Home for Easter

On Saturday night I flew to my hometown (El Paso, TX) to visit my family and friends and to celebrate Easter. It ended up being a great trip but it was very, very short. As a matter of fact, I was back in Phoenix  early Monday morning. I was born and raised in El Paso but moved to Colorado in the summer of 2000, so it is always great to get back there and reminisce with my family. After church on Sunday we went through what seemed like hundreds of old photos and talked about some of our favorite memories. I can't even tell you how many goofy pictures I found of my dad. By Monday morning I felt like I had been in El Paso forever, but at the same time I felt like I had just gotten there (with the latter being closer to the truth). The craziest part of my trip was when I boarded my Southwest flight back to Phoenix on Monday morning and there were like 7 people on the entire flight. Up to that point, I'm pretty sure that I had never been on a flight that wasn't entirely full. It was awesome and there was so much room for activities.

Resume Writing Workshop (Career Service Post)

Yesterday (April 3rd), I attended a resume writing workshop in Suite 110 of the Downtown Post Office. It was a very interesting experience and I can honestly say that I learned a lot in the hour that the workshop took place (3-4 pm). When I first arrived, I was instructed to take numerous different resume and cover letter samples and resume tip sheets in order to help prepare us and guide us in our future attempts at constructing a legitimate resume. What followed was a 45 minute powerpoint presentation and lecture about how to successfully construct a resume that is considered acceptable to most employers. The main concept that I took away from the workshop is that there is no one right way to write a resume. However, some general guideline do apply. The main part of the workshop described the sections that should be included in a resume and how those sections will vary depending on the job you are applying for. "Consistency" was significantly stressed throughout the session as it is very important that a resume maintain a consistent format, font, spacng, margins, etc. Throughout the lecture, the presenter asked several questions in order to facilitate discussion and to help people understand other people's experiences in developing a resume. 



As previously mentioned, I definitely learned a lot in such a short amount of time. I did not realize how important developing a resume actually is. Immediately following the workshop I went home and looked over my current resume. I was astonished at how many of the things the workshop said to avoid in resumes were present in mine. For example, the workshop advised to avoid any type of Microsoft Word resume template and sure enough, I had been using a template for years. All in all, it was a very beneficial workshop and I look forward to completely rewriting my resume to incorporate all of the tips and strategies to aid me in my future job search. 

Birthday dog

Today is my dog's birthday. She's two years old and she's pretty much the coolest dog of all time. Her name is Chesla and I named her after a buddy of mine that I played football with in college. She's a mix between a dachshund and a Labrador retriever so the best way to describe her is a black lab with a long body that forgot to grow. I've planned a bunch of activities for her to do today and she's going to have a blast! Oh, and I got her a birthday cake. Please don't judge me for loving my dog so much.

PSC Award Entries

This week at PSC there were a lot of different things going on and almost not enough time to do them all. On Monday, I was told to develop two separate title pages for award entries for the Sister City International Awards. One was for Youth & Development and the other was for the overall sister cities program. I was a little uncertain of what these cover pages were supposed to look like because all I was told to do was to incorporate numerous pictures, a title and the PSC logo on each cover sheet. So, I did as I was told and had them ready within the hour after the task was presented to me and my supervisors really liked them. Upon presenting the title pages to them, they explained to me that the entries were due by 5 pm EST, which put the deadline at 2 pm PST (I still think it is really weird that Arizona doesn't do daylight savings). Right when they said that I looked over at the clock and noticed that it was approximately 1:47 pm. Additionally, I noticed that they were still not finished editing both award entries, which were strictly emphasized to remain at 5 pages. As a matter of fact, both entries stood at around 8 pages. The next 13 minutes were ridiculously frantic as there was a distinct sense of uncertainty hovering over the room. At 1:57 pm my supervisors had somehow managed to to reach the designated goal and began the process of emailing both submissions. When it was all said and done, a sense of relief began to fill the office and the color began to fill back up in everybody's face. I'm still not even sure why they waited until the last minute to approach me with this task, let alone complete the award entries, but nevertheless the entries were completed and sent off. The Sister City International Awards must be a really big deal.

By the way, the time stamp on the outgoing email showed 1:59 pm EST.

Brothers

My brother came to visit me last weekend and it was the first time I had seen him in over a year. As a matter of fact, he is the first person to visit me since I moved to Phoenix, so needless to say, it meant a lot to me. It was really nice to be able to spend some quality time with him. He is a little over three years younger than me, which puts him in his junior year of college at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. We are a lot alike in numerous aspects that include how we are hard workers in whatever we are challenged with, we both love sports and we both love Tim Tebow. I think our liking of Tebow stems from the fact that we both share his faith and his passion for the game of football. For the few days that he was here we played golf, hung out poolside and watched some movies as we caught up on all of the new things in each other’s lives and reminisced on our childhood. Needless to say, it was a great couple of days.

Intern Errands

Last week I opted to work instead of taking any time off for spring break. I initially thought that there would not be much for me to do but I ended up staying very busy. Throughout the week I ran many errands to “The Cage” across the street. “The Cage” is actually a storage facility for many of the departments of the City of Phoenix that is located directly across the street from City Hall. I find myself venturing across the street numerous times throughout the week to pick up different items that are requested by the committees. For example, last week I had to go pick up 42 easels and prepare the Taiwanese flag for an exhibit that is being put on by the Taipei committee.

In addition to all of the errands, I worked diligently on the newsletter. In fact, I came pretty close to completely finishing the first draft. All that was left to add were a few bios of new commission members. Considering the fact that Friday, March 30 is the deadline for me to submit the final draft to the print shop, I think I have managed my time very well on this project and I cannot wait to see the finished product.

Newsletter and State of the City Address

As I have previously mentioned, one of my long term, and in a sense most important duties has been to develop the newsletter for Phoenix Sister Cities. I have been working hard to polish up the quarterly newsletter and hope to have it completed in the next couple of weeks. I have included in it numerous events that have taken place throughout the course of FY 2011-2012 and I am very excited to get it printed and sent out to the over 400 members of Phoenix Sister Cities. Some of these events include the Hermosillo Band and Bugle Corps performing in the St. Patrick's Day Parade a couple of days ago, the Matsuri Festival, several different fundraisers for city committees, and the Youth Ambassador Exchange Program, to name a few. Currently, the newsletter stands at around 15 pages and each page contains brief articles and pictures that I had to track down from various committee members and volunteers in order to incorporate them into the newsletter. Needless to say, a few of the items in the newsletter have been easier to develop than others. This is due to the fact that some of the individuals that I have tried to contact regarding content information have been slow to respond or have not replied to my requests. Regardless of some of these difficulties, the newsletter is coming along just fine and I hope it will turn out great!

While I was working on the newsletter the other day I received an email from a representative in the mayor's office. The email was an invite to attend the State of the City Address on April 11th. It technically wasn't an invite due to the fact that this yearly address is an event where the public is encourage to attend, but nonetheless, it was invitation to reserve a seat at the address. Additionally, I was informed that I will have the opportunity to ask the mayor a few questions after his speech. Apparently, my supervisor was nice enough to set up a "shadowing opportunity" for me after I told him that I am interested in pursuing a career in local government. I am really excited about this opportunity and I definitely can't wait to share the experience with you all.