San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans, oh my!

Well, I have been putting this off. I did my forth a final Texas Trip this summer to New Orleans via bus, (meaning I went to San Antonio, then Houston, and then finally New Orleans. It was really cool to stop at each place through.

San Antonio has the Alamo and a river walk, that is reminiscent of Venice, there are bridges, restaurants, and boats of people going around in circles, it’s actually pretty cool.

Houston is full of Skyscrapers and oil companies I believe. But it’s not too bad to walk around, they have some mass transport, a theatre district, and the other usual thing’s

Prior to this trip I had seen maybe one or two refineries, I now know where all of the refineries in America all, they are between Houston and New Orleans, miles of pipe just lie in between the two places. One of them even had a flare (which is one of the projects that I had been working on this summer, so that was neat.

New Orleans is an interesting place. The bus rolled into it around Midnight. In some ways, it reminds me of my time in Las Vegas, in that it had Casinos anyway. I was able to walk up and down the Mississippi river and around the French Quarter on Friday. The French Quarter is has a lot of history and is vibrant. There are street performers, museums, art galleries, and bars, I don’t think it ever has a quiet moment. But other than that I kind of got a dirty vibe from New Orleans. Many buildings are still boarded up, and areas are still recovering. In my time there it rained a lot, we were actually in a flash flood warning at one time!

Another thing the New Orleans is famed for is their cemeteries. Because the nature of the areas and the soil, there are burial vaults instead of in-ground burial. Because if the area floods the casket will pop out.

New Orleans brought my travels around the country this summer to an end. But I feel that my adventures are just beginning, I hope I can keep them up. As the school year ramps up again, I will be drowned in work, but I am hoping to have some adventures. Hope to have some more news soon! 

SAN ANTONIO

A more exciting off-shoot of the riverwalk

But isn't the riverwalk pretty?


HOUSTON

NEW ORLEANS

Wrap up and San Francisco

Quest Training- Sunday!!!

Sunday was the cherry (Jerry) on top of the whole ice cream sundae that was my Quest weekend. Again, me being the crazy person that I am, and the dedicated blogger, I agreed to get up at 6:30 and go take pictures of the Stanford campus with Columbia and some other Questies. Last time I woke up Columbia, this time it was her turn, but I did it! (I am not sure how.) But I jumped out of bed, got ready and lead the group to Stanford, with the characteristic silliness and energy. Anyway, we got our pictures, and there was a tour bus from Asia checking out the campus at that time too.

So, we finished up pictures, and went back to the hotel, only to walk back to the campus for closing ceremonies.

My regional group (New York Metro) filmed an awesome clip, that I will post when finished. 

And we did some evaluations, talked about our plans with Nancy, little things. We were going to San Francisco!!!

The bus arrived around one and we took off for a day in the city. Some of the many places we visited were

Church on Stanford campus

·         Twin Peaks- I can see Alcatraz, and all of San Francisco from here.

·         Golden Gate Bridge- I ran up ahead and back and forth between groups, gotta get the running in.

·         The remains of the 1910-ish world fair near the Exploratorium

·         The Crookedest Street in America, meaning that I have been the the crookedest street and steepest street in the span of a few months (see Baldwin St. Dunedin).

·         Fisherman’s Wharf

·         An In-And-Out burger joint, I have finally had it!!!

For future reference, if you are traveling in San Francisco you should either run about, or bring a sweater, it gets COLD!

 

It was an incredible day, sorry I don’t have more photos, the camera kind-of died on me, I thought those rechargeable batteries were working, guess not.

The first group of people left at 3:30 that night, and me being the social person that I am and wanting to say good-bye  I stayed up, it was nice to have one last walk around town and start adding people on facebook.

Goodbye Questies—I plan on tracking you all down and hanging out! 

The Dish 

Alcatraz!

Inspirational Speech- Michael McCollough

Micheal McCollough, he is one of the more enigmatic people I have ever met. However, through the use of the internet, and the other liaisons I have learned a little bet more about him. Ok, I will start at the beginning, a few moths ago, when I found out that I would be Vassar’s liaison, I creeped quite a bit on the Quest website. I found Michael’s speech at one of the college prep. meetings he holds.  

