We leave for Louisville at 9:00 sharp tomorrow morning!! I'm going to try to Tweet as much as possible throughout the trip, and maybe blog a little since I'll be bringing my laptop. Everyone on the trip will take turns contributing to the MizzouASB blog starting tomorrow night.
MizzouASB Blog
My Twitter Feed
I'm so excited! We're having a pizza party tonight (a special thank you to the Frisco Dominos) and we'll be writing our thank you notes. Then, my suite mate and I will be seeing the new Bradley Cooper movie. A perfect end to the week!
I am a pre-nursing student in the highly competitive nursing school at the University of Missouri. This is my journey to become a nurse in one of the best programs in the United States.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
ASB Itinerary
This has been the longest week of my life... But that's not important! What's important is I received my ASB itinerary last week. Here's a rundown of what we'll being doing starting THIS SATURDAY!
Saturday, March 26th
9am: Depart
1pm: Stop at Mt. Vernon, IL for food
6pm: Arrive in Louisville
Sunday, March 27th
Sleep in!
1pm: Tour of Smoketown
4pm: Open dialogue with all volunteers and coordinators (business casual)
6:30: Go out to eat
Monday, March 28th
8am: pack lunch and leave for sites (Oxmoor Farms)
12pm: Lunch
2pm: Paint mural with middle schoolers
6:30pm: Pizza and a movie
(This will be my day to blog)
Tuesday, March 29th
8am: Wake up, leave for sites
12pm: Lunch
3:30pm: Gilda's Club (cook and spread merriment)
6:30pm: Dinner with kids
7:30pm: Head back
Wednesday, March 30th
8am: Wake up, go to sites
12pm: Lunch, get ready for Slugger Museum
2:45pm: Go to Slugger Museum, get free baseball bat
5:15pm: Dinner
Thursday, March 31st
8am: Wake up, go to sites
12pm: Lunch
3:30pm: Kids Cafe (eat, visit, help with homework, play, etc)
7:30pm: Head back
Friday, April 1st
8am: Wake up, go to sites
12pm: Lunch
2pm: Middle Schoolers arrive at mural site
5pm: Head back
6pm: Dinner and movie
Saturday, April 2nd
7:30am: Meet in lobby for Lexington field trip!
9am: Arrive in Lexington for a tour of Keeneland race tracks
12pm: Find cute, local place for lunch
4pm: Closing dialogue with volunteers and coordinator
6pm: Final dinner (somewhere nice)
Sunday, April 3rd
8am: Back in the vans for CoMO!
4pm: Hopefully arrive home
Every night, someone on the trip will write a blog post on the Mizzou ASB website. I believe it's asb.missouri.edu... There's also a Twitter feed @MUASBLouisville
Saturday, March 26th
9am: Depart
1pm: Stop at Mt. Vernon, IL for food
6pm: Arrive in Louisville
Sunday, March 27th
Sleep in!
1pm: Tour of Smoketown
4pm: Open dialogue with all volunteers and coordinators (business casual)
6:30: Go out to eat
Monday, March 28th
8am: pack lunch and leave for sites (Oxmoor Farms)
12pm: Lunch
2pm: Paint mural with middle schoolers
6:30pm: Pizza and a movie
(This will be my day to blog)
Tuesday, March 29th
8am: Wake up, leave for sites
12pm: Lunch
3:30pm: Gilda's Club (cook and spread merriment)
6:30pm: Dinner with kids
7:30pm: Head back
Wednesday, March 30th
8am: Wake up, go to sites
12pm: Lunch, get ready for Slugger Museum
2:45pm: Go to Slugger Museum, get free baseball bat
5:15pm: Dinner
Thursday, March 31st
8am: Wake up, go to sites
12pm: Lunch
3:30pm: Kids Cafe (eat, visit, help with homework, play, etc)
7:30pm: Head back
Friday, April 1st
8am: Wake up, go to sites
12pm: Lunch
2pm: Middle Schoolers arrive at mural site
5pm: Head back
6pm: Dinner and movie
Saturday, April 2nd
7:30am: Meet in lobby for Lexington field trip!
9am: Arrive in Lexington for a tour of Keeneland race tracks
12pm: Find cute, local place for lunch
4pm: Closing dialogue with volunteers and coordinator
6pm: Final dinner (somewhere nice)
Sunday, April 3rd
8am: Back in the vans for CoMO!
