My Last Week at NCSU (June 21-26)

Well like always time just flew by while I have been out here at NCSU! (Which only means I had an awesome time!) It's Thursday night, my car is all packed and I am just trying to get myself a little more tired before I hop into bed to get a good night of sleep before I start my journey home tomorrow after Tierza and I are done with volunteering and our final lunch together.

Anyways... Monday evening after work I went to sight see Duke University. It was absolutely gorgeous! The university had woods in the middle of their campus it was so cool! Also the chapel was beautiful along with all the other Gothic architecture on the campus. Too bad I don't have over $50,000 to spend on college each year! Here are some pictures of Duke University. They include the chapel, student center, recreation center, tennis courts, and just some other random pictures of campus.

Tuesday I sat in on a budget meeting and gave some opinions on different things. Also Tierza and I finished up some different things around the office and then presented a workshop to the Orientation counselors. During the workshop I was in charge of the activity and then doing some processing questions.

Wednesday, I finally met with Audrey Jaeger! I have to say Shari, I absolutely loved her and have to thank you both for setting up this mentorship! Anyways Audrey was amazing. I brought lunch from Bruegger's Bagels and we sat and had lunch during our fun talk. Then once I got back from that Tierza and I got prepped for the team builders that we did that evening for GEAR UP. This time I was in charge of leading a group of 14 students in team builder activities while Tierza handled the other 14. It was a lot of fun, but I had forgotten how annoying high school students can be (how they don't want to listen). Then I took Tierza out to dinner at Biaggi's and gave her the gifts that I bought (Eureka College coffee mug, Panera Hazel Nut coffee, her special tea bags, a picture cube, and a really pretty black and white stoned necklace). She loved her gifts and we both had a great time!

Thursday I went to Peace College during the morning and met with Dawn Dillon. Peace College is a small private all girls college of about 700 students. It was nice seeing a college about the same size of Eureka! I also recognized a lot of the similarities between our schools: buildings with multiple uses, people not having one specific job, and closeness of students. Then all of the staff from CSLEPS went to eat at Foster's in Cameron Village. We had a great time and I handed out everyone else's gifts and cards. They surprised me and had a gift for me as well! After lunch we went back to the office and did a little work. At 3pm the big bubble blowing contest took place. I competed and got 3rd place out of 7! Mike Giancola (director of CSLEPS) got 1st, but it was a ton of fun and of course people got the gum all over their faces! Then for the rest of the day Tierza and I worked on the CSLEPS Council idea that we had tossed around in a meeting last week.

Tomorrow Tierza and I will volunteer, eat lunch, and then I am off on the road until I get to my cousin Courtney's house. I hope everyone enjoyed reading about my wonderful experience out here at NCSU and I will let you all know the link to my next blog which will be for Australia! See everyone soon! Love you all!

Thursday, June 18 - Monday, June 22

Last Thursday Tierza and I finished working and updating the Leadership in Action curriculum (LIA). That was an exciting day, but also really tiring on the brain! Basically through the course of my time out here we went through made the instructor's manual easier to read and understand, researched and came up with new activities that retain to the different areas of the Social Change Model of Leadership, and reworked different areas that needed to just be changed.

Last Friday Tierza and I volunteered again at Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and did the downtown route again with Eric (our driver). Then we headed off towards Barton College for Tierza's Myers Briggs Type Indicator Workshop for their Orientation Counselors. I was a participant through the workshop. Yet again my MBTI is ESFJ. Tierza did a great job presenting this workshop... I mean she has it nailed down! Also Barton College reminded me of home! They are only a school of about 1200 students so it was so much like Eureka and I loved it because I miss home a little bit!

Saturday I went to Johnson Lake to do some running on the trails, played some tennis, got some more of my final things for gifts, and then headed up to Matt Gromlich's house near Topsail Beach with Selby. We went on a midnight walk on the beach. I finally was able to see the stars! I had forgotten how much I love seeing a wonderful star skyline (although the beach scenery made it better)! We forgot a flash light though which meant we couldn't scare away the crabs! Therefore I was screaming all the time because they were doing their sideways walk and kept coming after me! It was so much fun though!

