For those of you who aren’t familiar, the wonderful state of Indiana is celebrating its bicentennial this year. Or, as we like to say at the United Way office, Indiana is celebrating its “Bison-tennial.” To raise awareness for both the state and the United Way, Charlie and I have been hauling a baby bison around the city, visiting various funded partners and popular spots in Michigan City. There are two things about this project that I’d like to point out. First, and most important, is that I get to go to the beach a lot. There’s nothing like leaving the office for an hour or two so you can take pictures with a bison at the pier. Being located 3 blocks from Lake Michigan has its benefits! Spending time at the beach and near the water is fun, but in reality the most exciting part of the bison project is […]

The young woman sitting across the aisle leaned over and asked in broken English “Where are you going in Haiti?” As soon as Professor Blood replied with ‘La Victore’, a weak smile formed across her face and her eyes seemed to say ‘I understand what you will be doing in Haiti’. I realized then that this trip would be different than my previous work in Haiti, Mexico, or Nicaragua. Without internet access, I was forced to use this nifty invention called a pen and paper to record my experience in country. Here is what I wrote:   Day 1 (07/19) Ten of us piled into a minivan to start our trip from the capital, Port au Prince, to La Victore located in northern Haiti. The driver brought his whole family along for the expected 5 hour drive. Dodging weaving motorcycles and four lanes of traffic on a two lane road, […]

My time in Baltimore is nearing an end and though I am saddened to leave my work at LIRS, I am also thrilled to take what I have learned this summer and apply those lessons to every aspect of my life. I recently returned from the LCMS Youth Gathering in New Orleans, where the outreach team and a few folks from communications had a display table and an experiential learning exhibit. The exhibit, a maze of rooms and stations partitioned by dark curtains, explained the Syrian refugee crisis from start to finish. Both the youth (there were 25,000!) and pastors/chaperons were able to make their way through, starting with a refugee profile, and continuing on through simulations of fleeing from home, traveling at night amidst war, arriving in the UN refugee camp in Jordan and traveling to Greece by raft. The last two stations were an explanation of the United […]

The last time I posted a CAPS blog, I was still in the very first week of my internship with the Urban League of Northwest Indiana. I was eager but also unsure about everything laid out ahead of me. I was stumbling through phone calls and the buttons on the fax machine. Compare that to last week, in which I was the only one in the office and I was running from desk to desk answering phones, buzzing people in, and simultaneously working on my own projects. I’ve been spending a significant amount of time training new volunteers and interns (who will probably help take up some of my projects once I leave) on the basics of working at the Urban League, and just today the President told me over a phone call discussing my own work as well as my assisting other volunteers, “I don’t know how we are […]

“I love it here” is a thought I have probably eight times a day living in Washington, DC.  I think it as I run down the escalator hoping to jump on the Metro in time.  I think it as I walk past the Supreme Court and head to Capitol Hill for work.  I think it as I pick up a squealing four year in Wellington Park, Anacostia and as I see familiar faces run over to hug me as I open up the Community Resource Center (CRC).  I think it as I laugh with my co-workers over lunch and they share every post-graduate tip and mistake they have or made.  I think it as I link arms with my roommates, who weeks ago were strangers, as we head to dinner.  And I think it as I climb to the top of the Lincoln Memorial, my favorite, to sit and gaze […]

“Are you counting down the days?” Someone asked me this question after church on Sunday, after I told them I only had 3 weeks left. I replied that I only counted them to remind myself to make every one of them matter. This experience has been amazing. When I finished my interview with Broadway this past spring I remember thinking, “this sounds like it’s out of my comfort zone, but it can change my life if I let it.” The thing about change is that we think it will be dramatic and obvious, as if one day I would have an encounter so powerful I wouldn’t be able to see life the same way. However, that isn’t how it works. When I stopped to reflect I realized that I had grown a lot, it just didn’t feel that way because it has happened over time. I was walking around the […]

