efozzie

I got this from Eric's Chinese Restaurant:

Reasonable people endure; passionate people live.

How appropriate.

I just interviewed 8 candidates back-to-back for our Incubator Program Assistant and E1 Program Assistant positions through Public Allies (an Americorps program), and I swear... if you don't have passion, you need not apply. Passion is so important when you're applying for a job and for when you're actually working in the job.

I don't know how people can live life without being passionate about what they are doing. It would eat away at the very core of me if I were to do that.

That's how I feel after last weekend's College Summit workshop at the University of the Pacific. It was phenomenal.

I'll write more later because staying up past 1 am doesn't help with the "physically tired" part...

College Summit time!!! I'm headed to the University of the Pacific in Stockton, which is about 1-2 hours away from San Francisco.

And this time I am a Writing Coach Coordinator, instead of a Writing Coach. Yes, the student has become the teacher. Well, no, not really. The teacher has become the teacher of the teachers, which should be an interesting new role for me.

Slowly I'm transferring my teaching to the adults in the work that I do. Here's a sneak peak at the epiphany I had with BUILD and our need to change "business models." I'm titling it: "Building high-touch into the BUILD community."

In the past, only a few staff members were given the responsibility to build strong relationships with the students. That coupled with the small amount of students, and the small staff to student ratio, meant that high touch was a natural effect and model to follow.

As we grow in the number of students we serve in the Incubator and start to consider the scalability of our Youth Business Incubator model, we cannot continue to serve the students with the same “high-touch” model. I propose that we build the high touch model into the BUILD community.

Building high touch into the BUILD community would mobilize and equip students and mentors to work better with each other and use each other as resources. Staff would be involved in a more management and facilitation capacity. Not only is this model more scalable, it is a necessary shift in logic for the Incubator program to work with the amount of students that we are aiming to successfully serve.

Deep, I know. I'm creating a whole presentation and "lesson" for my staff on it. Facts and data are on their way!

Off to Stockton tomorrow! Peace

Go watch it. It's really good.

I cannot believe half of 2006 is over.

I was revisiting my New Years Goals tonight just to check in and see where I was at in accomplishing my goals.

Completed:
2. Go camping in a national park

I'm going to strike out the "national" and put "state."

5. Meet new people
7. Mend past half-relationships
8. Go on more quality dates with quality people

Yes, yes and yes. It's true.

In Progress:
1. Do something outdoorsy at least once a month

February - Hiking at Montebello Open Space Preseve
Snowboarding
March - NYC (that counts! I did a lot of walking...haha)
June - Surfing
July - Camping at Sonoma Coast State Beach
January, April and May - I swear I did something, but I just didn't do a good job of keeping track. Or maybe I didn't do anything outdoorsy? haha

6. Read at least 10 new books in 2006

I've read 3 so far: Middlesex, Letters to Montgomery Clift, All Marketers are Liars

9. Play at least one sport per month

I've been pretty good about this by playing tennis with Sal, surfing, snowboarding, and hiking.

11. Find a hobby

Surfing might just have to be it. It was so dang fun.

12. Love more

I think I've been doing a good job of showing love. ;)

Incomplete:
3. Run across the Golden Gate Bridge

The bridge is only 1.5 miles long, 3 miles roundtrip... I'll do it soon.

4. Cuss less

I don't think this one's going to work out this year. Haha.

10. Finish Part 2 of my book, The Prediction

Again, I might have to table this...

So far so good. 6 more months till completion.

I like goals.

I didn't.

Until the very last minute before 4th of July weekend. Sonoma Coast State Beach was literally the LAST available California campsite on www.ReserveAmerica.com.

The last!

Everything else had been booked days, weeks, probably months in advance. Of course. I should have known not to last-minute plan for this camping trip.

[Note to self: Plan ahead. Make reservations further in advance.]

Alas, busy lives lead to procrastination, and there I was on www.ReserveAmerica.com Thursday, June 29, franctically searching for an open spot that wasn't designated for handicap access.

Yes, it was spontaneous, and surprisingly it turned out really well. My brother came along, and Karla was supposed to, but uncharacteristically, she flaked the day that we left. Spontaneously, again, I had invited my tita Cecille, tito Roly, and cousins from Tracy the day before--I had a feeling Karla would flake. And in the very last minute, they also decided to come, so they met me and my brother at the campsite the evening of.

Check it out:

"Tide pooling" at Bodega Head with Carlo. Did you know that "tide pooling" is an officially sanctioned fun activity by the California State Parks Department?


Francis taking a picture at Bodega Head


A camping trip would not be complete without vienna sausages and spam


Family Pic at Armstrong Redwood Grove. The redwoods were only about 15 miles east of the beach, so we had to take a trip to hike through them.