteering for events is. I get experience, behind the scenes access, free admissions to events I would probably never get to go to, and we get free food and swag. Love it.

So on top of all of my extracurricular activities, I still have school work. School has not been my number one focus lately and it is starting to catch up with me. I am not doing A quality work for my classes and I need to step it up. I am so glad I got some time to squeeze in a blog post, but there is probably some homework I could be working on since we don't have a tour today and I'm sitting in the cubicle knocking out my Hulu playlist. Until next time...

Time for a change.

I feel that lately I have been bombarded with lessons on leadership in all different shapes and sizes. I have experienced leadership lessons as well as sat in on training sessions and just sitting in my leadership class. Not complaining, it's a good thing. Student Activities brought in a motivational speaker, Michael Miller, to conduct training sessions for clubs and orgs on campus. I happened to be in three of those training sessions. 1 for clubs and orgs in general, another for student government and another for UIB e-board, and our advisor arranged for the UIB president and myself to have lunch with him too. He is so great! He's very loud and very italian (meaning he talks with his hands). It was a bit overwhelming at first, but I grew to love it. It has gotten me to want to take all of the organizations I am involved with and go above and beyond with them. Why not? It is time to push up my sleeves and start a revolution with both SGA and UIB, but in 2 completely different ways.

It is time to stop complaining about SGA and start to try and fix SGA. The problem is simple: the leadership can't and will not work together, the members are unclear on the purpose of a student government, and the leadership is kind of talking the talk but not walking the walk therefore not proving any credibility in themselves or giving the members a reason to do what is expected. The time has come to turn around JWU SGA and make it one of the most prestigious roles on campus like it is at real colleges. No more running unopposed for positions and no more appointing people for positions because no one wants to run for it. 

UIB's situation is different. We will always do what we are supposed to do. There will be programs on campus whether or not it is done correctly, different story. It is very easy for committee chairs to plan, book, and execute their events. The hard part is effectively engaging their committee members and making them feel like they had a part in making that program happen. This year we are going to give more responsibility to the general board in hopes of keeping them engaged and committed to us. This year we will also fix the problem of students not knowing what UIB is. There is no excuse for the student body to not know what a campus programming board is. It's partly the students' fault for not paying attention, but it is mainly our fault for not effectively getting the word out. 

I am very excited for the potential this year has to offer. At this point, everything said is worthless. I want to see action. Talk is talk. We have realistic goals to be met this year. Now all we need is enough people to be on board and make all of it happen.

Life is good, BUSY, but good.

I can already tell my second year of college is going to fly by. It's already Friday!? This past week was pretty routine, but it started off with Rae, Mattie, and I volunteering at the Life is good. Festival in Canton, MA. It was such a great experience. It was a rough start but when we finally got from the volunteer parking lot to the actual festival grounds and after our first assignment at bocce ball, it was so much fun. Have you ever played bocce ball before? Enough said. Mattie and I took the first opportunity to move and went over to the watermelon seed spitting contest. It was quite entertaining to watch parents watch their kids try and spit the seeds and then the parents dying to try after them. The entire festival was to benefit the Life is good foundation for kids. There were so many families there as well as a great artist line up for the 3 stages. After spending a few hours watching people spit seeds, it was time to move on. While attempting to take a break and enjoy the festival, Mattie and I stumbled across the kid's drink bar and it was crazy. It was in the middle of a shift transition and busy as can be. Mattie and I stepped right in to help. We spent basically the remainder of our volunteering at the kid's bar making fresh squeezed lemonades and frozen fruit drinks. After the kid's bar shut down we scarfed down pulled pork sandwiches, sweet potatoe fries, and sweet tea before heading over to help at the real bar. Funny story on Rae's blog  about us trying to sell beer. We only served a few beers, realized we were in the way and went and enjoyed the Jason Mraz concert. So awesome! 12 hours working on our feet, rainy weather, and being short staffed still equaled a great day. It's funny how when you work a music festival, although there is a great musical line up, you're not terribly disappointed about missing the concert because you're working the event. There were a couple more acts I would have loved to see like Guster, Ok Go!, Brett Dennan, and Corrine Bailey Rae but I missed them because I was working and I was not heartbroken. Now if I miss Jason, I probably would have been more upset.

Monday was our PLC meet and greet. Met some awesome freshmen. Applications are due today and interviews are next Friday! Tuesday I had my first student government meeting with the house of reps. Not bad, it's gonna be a good year in SGA I think, hopefully there will be some changes. Being a representative, we deal with appropriations for other clubs and orgs.We had another successful UIB meeting Wednesday night. Thursday we had our first College Republican meeting. We were expecting more people, we had 6, but that's better than before. Rae and I have big plans to turn JWU CR's around, hopefully it'll be a good year with them as well, considering it being an election year. This morning I took care of some UIB business and fulfilled some of my office hours before heading to the admissions office for work. Phew....I'm exhausted. 

Until next time...