4pm: Hopefully arrive home
Every night, someone on the trip will write a blog post on the Mizzou ASB website. I believe it's asb.missouri.edu... There's also a Twitter feed @MUASBLouisville
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Update March 3-10
I realize it's been a while since I've posted. I've had a lot going on lately, so I'm going to do a recap of the last week. I see this on Twitter all the time where someone will Tweet all of what's been going on all at once. So here's Sam's News Dump:
Thursday Mar. 3: First Committee on Healthy Lifestyles Meeting; went well, people who attended came with some really great ideas for events; established a mission statement, provided a fruit plate
Found out I raised over $500 for ASB!
Friday Mar. 4: Longest day of my life. Got up early for the Student Nurses Week Pancake breakfast; enjoyed breakfast with the nursing school dean
Physiology exam
Nutrition test: kicked my butt and apparently everyone else; my first C in college
Saturday Mar. 5: CALEB Club event at the nursing school; big turnout, got to play with the $89,000 dummy and kept kids from rupturing each others eardrums
Tutoring at the library
Sunday Mar. 6: Relaxed!
Tuesday Mar. 8: Watched "Interactive Theater" in my nursing class
Wednesday Mar. 9: Became an official resident of Missouri!
Nursing Student Council Meeting: suggested the idea for a forum where pre-nursing students could submit question and an advisory group of clinical students could respond; anonymous and easily accesible
Student Nurses Assoc Meeting
Submitted application to be the SNA Historian
Thursday Mar. 10: went to listen to a guest speaker at the nursing school named Easy Stilson. She was really hilarious and talked about the differences between being a nurse in the 80's and being a nurse today; it was very enlightening and I couldn't be more excited to be a nurse after hearing her speak
ASB meeting tonight! Will be receiving our official itineraries outlining what we'll be doing specifically on each day of the break. I'm so excited!! I will post about it either tonight or tomorrow.
Thursday Mar. 3: First Committee on Healthy Lifestyles Meeting; went well, people who attended came with some really great ideas for events; established a mission statement, provided a fruit plate
Found out I raised over $500 for ASB!
Friday Mar. 4: Longest day of my life. Got up early for the Student Nurses Week Pancake breakfast; enjoyed breakfast with the nursing school dean
Physiology exam
Nutrition test: kicked my butt and apparently everyone else; my first C in college
Saturday Mar. 5: CALEB Club event at the nursing school; big turnout, got to play with the $89,000 dummy and kept kids from rupturing each others eardrums
Tutoring at the library
Sunday Mar. 6: Relaxed!
Tuesday Mar. 8: Watched "Interactive Theater" in my nursing class
Wednesday Mar. 9: Became an official resident of Missouri!
Nursing Student Council Meeting: suggested the idea for a forum where pre-nursing students could submit question and an advisory group of clinical students could respond; anonymous and easily accesible
Student Nurses Assoc Meeting
Submitted application to be the SNA Historian
Thursday Mar. 10: went to listen to a guest speaker at the nursing school named Easy Stilson. She was really hilarious and talked about the differences between being a nurse in the 80's and being a nurse today; it was very enlightening and I couldn't be more excited to be a nurse after hearing her speak
ASB meeting tonight! Will be receiving our official itineraries outlining what we'll be doing specifically on each day of the break. I'm so excited!! I will post about it either tonight or tomorrow.
Friday, March 4, 2011
THANK YOU!
I have raised over $500 for Alternative Spring Break! I'm so ecstatic! I feel so lucky to have such supportive friends and family! When I sent out my letters, I would have felt lucky to raise $100. I couldn't even imagine raising over $500. I'm suppose to have a complete breakdown of who donated at the next meeting. We will then begin our thank you letters. I have so much gratitude, I can barely put it into words.
We will also have detailed itineraries of what we'll be doing on each day of the trip. I will post it once I receive it.
I would also like to say that one of my fellow Spring Breakers applied for the nursing school and was accepted! I'm very excited for her.
We will also have detailed itineraries of what we'll be doing on each day of the trip. I will post it once I receive it.
I would also like to say that one of my fellow Spring Breakers applied for the nursing school and was accepted! I'm very excited for her.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Student Nurses Week
Student Nurses Week starts tomorrow!!
