Fire Safety Poster and Avation Tour

It was tough to go to work after an awesome concert last night but it had to be done. In the morning, I continued to work on Fire Poster Research. I reviewed Brian's comments on the Google Wave for the fire safety poster/video. Apparently there is already a video used so I am anxious to see that. I put more ideas to paper as far as a poster goes, I really want to find or make a fireman's cross logo. We'll see if I can find that or accomplish that.

In the afternoon, we had a tour of the Aviation Center. What a cool tour! I'm glad I brougt my camera to take a few pics. The Aviation Center is connected to the Williamsport Regional Airport and is part of the school of transportation. They work on planes, engines, study the aerodynamics, and all sorts of stuff. It was awesome! This is the last of our academic tours. I would say we ended on a great note! Here are some pics:

Recycling, Tours, and a Surprise!

After looking up more fire safety information, I went to General Services with Katie, Krista, and RA Kyle. This is the team that will be tackling the Recycling programming in the Halls. We spoke with Don Luke and Rick Shaffer about the single stream recycling program. He told us about the things that worked, what didn't work, and we all brainstormed for a bit on educating the students on recycling. We also talked about how Dauphin Hall changes some things. I think this is going to be a fun project!

Centered around lunch were two tours, one of Construction and Design Technologies and the other was Transportation Technology, mostly focusing on the Automotive part of the school. Both of these tours were pretty awesome. Stuff like this always sparks the "I wish" syndrome in me, like I wish I knew how to be a stone mason and lay my own bricks or I wish I knew a lot about cars so I could restore one. Again, students are really getting practical experience in their schooling.

Once that was over with, the Links were off to Diversity Training with Brian Johnson. I assumed it was my supervisor Brian Johnson and went with the Links to touch base with Brian. I then discovered it was not ResLife's Brian Johnson but Campuspeak's Brian Johnson!!!!! I read about him in a Campuspeak magazine and thought his message would be really cool to see but I've never had the opportunity to see him. I stuck around for his diversity session and it was awesome! I love the way he uses movies to help reach his audience. It's what I want to do in the Greek Leadership Class I am co-teaching this Fall. There were a bunch of things I could have accomplished this afternoon but I had to jump at the chance to hear Brian Johnson speak. So Good!

Email again??

So the days of me having a Penn College email address were short lived. I got to work to check my email and found I could not log on to a computer. I couldn't log on to anything. Turns out they switched my email address without telling me so I was quite blind for a while. I should say, they tried telling me but sent the notification to my new email of which I did not have knowledge of. Anyway, it made a lot of sense since I hadn't received an email since Wednesday last week. Hopefully everything is squared away with that.

In the late morning, we toured the School of Business and Computer Technologies. We spoke with the coordinator of matriculation and retention, who actually graduated with a master's degree in student affairs. Students in the School of Business and Computer Technologies will learn info about business and tech, but they will also work with the health and legal fields as well. This tour was also different as we spent the majority of out time in a classroom with a PowerPoint presentation, which most of our tours have been through all the different technical classrooms.

In the afternoon, I met with Erin, Ashley, Kas, and Krista to go over the Morgan Valley Retreat info for tomorrow. I'm excited about this as it is on diversity and I haven't had the opportunity to talk about diversity with a large group of students. I've had discussions one on one with students but not a group, other than my classmates. After that, Tim and I went over some procedural stuff for the Links reference card. On initial glance of the information, I think the information will fall under a few main categories that I can organize on the card. I have to jump on the project quick as there is only a week before the actual training.

Free Friday Afternoons

I worked on some more campus fire safety research this morning. Nothing too special. I've tried to save what I can on another Google Wave. Much of it is repetitive. I then with the Links to the School of Health Sciences. This was an interesting tour. Like other tours, they point out the equipment because it is similar to or the same equipment used in the real world. Again, these students are getting a lot of practice in their work. The programs are also extremely competitive. Although this makes the programs tough to get into, it probably makes them more prestigious. Our tour guide also took us into the cadaver lab. We didn't actually see a body but it was freezing in there and definitely had a distinct odor. After that, it was a little fire safety research wrap up and then the weekend. Big hockey game tonight, Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. Go Hawks! Past that, I don't know what the weekend holds!

Email Day!!