Sunday I spent the day on the beach with Matt and Selby. I got a little bit darker, so now I am officially tan for the summer and can show that I have been in nice weather already this summer. So watch out for me when you come home, because I can prove that I went to the beach!

Today Tierza and I have went over what we would be doing for my last 4 days in the office. I did some research for our office meeting about coming up with better Leadership student positions for their office in order to take more work off of each person and give more responsibility to the students. Then at 1pm we met and I was able to share my research and give my input into the meeting! I felt like I was really contributing to the meeting so that was exciting and as well they were asking for my input! After work finishes up today I am going to go visit Duke University and see the campus so tonight or tomorrow I will probably post about that trip as well as put up some pictures. That's all I have though for now! See everyone soon!

June 10- June 16th

Hey Everyone,

So I really haven't met with many more people since I last wrote. Last Thursday I met with Tierza, Adam, and Daniel to go over assessments of their programs to turn in as a report to their student affairs division. (I found out that it is not fun at all and that it is really tedious and boring!) Friday Tierza and I went and volunteered again at the Inner Faith Food Shuttle again and this time we had the downtown route, which is a lot shorter. I preferred doing a different one because I got to do more and also because we had better drivers on the other routes. So over the course of last week and this week thus far I have continued to work on the LIA curriculum and have been doing some reading on leadership from the book The Student Leadership Challenge. Its a really good book so far about the five different ways people lead. Yesterday, Tuesday, June 16, I met with Justine Hollingshead director of the GLBT center. My meeting with her was shorter compared to others, but that is due to the fact that she got stuck in traffic and that I hang out with Matt all the time who works for her so I already knew a lot of about what the center does. Throughout the rest of this week it looks like I will be continuing working on curriculum (maybe finishing it up this week if not beginning of next week), reading, and perhaps doing more research on making up a better student assessment sheet for the class.

So besides work... Last Friday Tierza took me to UNC Chapel Hill. Their campus is huge, gorgeous, and also filled with lots of brick! The thing I liked about their campus was that I felt like they had more school spirit in general but also that their big sports complexes were located on campus. They might still be too much of a preppy school for me though. Saturday I did some random things, like exercised, played tennis, went to the farmer's market with Hannah (my roommate) and Matt, and went downtown for a concert (which was not good), and then watched a movie with Matt. Sunday Matt, Hannah, my other roommate Ashley, and I went to the beach. However, it started to rain around 2pm and Matt wanted to go home because of it so we left... so I felt like I wasted the day! What can you do right? I have been going shopping for gifts for people here in the office and I believe I have everyone done except for Tierza... but I do know what else I am going to get her; I just have to go buy it now. Tonight I am going to out to eat with Selby and Aileen for pizza and then maybe playing some tennis depending on whether or not it continues to rain here today or not. I hope to get to go to Duke for sight seeing either this week or for sure next week so I will share more about my trips and excitement once I have done something new again!

Rest of last week and Weekend with the Parents

Hey Everyone!

So its been a while since I have written... my appoligies! Last week flew by with a packed schedule as well as a visit from my parents. Anyways let me update you on whats been going on during my wonderful experience! Last week on Wednesday I met with TJ Willis (Assistant Director/Union Activities Board Advisor). It was a lot of fun to see what Brooke Campbell could possibly do at a bigger university if she was just CAB director...even though I see Brooke doing more Greek than specializing at a university in CAB! (Am I right Brooke?!?)

Thursday I met with Peter Koutroumpis (Assistant Director of Campus Recreation). My meeting with him was rather interesting because I realized how many jobs in leadership campus recreation provides for a campus as well as the different break up in the department between recreation, athletics, and physical education. Then I also met with Laci Weeden (Assistant Director of the Women's Center). Laci was fun meeting with because she was the person whose interview presentation I had sat in the earlier week. We talked about her area as well as the interview process.