This is the film: Amazing Video

So I was a little prepared for what was to come, I will say this, that man knows how to throw the conversation in a room. We were all animatedly chatting, and quieted down to let him speak. He call’s it tweaking the mood, in general he will ask a question or something else along those lines that will achieve some sort of thought change.

In essence his speech boils down to this, life is short. Do you know what you want, what are your long term goals? Once you know what you want do you can plan accordingly. He broke up pleasure into three groups, there is short term pleasure, meaning, and flow- which is being so incredibly in the moment or that action that time ceases to be noticed.

What Michael wants is for us to live just a little differently, to be more mindful about how our actions are working towards our goals, to… have a higher consciousness.

He wasn’t always serious, one story I enjoyed was about he challenges himself to “fear roulette.” As part of this he would say “I am going to try to do stand-up, and they are either not going to let me, or I will go up there and make a fool of myself. I like what he said, its not easy to do the difficult things, the things we fear, but they can be the most enlightening.

I sort of already, incorporated his thoughts into my personal philosophy, I like to ask myself, “What can I do to maximize my opportunities, and goals, and experiences today, what can I do today, to ensure that I will either have something memorable tomorrow, in two months, or a decade. But I think he hit the nail on the head, I have been living a bit hedonistically; trying to gain the most experiences possible this year. But I would like to think that it is not only because I enjoy traveling, but that I see traveling as a mechanism through which to understand the world, others, and myself, I find that it gives me the chance to reflect, which, in my opinion is vital to ensure I am not just living on auto-pilot. Well, we shall see, we shall see.

-Jerry

And Better! Saturday!

Quest Liaison training, Saturday!

Me being the crazy person I am I got others to agree to go out running with me on Saturday morning, as 6:30. My goal was to reach an elusive dish on the other side of Stanford. So Columbia, Northwestern, Haverford and I (Vassar) headed out. It turned out to be a bit further than I though so the others turned back, but I, being bull-headed, and curious, persisted. And I made it! The dish, is a nature preserve on the golden hills (gold grass-gorgeous) with a huge satellite dish on it, unfortunately it was very foggy and I couldn’t see the dish, but there is a picture on Sunday’s blog post. What amazed me, other than the incredible beauty, were the ground squirrels, I have never heard of them before but they are COOL!

So that was my early morning, now to the meat of the day.

I now know more about the Quest Scholars network, which is closed, so not relevant to many of you. It is like a facebook for scholars, you can have a profile! But what is particularly cool is the Travelers map that shows the distribution of scholars across the country, home towns, universities, vacations, and study abroad, its all there, pretty cool!  I definitely plan on using this to plan vacations, I love free housing, and friends! We also learned about Quest blogs, and an internships page which is in the works. It is cool to be one of the earlier scholars in the program, because as it takes off it is going to be amazing, and maybe one day I will give a Questie and job! Who knows?

And we did a session about compelling blog content, which I am violating right now.

• A-    Action- use active voice
• B-    Brevity- people have short attention spans
• C-    Creativity- be imagninative and different.
• Other rule- informal, first person narration, show, don’t tell, focus on experiences.

So, I am sorry for violating those rules right now, but this is also a personal journal of sorts, so I think its ok to have exception- will work on it for the future though, after all, I am a liberal arts student- hopefully I will figure out how to write effectively.

We also discusses the service portion of Quest. Questies tend to be altruistic, it’s one of the reasons they choose us. Basically it can be anything that is an “issue of social concern.” I hope to partner with one of the many volunteer groups I work with on campus to do an activity with questies, and bond!

After that… yes.. after that, we had a discussion with Hawaiian about his experiences as a liaison last year. During the conversation we through around a LOT of ideas. The trick is going to be to connect with the freshmen and other students early on and have activites and tasks to keep them involved. (This year will be a challenge, but everything in the right light, and people never cease to be amazing.) Among some ideas to increase retention is to make door signs with chocolate for people, kind of similar to what VISA, the international students club on campus does. I also don’t want the discussion to be low-income, some people never identify as that, and once you step inside your school, you leave those labels behind, you are yourself. I am still in the process of brainstorming for posters, maybe stuff like, worried about $$$ at Vassar? Or something along the same lines. Oh, and if we are really ambitious, an annual report. Something I want to try that another Scholar suggested was “Speed Friending” it is like speed dating, but cooler.