I spent much of my day figuring out email stuff. I received my password in the morning and sent out mass emails, celebrating my email address acquisition! Penn College uses Microsoft Outlook quite a bit, something I had never used before. I can access my email from the web and set up a calendar but it does not have a lot of the features that the Microsoft Outlook program has. I was unaware of this and ended up wasting much of my time trying to figure things out. Barb was a great help in trying to help me figure things out and her questions helped me figure out the disconnect between having the program and not having it. I hopped on a different computer and opened my email via the Outlook program and everything was the way it should be. Barb then taught me how to share my calendar and hopefully I will be able to see where I'm going in the future to help me plan my time and work. Because I have an email address now, I started to play around with Google Wave a lot more. I had found a fire poster that was done by the National Fire Prevention Association and posted it on the Wave started for our fire poster. It's a good poster but I think we can do a better job of marketing and tailoring the posters to Penn College students. I come from schools where the mascot is used as a marketing tool inside and outside the university. It makes sense to me to try and capitalize on the Wildcat.

In the afternoon, the Links, Krista and I took a tour of the School of Industrial and Engineering Technology. This was a tour that was spread all over campus. We pretty much walked from one end to the other. The students here have the opportunity to use a lot of different technical equipment, some of which I think is pretty cool (like making plastic bottles!!).

The tours have become a little more entertaining with the Links, mainly because the fact that I hold open nearly every door. Some of the guys are complaining that it's making them look bad. They say it in a joking manner but it could stem from a angry thought. I was taught to do those sorts of things and I tell the guys that it is a good habit to get into. One of the Links has taken notice and has started doing the same when I am unable to catch the door. I just hope it's not playing too much into the "typical" gender roles dynamic that was exposed at the Ropes Course. That's all for now!

Directors Meeting and Tour

Today was really the first time I was able to dive into a lot of fire safety information. I initially started out in looking for ways other schools market their fire safety posters but didn't find much. There sure is a lot of information out there on fire safety though. Uffda!

At 9am, Krista and I had a Student Affairs Directors meeting. This was a very interesting meeting. Much of their topics were things I had no clue about and a bunch of updates. Elliott has a great memory but it's funny to hear him describe my path to Penn College, "Jack is from Grand Forks, ND, went to Minnesota, and is now at Western Illinois." Sometimes he'll switch things around a bit and throw in my VISTA experience or what I'm studying. However, there was a lot of talk about the Crisis Intervention Team and the ADA Classification of students who attempt suicide. Apparently, students who attempt or are about to attempt suicide are protected by ADA through mental illness. If I remember correctly, the school can excuse the student from classes and living on campus once they have a mental evaluation. However, between the attempt and the evaluation, the student could stay on campus and cannot be asked to leave due to ADA compliance. This has a lot of implications for Residence Halls as it is affecting the other students' safety living there. I'm sure there are a lot of grey areas with this but what an interesting conversation.

Shortly after the directors meeting, Krista and I hoped in Penn College vans with the Links for a tour of the Earth Science Center! The Earth Science Center is well off campus in a very wooded area. The building houses a bunch of different majors, which might fall into different schools, not too sure. We took a nice outdoors tour and ate lunch at the Pavilion. I did not know we were supposed to bring our own lunch so I waited till we got back. After that, I got my email address!! However, no password. I'll have to get that tomorrow.

New Project and Tours

Krista, Erin, and I were supposed to meet with Brian to discuss some collaboration on projects but Brian was stuck at Dauphin Hall so we had to reschedule.

I then met with Tim and Lee to discuss Link training for Residence Halls. This is a great project for me. I can incorporate what I've learned in my classes, use what I've learned from my time at Minnesota, and learn more about Penn College Residence Halls and Link training. My duties are to make a reference card for the Links to carry around in case they need it and work on a Procedure Jeopardy with Tim. I'm also working on the schedule with Lee. This is going to be a fun project!

I then had a tour with the Links of the School of Integrated Studies (ps, I just learned how to attach internet links to the words, no more pasting long links!) . It wasn't so much a tour as it was a question and answer period with the School Administration. This is kind of a "catch-all" school as some of their majors need classes from other departments but the majors don't fit into the other schools.

After lunch, we toured the School of Hospitality and LeJeune Chef! This was an actual tour. LeJeune Chef is a restaurant that one can come to and enjoy the delicacies the chefs prepare. The students work their way up to actually cooking the food served. We got to tour the kitchens and even the classroom where they used to film a TV show! This was a really cool tour!

After that, I went to work on creating and catching up on this blog and then called it a day! Still no email.