Monday 10/27: We started at 9:30AM, which made me extremely happy. We were also allowed to dress down, another win for Monday.
 |
| This view always makes me feel at home |
At 3PM, we headed to Stanton to adhere parachute cloth murals to the walls. We discovered we were missing some so we couldn't hang them all, but we made do with what we had.
One of the murals had to go above a door leading into the cafeteria hallway. My teammates and I struggled to adhere it, but after climbing on both sides of a ten foot ladder, we figured it out. (I was on the backside of the ladder and was slightly terrified the entire time, but it was also kind of thrilling.)
By the end of our afternoon, our team had the stair risers and about half of the staircase murals completed.
Tuesday 10/28: We started at 9AM because the service gods (and our boss) decided to love us. I spent most of my morning updating and reformatting my resume and starting a job application. (Clearly it was another busy day at the office...) I also worked on a 'Thank You' card template for everyone who went above and beyond with cyServes. I think we printed about 35? All I know is that my hand was tired from writing personalized notes on all of them....
After lunch, my teammates and I met to debrief cyServes before we met with the PLs and our PM. It was a way for us to vent our frustrations before our meeting so we could be prepared with 'I' statements and non-aggressive language.
I was completely over everything that happened leading up to the event. I was angry in the moment, but I got over it fairly quickly. There's no point to hold grudges. I just wish I had expressed my issues at the time so they could've been resolved in the moment. Actually, I'm glad I didn't because I probably would've said something I'd regret...
Around 1:45PM, we had our team debrief. Service went first and took the longest. After talking about our pluses and deltas, the team had the opportunity to discuss their pluses and deltas. Overall, everyone agreed that the event went really well. I was shouted out for getting such a head start on SEPTA and my partner was shouted out for all of the innovative mural ideas. Go us!
The original plan was to meet until 3PM and then head to Stanton to finish adhering cloths, but we did not manage to finish the meeting until about 4:45PM. It would've been pointless for us to travel to the school to adhere about one cloth.
After the meeting, we returned to our desks and our PM decided to let us leave a little bit early. It was really nice of him to do that.
 |
| SEPTA X's for days |
Thurday 10/30-Friday 10/31: The last two days of the week kind of blended together. I don't completely remember what happened on these days except that on Friday we started at 8:15am, even though some of the team didn't come in at all. It was a very chill end of the week.
I met with my PM on Friday for a 1:1 to talk about CYServes, SEPTA, and any concerns I had about my position.
I was honest about feeling as though I could be doing more during the downtime. I told him I really loved the fast paced week leading up to CYServes and wished there was a way to make the days in the office in between events less boring. (There's only so much pinteresting for project ideas that one can do in a day....)
He said once a school is chosen for our next event, MLK Day, things will pick up. There was no real resolution for the boredom during the day, though.
He asked me if I would be willing to take the lead on the MLK service day, even though I am the lead for SEPTA at the moment. I told him I wouldn't mind because SEPTA would be finishing up rather soon and I would love to lead a large scale project.
 |
| Living on the edge, hanging murals |
The rest of the day is a blur, but I know we ended our day at Stanton so we could finish adhering the parachute cloths. We finished early (and left early!), but still had a few more cloths to touch up and hang the following week.
Monday 11/2: We started our day at 8:15am in professional attire by the giant game pieces downtown. It was a Leadership Development Day (LDD) since the schools were closed. My morning started off with a session about resumes. The person leading the session was in charge of the AmeriCorps applications that go to Teach for America (TFA). Even though I took most of what was said with a grain of salt, there was some good information. I tried to take something out of her session and decided to revamp my resume to be one page. She said everyone should have three resumes: The laundry list (with EVERYTHING you've done), the resume you can send to anyone, and the resume that is tailored specifically for different positions. She also briefly talked about cover letters and said you should have one that you can use for everything, but tailor it specifically to where you are applying. Basically, have a skeleton to use for everything and add fluff where needed based on the job.
 |
| Monday's lunchtime view |
Anyway, this interview session talked about how we can best prepare for interviews. The facilitator said that we should always have five stories in our pocket to talk about ourselves and how we work in situations. Three of the stories should be positive and two should be areas of improvement, since they always ask for weaknesses (better classified as areas of improvement). This session really gave me insight into the real world (because I still don't feel like I'm in it...).
After lunch, I headed to a session about entering the job force after City Year. It was a place for corps members who were interested in working after CY to get together and talk about where they are in the application process and whatnot. Many people did not seem to be applying yet, mainly because they haven't had time to do it. It was nice to get an idea of where everyone was and what they were thinking about doing, even if no one really had a set plan.
Around 3PM, we headed back to the office to discuss our LACY plans with our PM. Each of us had about 6-7 minutes to talk about where we are in the process and how we could be assisted. My PM was impressed with how much I've been working on my plans and how much of a start I've gotten on life after CY. (I promise I wouldn't be as far if I wasn't so paranoid about having a job after this....)
After my meeting, my PM told me to go to the Teach for America session from 5-6PM. The woman from the resume session was leading this and was answering questions about TFA. It was nice to gain insight about TFA and actually made me want to apply. (I've already started my application!)
 |
| Post team 'day' selfie |
 |
| Cool church for the community meeting |
Apparently, CY tries to have a community meeting once a month to bring the entire corps together to recognize how amazing the corps members are and to have good conversations about service. After the meeting part, we had mini-discussions regarding various issues. I decided to join the conversation about College and Career Readiness.
One big thing we discussed was that while college is important, it is definitely not for everyone. We should also be talking to students about other options available if they are asking about it. Military, trade schools, and the job force are viable options for these students as well as college. Since I do not work with students, most of what I talked about was in regards to my younger brother and how I would talk to him about these things. I think we had a really good conversation and I am excited to see where it takes the other corps members and their students.
Wednesday 11/5: After falling asleep at 7PM without dinner the night previous, I woke up feeling horrible. I decided not to take any chances and called out of work. I slept for 20 hours that day. I'm still impressed with myself.
Thursday 11/6: I spent the first few hours of my day working on my LACY plans and started applying for jobs in Higher Education. When I was tired of doing this, I started working on tracing cloths for SEPTA. There were only three more left to trace, but there were still a lot of mathematical calculations to be done to make sure everything was done well.
At 12PM, I took a break and ate lunch. I was tired of staring at X's on the wall and just wanted to be done.
 |
| Rainy day reflections |
I was ecstatic and spent the rest of the day continuing with my LACY research from earlier in the day.
Friday 11/7: We kicked off the morning with a team meeting. We caught up on some MLK Day updates (still no school set in stone) and tried to iron out plans for the Washington DC CE to visit us the week of November 17th. The original plan was to have them stay for a week, but we've realized that will be too much stress on all of us. Our PM is hoping to have them visit for a max of three days. Here's to hoping that's the final say!
After the meeting, a teammate and I primed one of the remaining parachute cloths. While waiting for it to dry, I headed back to my desk to research graduate assistantships at the University of Connecticut. They have a Higher Education and Student Affairs Master's program that seems great so I am looking into it.
I spent a good chunk of my day blogging, working on LACY, and trying to find some mural ideas for MLK Day.
Around 3PM, myself and a PL are heading to Stanton to photograph the murals, drop off some paperwork, and pick up the rest of the stuff we have there. All of the cloths have been hung as of Wednesday so now the after pictures can be taken. (YAY!)
Next week, we have off on Tuesday for Veteran's Day and I couldn't be more excited.
Have an awesome weekend!
Cheers,
Allee