Out next session was about mentoring, which is something I believe holds a lot of potential on campus. My idea for that is to have a meeting let the mentors meet the mentees, and then go to Baccio’s, the pizza place near campus and let the mentors and mentees get to know each-other. Another thing they could do at this even is the question game- during this people go around in a circle and have to keep asking questions, if you don’t you’re out. I personally like when people say their name and an adjective that describes them, that sticks I think, because I can create a story with it. Another idea, yes another idea, is called sardines, its like hide and go seek, but when you find someone, you join up and the group can  move around, it sounds quite entertaining.

An important conversation, that had been going on all week, but was focused specifically upon this weekend was the question: What is a Quest Scholar? It comes down to three things-

-Socio-economically disadvantaged, commitment to service, and academic commitment.

Later on, toward the end, I promise, we sketched out our plans for the year, here are a few things that I would like to do:

• ·         Build Community
• ·         Do service projects
• ·         Get VSA recognized
• ·         Mentoring, study sessions
• ·         Get some questies on the Habitat for Humanity Spring Break Trip (ok, personal agenda)
• ·         Help people apply for fellowships and summer internships
• ·         Thanksgiving with metro group in New York!

Closing up that day, was one of the first parts of wrapping up the whole experience, we heard from Nancy, the director. She talked about grooving up, going to college, and Quest in the early years. She has such vision for the organization and really believes in us, if I ever get depressed about the world being wrong I will remember her, she is all the inspiration I need.

That night had a chat with Michael McCollough, the founder of Questbridge, I can’t do justice to him with all of these other words floating around, so that will be the next post.

Michael’s speech wrapped up the official quest day, and we headed back to the hotel. I think Saturday was the day I really started bonding with people, that night I just hung out chatting with friends, there was also a meteor shower. It was great to sit and chat, until 4 a.m. Ah the privileges of being young.

--And that my friends, is a full day.

It gets better

Friday Summary.

Me being the crazy person I am I got up really early and ran down the palm drive to check out Stanford Campus, (Palm drive is a 1,000 south pacific palms, lined up for a mile in from of the entrance of Stanford, which is the largest campus in America, second largest in the world at 9,000 or so acres). Stanford is gorgeous; I love the architecture, arches, and the weather, NICE.

So you may be wondering, “what is a liaison?” (or maybe you are smarter than me). In my role as liaison for quest I will:

1.      Welcome

2.      Represent

3.      Inform

4.      Disseminate

So I suppose the preparing this blog post actually factors into my role as a liaison- double whammy!

One of the first exercises we did on Saturday was the “leadership compass.” I particularly enjoyed this activity as it provided quite a few insights about how I am others lead, and although I don’t normally approve of labels, in this case they were very useful. The exercise divides people into 4 leadership styles, one for every cardinal direction.

North: This people are typically the ones that like to take control, and are assertive, I label them the “Boss/control freak”

South: Southerners are easy going, nice and relaxed people, they are friendly and caring, I dub souths “the Mother.” (Incidentally, I may be this more than any other one, its difficult because I show tendencies of each).

East: An East likes to see the large picture and what could be, they are very conceptual people, they tend to be unconventional, I label them “Hippie!”

West: Westerners are practical, dependable, and realistic, thus they are “Robots.” (sorry Westerners, this was the most fitting name I could think of at the time. 

Looking back at these, in a way they mimic the stereotypes for regions in America, except I would say that East and West are the other way around, but what do I know? I haven’t traveled that much, relatively speaking. 

