Thank You to LFA

Dear Steve:

I have to start this off with thanking you for this internship opportunity. I knew when I read the description for this particular internship, that it was the experience for me.
With my lack of experience in a non-profit organization, you trusted me enough to give me this opportunity in the local food system department of Local First Arizona.
You have been so incredibly supportive of me through this experience. You have given me guidance, and confidence through my endeavors here at Local Fist Arizona.
You allowed me to turn a passion into education, and experience. I have been able to expand my passion into actual experience, which has been an amazing experience.
I will forever be connected, and have a special place in my heart for Local First Arizona. I can confidently say that I will always support, and continue to promote the organization, and your's, and everyone else's work a the organization.
Thank you once again, and I look forward to your future accomplishments, and volunteering.

Sincerely,
Cristy

Meeting my Internship Goals

The most important skills I learned from my internship were:

1. Communicating with the public about a change

2. Learning how to effectively communicate through a blog post

3. Being independent to run an event

Through working events at the local Farmer's Markets, I was able to learn how to communicate with the public effectively. I would reel them in by asking them questions, and finding out their background knowledge on our change topic. Then, I was able to adapt my communication to the individual, and enable them to be more interested in Local First Arizona, and it's change effort. I was very nervous in the beginning, especially when I began doing the events by myself. I wanted to make sure I was communicating with all the right words, and engaging people. However, I could tell my success by the amount of people I was able to sign up for the Local First Arizona newsletter. I was even able to get people interested in becoming a volunteer for the organization. Towards the end, I felt very comfortable with setting up our table at events, and communicating with the public.

Steve, my mentor, really helped me hone in on my communication skills through blog posts. I learned how to effectively communicate through a short blog post, and use key words to make my point give an impact on the audience, and also be interesting. These were great skills I can use in school, and at work. It was also really cool to see my work being viewed by the public, and being a part of the mission of Local First Arizona.

I would definitely say I met all of my goals from my first blog post, and even learned more than I hope. I can not express enough how thankful I was to experience the change effort, and the people of Local First Arizona. It was such a positive learning environment, and really helped with my education and communication skills. 

Free Write- Travel

Something I really enjoy doing is traveling. For myself, I would consider it a hobby. I say this, because instead of spending my money on mostly material items, I save my money in order to take a trip/travel. 

Since I have been 18 ( I am 25 now), I have only travelled within the United States. I have been all over the country, but I still have states/regions I would love to explore. 

Typically, my method is to find a concert I would like to see, and then I base my trip around that. It is such a great way to plan a trip, in my opinion. Choosing concerts have brought me into different states that I had not yet been to. I am able to enjoy some of my favorite bands, and then take the opportunity to explore the region. 

Some of my favorite trips have consisted of taking road trips across some states and making it a multiple state adventure. For example, in the summer of 2013, my Fiancé and I drove up to Boise, Idaho, then back down to Las Vegas, and then to Flagstaff. It was such a beautiful drive, and we were able to see a few friends and concerts along the way.

After graduation I would love to start saving to explore outside of the country. I will be able to have more time to take off, and more money to save. I definitely want to travel central America, Australia/New Zealand, Japan and of course Europe. 

The Strengths of Local First Arizona

Local First Arizona has many strengths, which shows through their success as a growing non-profit organization. 

First, the organization reaches across the state for their cause. They really understand how to market their change effort, and how to entice those who are not familiar with their cause. I strongly believe this is because of the constant collaboration among the constituents of the organization, and their fearless leader. These individuals are entirely passionate about what they want to see changed in their community, and how they want to get there. 

Next, the individuals that work in the organization have areas they specialize in, but they are constantly working as a team. They are open to ideas, they collaborate, and the feed off each other. Also, they are all very encouraging of each other. I constantly hear praise given when deserved, and constructive feed back when needed. The LFA work environment is truly a great learning environment, and I really received a lot of constructive feedback that was not intimidating, and received praise that made me recognize my hard work when needed. 

