Make their day.

I love the FISH philosophy. It goes back to my freshman year when I started volunteering with the YMCA at Virginia Tech as a freshman at Virginia Tech. A section of the four-part FISH philosophy is to “make their day.” That part of it always really stood out to me.

And so, today I was going through my Facebook and just catching up on messages and notifications, so I really was cleaning house. I found this in my inbox, from nearly a month ago, from an old classmate:

“Hey Justin! I know I only had a class with you last year, but I just wanted to let you know that you are awesome! I have been following your Facebook and everything you have been working on, and really hope you get the TED talk. You seem so involved with so many things on and off campus, yet still have time for others. You are truly leaving behind a legacy everywhere you go, and I know many others who look up to you as well. I want to be like you when I grow up [:)]”

She, no doubt made my day.

Oh, right. And then I found another old message, after I replied to that first one. And My mind was blown. I couldn’t believe I had missed two such meaningful messages, that were almost back-to-back chronologically.

Another student, one who I had never met but had Facebook friended me, wrote a longer message, that was exploring her opportunities in getting involved on campus. She talked about how she was involved with leadership, and things in high school, but some personal things held her back from getting involved in her first two years, and she wanted to efficiently make a mark on Tech in her last two years here. She signed off her message by saying,

“Sorry if this is super awkward. I know you don’t know me but I have just seen the impact you have made at Tech, so I figured I would take a leap of faith, and ask you.”

Why me? I’m so honored, but why me? This is what I mean by making someone’s day when they least expect it. She saught my advice – and she got it – but she made my day because I knew I was helping her.

I have so much respect for people who will go out of their way to make someone’s day, whether they mean to, or not. It’s fantastic.

 

#jcamp12

This week, I’m doing a camp, as a counselor, for something called jCamp. The J stands for journalism. It’s a pretty popular journalism camp for students all over the place, from Virginia and Maryland I believe, and they are actually pretty awesome. We bring the students here and they have the opportunity to learn about all kinds of different aspects of journalism, from photo journalism, to editorial leadership, to news and feature writing. I’m currently sitting in the editorial leadership section, and it’s actually really cool to hear them reflecting on their experiences thus far on their papers and going through the exercises in class.

This is really just kind of cementing how much I appreciate being around students, of any age. It’s great how much eager knowledge students have, no matter what level they are at – first graders, college students, or high school students. Shouting out answers to questions and having such a strong desire to learn is something I think that people should never, ever stop doing.

In the day time they have their tracks, and t night they have free time and recreation which is nice. I have 12 guys that I’m responsible for, on my hallway, and we are living in East Ambler Johnston, which is the most newly renovated residence hall on campus – the Honors Residential College.  My dog is also super friendly with everyone and is living with me on campus this week, so that’ll be nice. We’ve been kind of splitting our time back and forth between home and campus, and it makes me even more grateful that I have such a well-adjusted dog. :)

Here’s to #jcamp12!

Things we Forget.

I haven’t checked this website a whole lot this summer, but it’s one of my favorite blogs by far.  It shares a lot of random words of wisdom – the site is known as “sticky notes left to their fate in public places.” Kristin showed it to me years ago, and we’ve both followed it ever since. It’s always nice to be grounded by a random message of inspiration.

http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/

Charlotte goes to Petsmart.

So, obviously everyone knows that I love my dog. Her name is Charlotte and she is a beagle hound mix. However about every month we go on a little adventure. And this adventure involves the grooming salon at Petsmart in Christiansburg.

Every single time we go into Petsmart Charlotte freaks out and either urinates or poops on something in the store. Today, for some reason I have a lot of faith that Charlotte is not going to use the bathroom on anything in the store. Let’s see what Charlotte thinks…

20120713-155338.mov

http://hesonwheels.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120713-155338.mov

Things like this make my job worth it in SO many ways.

Here’s an e-mail a student sent me after coming to my Admissions Information Session yesterday. WIN.

Hey Justin,

I don’t know if you remember me or not but my parents were asking about architecture and industrial design after your presentation this afternoon. First of all I would like to commend you on the first interesting college info session I have attended so far! I liked that you focused on VT specific things like the football games instead of just listing boring facts about the school. Your presentation combined with the guided tour of the campus sparked my interest, and now I’m wondering if there is anything I can do, other than maintaining my grades to increase my chances of getting in to the architecture program. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Identifying as disabled.

Whenever I can, I try to be an advocate for individuals with disabilities. This weekend, I’m involved in a summer camp/conference that’s being hosted on Tech’s campus.  In year’s past, it’s been my week to get away to Blacksburg in the middle of a long summer in Washington D.C. working for Homeland Security, and it was known as College Bound. This year, after a year off, the conference has changed it’s name to STEMAbilities, to focus itself on, obviously the STEM – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – field.

I was listening to a keynote speaker for the conference, a man named Ted Conway who was an engineer with the National Science Foundation.  He laid down some interesting statistics that I just had to blog about.

1/5, or 19.6 percent of the U.S. population has a disability.  That equates to over 60 million Americans. Only 40 percent of those people have visible disabilities, and because of a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic reasons, those without visible disabilities are reluctant to self-identify as having a disability.

Now, obviously, my disability is very different, but for some reason I don’t understand why people perceive it as disadvantageous to self-identify as having a disability.  It is a small stretch, but I liken it with when people come out of the closet, I think that there is a lot of pride to have in the number of opportunities that you’re given when you’re disabled, and the amount of pride, happiness, comfort, and security that you can have when you identify with and embrace your disability, or your altered ability. As I plan to blog about soon, my TED talk is all about how you can use your disability to help others in unexpected ways, and really help make someone’s day.

Anyway, to get back on topic, all of that being said, 65% of people with disabilities are unemployed, and those numbers are almost 30 years old – they have maintained since 1986. It includes people who are going toward education.  This post is my vow to everyone I know – especially my parents who support me daily – that I do not want to be a part of that statistic.  It’s dumbfounding to me, and actually quite embarrassing.

There are so many programs that can be explored to help place disabled people into the work force. For example, even I worked with DHS in their Office of Accessible Systems & Technology, to help advocate for people with disabilities who are already employed by the federal government. Mr. Conway, who was born with cerebral palsy, is now going into talking about the benefits of mentoring at every stage of live. So, SO true.

Through STEMAbilities, I have the opportunity to help share my higher education experiences with other disabled students, so that they have an opportunity to go into the work force, as well. Mr. Conway even hypothesized that underrepresented groups inherently possess fundamental traits necessary to be successful in the STEM fields:problem solving skills, creativity, and persistence.

I don’t care what you’re doing, just go out there and do something – and help someone. Especially someone who could use your help.

 

I’m 21. But whatever. I’m almost 22.

You know, it’s somewhat surprisingly often that I meet a person that changes my life.  One of those people was Kristin. Without being too mushy, gushy, and gross, she is one person that I’ve known for about four years running now, that has challenged me more in the past 2 of those years, than anyone has, ever. It’s impressive.

To be concise, since I have other things I should be doing, I want to share this image that she shared with me. It fits what I desire to be very well. It fits our life that we lead together perfectly. All in all, she’s really been a person to push my boundaries, teach me so much about myself, make me a better person, and get out of my comfort zone in so many ways. For those reasons, I want to share this quote that she found with all of you.

Thanks, KH.