--After figuring out who was in each group (the Norths were HUGE) we broke up into groups to discuss our awesomeness. I now know that South’s are superior, we are quiet, efficient, AND nice. However, we do have weaknesses, we procrastinate (so true), have difficulty saying “no” also true, we may be “too nice.” Some pet peeves are a lack of recognition, mean people, and unmotivated people. After intense discussion we have decided that we are “subtle manipulators.” Oh, our mascot is The Giving Tree, because we just keep giving until there is nothing left.

Another workshop we had was about outreach to high school students, and building bonds with them, I am hoping that Vassar’s quest chapter can start doing some of this, by reaching out to the admissions office and hosting Quest Matches and Finalists.

And yet another workshop…. MANAGING MONEY with Taylor Altman!

It turns out that being a non-profit is extremely difficult, and requires, among other things- incredible book-keeping skills, not a dollar can go unattended, otherwise the auditors may disapprove, so keeping 30-odd schools’ finances straight is no picnic. In order to maintain responsible fiscal policy I hope to open up a bank account for Vassar, and also am required to have all receipts mailed within three days! Not much too work with, but I think we can do it! If we don’t we may have to go to reimbursement, or zero-funding status, which sounds like a greater pain in the neck, and not much fun at all. ---It looks like I have a little work to do to get Vassar’s finances in shape, fortunately this year we have an amazing treasurer.

At lunch, which was incredible by the way, (several of our lunches were personalized, all were delicious), we met the present CEO of Quest, Dr. David Hunter. He is a close friend of the founder, Dr. David McCollough. According to David quest is doing well, right now we need to grow the applicant field so that we can continue to grow and offer top quality students, top quality educations. David is an very approachable wonderful guy, he came on our trip on Sunday to San Francisco, and spoke to all of us, I hope to be as personable and wonderful as him one day.

In the afternoon we discusses the Quest ambassador program, by which students reach out to high school students, and applicants, and encourage and help them to apply, and improve their lives. We later had a breakout group! Which was pretty cool, it was nice to get to know people better as well as try to figure out what would catch our attention when we were younger and get us to apply, for me it was just a letter with the line “full scholarship at a top school” that did it, I applied and here I am. (I wonder how many opportunities like that, that I or others miss out on.) 

We also learned about “social media” that afternoon. I think I have a semi-coherent idea of what it all entails now, and boy, is it a lot of work, (well it can be). There is Twitter, Blogs, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr so much media! And I don’t even have a smart phone! I also learned to do’s and don’ts, for example, don’t change your twitter picture often, don’t do a sales pitch, or ask for something.

And the day went on.. (I told you this was going to be ridiculously in-depth).

We discussed getting officially recognized as a chapter, which is something that I don’t think Vassar has achieved yet, but if I have one goal for the club this year it is to get recognized and get on the VSA website! As part of getting recognized I need to get a leadership team, a lot of last year’s will be too busy/abroad. We also need a constitution, to be open to everyone, and a way to differentiate ourselves—find a niche and fill it. My plan is to be passionate and emphasize the need for a safe space for low-income students at Vassar to discuss the difficulties they have adjusting to life there, I also want to emphasize how this is making Vassar a more inclusive place, promoting understanding, and helping us cater to each student, and thus enable them to thrive. One of the thing I want to do is have a financial literacy meeting, and educate students about the resources we have here, Vassar has taken care of me for the past 3 years, and if you know how to do it, it will take care of you too. I want to emphasize the club when we sell it for VSA recognition as being philanthropic, cultural, and academic.

In other news I know have five new friends in the New York Metro area. Quest grouped us together by geographic regions. So obviously I have the best one: we have Columbia, Parson’s School of Design, Trinity College, Yale, and Wesleyan! A pretty impressive group, if you asked anyone, and I am confident that we will do amazing things together.

And, what do you know, that’s all I have for Friday, well I did get to know people better. Us Questies went on a walk to downtown Palo Alto, and had fro-yo. I got to know the liaisons from Columbia and Wesleyan better, one of the great things about this weekend is learning about how diverse we are as a group and how similar we are. (Thanks Emory for suggesting I identify people by their partner college)

View from Stanford Law School 

As you can see from how comfortably we are posed- they have nice chairs. 

Ceilting

did I mention that I love arches?