As a business student I would not be surprised if my peers outside of the college of business thought all I aspired to in life was to make six figures, play a round or two of golf at lunch and try to make it into a corner office with a comfy chair. While all that sounds nice, it’s not what I want. What I want is to help foster peoples’ growth and make their dreams materialize. Here at the Industrial council of Chicago, the ICNC for short, we do just that. Looking back to what I’ve read or learned in class, I discovered that entrepreneurs make up less than 10% of the population but make up over 30% of America’s overall economy. How could so few people do so much? What could I learn about them? Is it a personality trait, some animal urge, or a relentless pursuit of independence? […]

As I arrived at Douglas Land Conservancy, I was full of questions about the upcoming summer. There were many unknowns, but perhaps the biggest question on my mind was about the purpose of my summer at DLC.  Ever since I stepped foot on campus at Valpo, I had been acutely aware of the university’s focus on and attention to service.  Service is an integral part of university life.  Soon after I learned of my placement at DLC, I was filled with questions about the conservation field, and its relationship to service.  I spent much of my first week pouring over files, attempting to gain a basic understanding of the conservation field.  For those of you as unfamiliar with the field as I was, I will give you a quick flyover of what I’ve learned so far. The kind of work that DLC does on the land can be broken down […]

            Before I knew it, a month had already flown by. As I never had an internship before, I was both anxious and hesitant to discover what it would be like to be “the” intern, at least for the summer. Interning at the Heartland Alliance is an experience unlike any other. I essentially went from working odd jobs as a camp counselor and as a food prep at Sox park to working for a refugee resettlement agency.The pressure for me to do well at this job intensified the closer I got to my starting date. I did not want to be labeled as “that” intern who didn’t know anything, so the first day I dressed to impress, having memorized all the background information I could about The Heartland Alliance (courtesy of Google). Needless to say, all the worries I had of working for a reputable […]

My first week on the job at United Way of LaPorte County (UWLPC) left me with many questions. Most of it was spent looking at the computer screen and researching different ways that social media can help non profits, specifically this United Way. With these long hours of research, at times it wasn’t the most interesting thing, and I wasn’t exactly sure how what I was doing was helping our organization. Was this going to be my role for the entire summer? Upon our first meeting with our supervisor to discuss what we had been doing, I soon realized the value and importance of our work. Most of the administrative staff didn’t have fundamental knowledge of social media. It was at this moment that I realized I was contributing a lot to this organization. The so-called “basics” of twitter, facebook, Instagram, etc, were not basics to most people. My generation […]

The magnitude of an adventure can mask the small personal areas of growth and discovery. As I embark on my 10 week fellowship at National Lutheran Communities and Services (NLCS) I realize the scope of experiences, new acquaintances, and potential the fellowship offers. I am spending my summer working at the Village at Rockville (TVAR), a National Lutheran Community located thirty minutes out of DC in Rockville Maryland. TVAR is a continuing care retirement community offering assisted and independent living, memory care, and short term rehabilitation. My time is split between several long term projects. One of my main objectives focuses on the development of a clinic expansion project at TVAR. Additionally, I work with the medical staff, including the Doctors and Nurses, to develop improved means of communication and documentation in the medical record keeping system. During my first two weeks, I have been introduced to many of the colleagues I […]

I studied abroad once and I took pictures and I told tales and I felt like a world traveler for some time. It’s funny how once you visit a place, you feel like you carry part of its culture as your own afterwards. Traveling seems so glorious, so surreal. And it is. It’s a beautiful way to step outside of your comfort zone and learn about things you can’t quite grasp behind a computer screen or even between the covers of the most marvelous novels. But the traveling I did in Europe was nothing compared to the traveling I do within the walls of a small office in Indianapolis. I am going on my sixth week as an intern at Exodus Refugee Immigration through Valpo’s amazing CAPS Fellows Program. Exodus is a refugee resettlement non-profit that has been in operation since 1981. They began by resettling Cuban refugees, and have […]