Friday Tierza and I went and volunteered again at Interfaith Food Shuttle. This time we were split up between drivers, so I went along with two older retired men. They were super hillarious and low and behold we were all origninally from Illinois! They kept cracking jokes as well as telling me to stay away from boys and to never ever wear clothes that revealed any skin! It was really a fun time! Then Tierza and I went back to the office and worked on Leadership in Action Curriculum as well as had a our weekly reflection. Then my parents got into town when I finished up work and I took them to my apartment, we went out for pizza, and headed to the mall so my mom could go to archivers. My dad and I dropped my mom off there and then headed to the good store, Dick's! My parents bought me some work out clothes, which I love! Then we found them a hotel to stay in because they were exhausted.

Saturday we went to the Farmer's Market for breakfast (which was amazing!) Then we walked through the huge market and bought fruit (mango, plums, and peaches). Next we came back to campus and switched the van out for the bikes and road to the Flea Market. Here we continued to find some more treasures. My mom found some kitchen utinsels, some weird bird decorations, and I found some sweet retro sunglasses to replace the ones I lost in the ocean the other day (they are in one of the pictures down below)! Then I took my parents on a biking tour of campus... which took quite a while considering how big campus is! After that we rode to the Farmers' market on the bikes for some seafood. After my butt was completely sore from riding bikes all day, my parents decided that we would head towards the beach.

Sunday we were in Willimington and so we went to the USS Carolina (for my dad's sake). It was pretty cool but the smell of the ship gave me a headache so that didn't make it that much fun. Then we headed to Wrightsville Beach. We layed out and read books because the strong made it too cool to get into the water but perfect for laying out and reading. My parents both got burnt but I didnt :). Then we went out to eat and hung out.

Monday morning we went downtown old historic Willimington and I found my future Southern home (its the house in the pictures below)! Then we went and walked on the beach at Carolina Beach (my parents wanted to see it for my sake so I would know what beach to go to next time I go). It was hot though on Sunday... we should have worn out suits and gone swimming! Then we headed back to Raleigh. I took them to the office and they met everyone and we tried the school's creamery's icecream (it was really good). After that we headed towards Umpstead State Park where we rode our bikes on the trails. Then we went to Old Time Barbeque (picture of me with the yellow small resturant in the background). It was some good Eastern Barbeque (vinegar based sauce, but still prefer our barbeque). Next I had my dad drive downtown so they could see what it was like. That was basically my weekend with my parents.

Tuesday morning my parents left and I went to work. I met with Leslie Rand-Picket (Assistant Director of University Career Center). She was extremely nice and she gave me a book to read about whether or not it is the job is right for you. I will look at it after I finish my novel I am reading. Then the rest of the day Tierza and I worked on the curriculum.

The pictures below are a bit random but the first ones are the Free Expression Tunnel on campus where students are allowed to spray paint in (its a really cool tunnel). Then the next one is Talley Student Center (the building where I work). Next is the bell tower on campus. There is a picture of my friend Matt who works for the GLBT Center in Talley, who gave me the great campus tour. Some pictures of the beach, the resturant, my future home, and pictures with my parents. Hope you enjoy and if you want to see more pictures I have been trying to post them on my facebook as well so you can look there for more! Well I will try to update everyone again later on this week, but for now hope everyone is doing well!

Weekend Fun & Everything in Between!

So this past weekend on Saturday I went to the beach with Daniel, Aileen, and Selby. It was a ton of fun! It was kinda cloudy in the morning but then by 1pm or so it started getting really hot! I got in the freezing cold water twice and of course I happened to lose my amazing blue rhinestone sunglasses! So I guess I will have to go get another pair! On Sunday I went to a contemporary Methodist Church service and oh my goodness gracious everyone was dressed up so formal! The pastor as well as several other men had on bow ties, most men had either suits on or dress pants with a long sleeve button up, and all the women were in more formal dresses or really nice sun dresses! I was really glad I decided to wear a dress that day! I also played some tennis on Sunday evening. So far this week I have met with multicultural student office, student conduct office, sat in on a job interview, and a couple of other things that I am forgetting as well.

As for new and exciting things that I have been doing or trying are: self defense class with Matt Woodword, fried pickle slices, fried oker, chicken biscuit for breakfast, which was really good suprisingly (from Bojangles) and some good old southern sweet tea! Still have lots to try... and will eventually get to everything so I will keep you all updated on whats new as good as I can!