Third, Local First Arizona is very involved with the community. They are involved in a wide range of event types, with a wide range of business type. They are always looking for new way to connect with new groups of individuals, and help them recognize the significance of the local community to them and their communities. Also, each individual is enthusiastic and passionate about participating in the events, which makes the experience so much better to be a part of, and for people of the community to learn.

I honestly could not sit here and say I would do anything different. I was proud to be a part of the LFA community, and their success as a non profit organization speaks about their strengths as a team, and as an organization of a change movement. 

Free Write- Gardening

Well, since my whole internship and blog have been based around local food, I decided to share my experience with gardening.

Growing up, I remember my mom attempting to grow certain food, mostly tomatoes. However, I was not really introduced to growing my own food until my adult years. Probably about 4 years ago, my Fiance and I decided to start trying some gardening out, and growing some of our own vegetables and herbs.

At first we had little success. We just didn't have the ideal growing conditions in our small back yard. It was mostly shady throughout the day. We just had one small corner of the back yard that received adequate amounts of sunshine, and there we grew herbs such as basil, and cilantro.

When we move into our current home, it already had a space in the back yard set up for gardening. Since moving in almost two years ago, we have experimented further, and had great success!

We have grown (and consumed):
corn
romaine lettuce
carrots
broccoli
green onions
tomatoes
basil
cilantro


I have to say, there is nothing like going out into your own garden, picking a fresh vegetable or herb out of the garden, and adding it straight into your meal. So fresh, and you know 100% how it was grown, and where it was grown. When I graduate, I intend to expand my garden, and try out some new crops. It is a great hobby, and saves us money, too!

Career Service #2

Today, April 15 2015 (no this isn't about tax day), there was a career service held by Notre Dame Mission Volunteers. 

When I was browsing the career services coming up that were offered, I decided I wanted to learn more about this firm.

It wasn't exactly what I thought the organization was going to be, but this is what I took from it:

The organization sends volunteers around the US to work alongside other religious folks, who are trying to make a difference with the "economically disadvantaged". While the volunteers are at their locations, they work with the disadvantaged with "literacy and education". Overall, the firm really strives to help the disadvantaged through education, which they believe is the key to helping someone help themselves.

I like the idea of what the firm is trying to accomplish. However, it was not quite the organization for me. My last career service I went to check out the Peace Corps, and that really resonated with me. 

For the career services, I was more interested in learning about experiences outside of schools, as opposed to seminars or workshops. I think I was able to do some good exploring. Of the two, I really enjoyed the PeaceCorps, and everything they had to offer in terms of experiences. 

Free Write- Living in Flagstaff

To be honest, I would have never thought I would have moved to Flagstaff. It never crossed my mind until I was 20. I had live in the valley my whole life, born and raised. I really wanted a complete different change of scenery, and it seemed easiest to move to Flagstaff. I could go to school, and still be close to my family. 

The setting and life style in Flagstaff is completely different than living in Mesa. Everything is pretty close together, you can get anywhere in town on a bicycle. Other than a nice warm ride in the winter, you probably don't really need a car to live in Flagstaff. In fact, traffic gets so congested in Flagstaff, that you can get around faster on a bike. This is something we can't really do in Phoenix, because everything is so spread out. We basically all have to commute to a job to some extent. Grocery stores, retail stores, and everything in between is all spread out.

The community in Flagstaff is very tight knit. The community is very active in all events, whether recreational or political. The town of Flagstaff feels passionate about how it is set up, and they strive to keep it a certain way. I learned that Flagstaff has a big box policy where they have limits on how big a commercial building can be. For example, a giant super center Wal-Mart can not be built. The Wal-Marts there are pretty small. I also found it funny that tourists think Flagstaff is a "real" city, because they have a Wal-Mart. 

Another thing I really liked about Flagstaff is that it wasn't so small you knew everyone, but you are able know quite a bit of people from living there. For example, you could go to the down town area and most likely run in to someone, so you wouldn't necessarily always need to make plans with everyone. I guess this probably pertains mostly to going down to the bars on the weeks! :) 

Flagstaff was a really cool experience, but I knew I needed to move back to the city to get established and have more room to grow. I am really glad I chose the degree I am in at ASU.