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Getting back on the GIS Blog Train
Welcome once again to a new era in my online journal life.
Well I passed all my classes as expected and did much better in the classes than I had originally anticipated which was really great. So I guess all that stress I put on myself really helped me hunker down and get the work done in the end... I guess that is the college experience for most students.
I just wanted to recap on the summer of my life. This past May A LOT of my friends graduated and that was kind of sad, although that is part of college - it's never easy to imagine that the people I have known for the last 3 years and spent most waking moments with will not be here next year. On the upside though I got to celebrate graduation with all my friends and really have one last great time with them, besides of course Homecomings and other football games to come. After graduation my roommate, who also graduated, as a present got to use his grandparents' River House for 2 weeks, so for 10 days all I did was eat, sleep, read, and relax with a lot of my close friends. A great time was had by all. When I got back from the river there were only a few short weeks left until I came back to school to begin my experience as an OPA (Orientation Program Assistant).
I moved into the residence hall Willow on June 17, and began one of the most amazing experiences of my life. As an OPA we first went through an intense week of training learning many skills I know I will find useful in the workplace once I graduate, such as customer service, personal relations, diversity involvement, and leadership applications. After a week of training we finally got to put it to good use, and Summer Springboard began. Everyday for 3 weeks we introduced the JMU environment to about 300+ incoming Freshman. We gave them tours of campus, answered every question you could possibly imagine about academic, social, living experiences that JMU has to offer, got them excited about their upcoming Freshman year, and above all that helped them register for their first semester of classes. The experiences I had with both the students and parents was absolutely unbelievable.
But above working with all the students working with the 23 other OPA's was absolutely the best part of all. These 23 people became some of my closest friends I have ever made at JMU, and the experiences I shared with them is nothing I would ever trade in the world. I can't wait for 1787 Orientation to begin when I get to work with the FROGs (First yeaR Orientation Guides) and the 3900 Freshman all at once, it's going to be crazy.
Even with all these amazing experiences though I didn't really stop thinking about geography, as nerdy as that sounds. Since I am going into my senior year I have been starting to make plans about what I want to do when I graduate, throwing out ideas and seeing which ones I would like to pursue. Right now I have one grand idea which I really would like to try out, and that is do a year long internship in Colorado. The internship is much of a administrative position as well as a GIS one. I would be working to help track endangered species of plants only found in the Rockies, with the National Park Service using GIS. As well as working on the technology I would also be working with other people doing group work and facilitating the meetings. To me it seems like it combines two things I have become passionate about at college - GIS and working with people. So hopefully if I get the internship it will help me figure out what I would like to do in my professional career.
Well that's all I have to say for now, which isn't saying a lot considering how much I did say. But I hope everyone reading this is having a great summer.
p.s. If you have any questions about JMU feel free to email me, don't forget I am now an expert about EVERYTHING at JMU and am more than happy to answer anybody's questions.
1. Part of the O-team waiting for the morning welcome to finish out on the Wilson steps.
2. Sitting out in front of our Residence Hall, Willow, waiting to go to the President Dr. Rose's house for dinner.
3. One of the little guys right before our Crab feast at my friend's river house.
4. Before begining Orientation on June 17, my family and friends got to see Jimmy Buffett at Nissan!
Posted by Simeon on August 8, 2005 10:11 AM | Link | Email Simeon