Tuesday May 26th- Wednesday May 27th

So Tuesday was the beginning of the work week due to Memorial Day on Monday. It was a packed overwhelming start of the week though. I met with Tierza in the morning to work on the Leadership In Action Curriculum and that was the beginning of my meetings for the day. I then next met with Bradley Wilson (Student Media Coordinator). He told me about he was originally a corporate worker and then how he transferred in at the University and is now in higher education being the coordinator of a million dollar student organization. In their media center they have a 24-hour radio broadcast (they bring in a live band every Friday), a daily student ran paper, a weekly African American paper, yearbook staff, and a journal book. This office is made up of about 120 students throughout the school year. I next met with Eileen Marin (Assistant Director for Student Government Advising). She had informed me how her office position had just been made about a year ago and the challenges she had faced during her first year in the position and how she thought this upcoming year was going to go. Before coming to NCSU she had been Greek Life staff at Virginia Tech. Therefore, she told be about the difficulty that VT went through after the shootings and how it affected the campus as well as herself. In the afternoon I met with Lisa LaBarbera (Associate Director for East Campus Housing). I really enjoyed this interview session. I learned about how much of a hierarchy there is to a big campus when it comes to Residential Life and Housing. She took me around the entire campus and showed me the differences amongst their dorms. I also learned about Associate Directors, RD's and then RA's. She also talked to me about graduate programs and how the best way to get a free graduate education is to go for a graduate residential assistant ship (pay for school, housing, food, and usually money as well). She was a fun lady to meet and also gave me some good ideas as to what to do while I am out here. The rest of the work day I worked on the Leadership In Action Curriculum. Then I finally I was able to go the big Gym on campus... so they have pretty much everything here... a rock wall, fencing, about 6 basketball courts, 2 pools, racket ball courts, indoor track, about 6 different weight rooms, lots of machines to work out on, archery, work out classes, and so yeah pretty much everything! I really am hoping to try archery!

So Today (Wednesday) I was basically in meetings all day long... which were interesting. The University of Kentucky was visiting because they have been doing lots of research about Student Centers and thought/were really impressed with NCSU and especially the CSLEPS office. Therefore I sat in on the combined meeting between their service office and CSLEPS. I really took away some information about how colleges exchange information and also the University of Kentucky talked about how they do this thing called a Leadership Summit in the fall. Basically they bring in all their student officers of organizations and it is a Friday Saturday retreat kind of thing where they have their leaders bring forth issues that they are wanting to address and focus on for the year and more into the future. After we got done with this meeting I finally had my formal meeting with Adam Cully (CSLEPS Assistant Director). Adam told me of his career path and how really his main focus is to impact and empower students/influence their lives (hmmm sounded awfully familiar to what I want to do). Within the office though Adam works with Alternative Break Trips, Leadership education and the Service-Leadership Consultants. More so though Adam is just a fun guy that had many great ideas and keeps lots of energy in the office at all times... not that there is not a lot of energy in there already! Then in the afternoon I had my final meeting for the day. I went to a Student Affairs Programmers Meeting with Tierza. Here I got a look at how the different student affairs offices try to collaborate and work together when planning events so that no single dates get overbooked as well as collaboration to work even more closely together now that the state budget is really getting tight. It was a little boring but I got something out of it though. So far though this week has been packed but insightful... I only wonder how I am supposed to get the curriculum revised when it seems that all I am ever doing is talking and meeting with people????? Eventually it will happen I guess!

Mailing address

Opps I forgot to publish this in my last blog... well just incase any of you are wanting to send me anything here is my address:

MAILING ADDRESS:* Mail sent through the US MAIL / POST OFFICE should be addressed as follows
Natalie Wetterauer
2730 Wolf Village Way, 1800
Raleigh, NC 27607

Packages sent via a delivery service such as FedEx or UPS should be addressed as follows
Natalie Wetterauer / Summer Intern
2730 Wolf Village Way Wolf Village Apartments
Raleigh, NC 27607