Here's the itinerary for the week:
Monday, Feb. 28: Appreciation Day
-Free lunch for student nurses, faculty and staff
-10:30 am- 1:00 pm (Student Commons)
Tuesday, Mar. 1: Clinical Speakers
-Clinical students from each semester will give a brief summary of their experiences in the program
-5:00 pm- 5:30 pm (S261)
Wednesday, Mar. 2: 5th Semester Brunch
-5th semester students will receive their attache cases from MU Nursing Alumni Organization congratulating them for their acceptance into clinicals
10:15 am- 12:00 pm (Upper Crust, Downtown Columbia)
Thursday, Mar. 3: Round Tables
-Learn from clinical majors what life as a nursing student during clinicals are really like. Students will share recommendations for balancing the challenges that lie ahead.
-4:00 pm- 5:00 pm (Student Commons)
Friday, Mar. 4: Pancake Breakfast
-All-you-can-eat pancakes fro $2.
-7:00 am- 9:30 am Student Commons
Recruitment Far (Nursing Student Council)
-Missouri hospitals will be at the School to answer questions about employment opportunities
-11:00 am- 1:00 pm (S342)
Here's the itinerary for the week:
Monday, Feb. 28: Appreciation Day
-Free lunch for student nurses, faculty and staff
-10:30 am- 1:00 pm (Student Commons)
Tuesday, Mar. 1: Clinical Speakers
-Clinical students from each semester will give a brief summary of their experiences in the program
-5:00 pm- 5:30 pm (S261)
Wednesday, Mar. 2: 5th Semester Brunch
-5th semester students will receive their attache cases from MU Nursing Alumni Organization congratulating them for their acceptance into clinicals
10:15 am- 12:00 pm (Upper Crust, Downtown Columbia)
Thursday, Mar. 3: Round Tables
-Learn from clinical majors what life as a nursing student during clinicals are really like. Students will share recommendations for balancing the challenges that lie ahead.
-4:00 pm- 5:00 pm (Student Commons)
Friday, Mar. 4: Pancake Breakfast
-All-you-can-eat pancakes fro $2.
-7:00 am- 9:30 am Student Commons
Recruitment Far (Nursing Student Council)
-Missouri hospitals will be at the School to answer questions about employment opportunities
-11:00 am- 1:00 pm (S342)
Alternative Spring Break
Here's the lowdown on my alternative spring break this March:
Alternative spring break is organized through Mizzou. I applied to go on a trip last semester. On the application, I prioritized different issues that each location would be addressing. I chose "health" as my first choice, followed by environment and Habitat for Humanity/urban issues. I was chosen and placed on the Louisville trip!
In Louisville, we will be addressing food access issues that effect children. Here's the issue that downtown Louisville is facing: as the city has grown, the middle class has increasingly moved away from the city toward suburbs, taking all of the grocery store businesses with them. What's left in the inner city is fast food restaurants and convenience stores, leaving more low income families without healthy options and increasing obesity rates. This is especially hard for young children, especially when they grow up thinking the only places you can get food is McDonalds and KFC. Many of them don't even know what a well-balanced meal looks like.
It's a pretty daunting issue to take on, but what we'll be doing is working hands on with kids at one of the middle schools. We will be going to an area of downtown Louisville called "Smoketown." It is a predominantly African-American community that faces gang problems alongside their food access problems. Many of the kids as young as middle school-aged are involved in gangs. There are two gangs in this area. The younger kids are in a gang that call themselves the "Goonies" and the older high school kids are in a gang called the "Taliban." Both are divisions of the Bloods.
Specific activities we'll be doing are the following:
-Working on a farm to grow produce. It's called "Oxmoor Farms" and we'll be taking the kids out there to teach them about fruits and veggies.
-Making dinner at "Gilda's Club." Gilda Radner once said "Having cancer gave me a membership in a elite club I'd rather not belong to." We'll visit the "Gilda's Club" in Louisville to make everyone dinner and socialize with the visitors
-Painting a mural. One initiatives that Louisville has taken is to create corner stores called "Healthy-in-a-Hurry" which are accessible to kids in the community. We are going to paint a mural with the kids on the walls of the one closest to their middle school.
I know there are some more we'll be doing, but we haven't been given a copy of the itinerary yet. We will also have some free time and we'll be spending that at Churchill Downs and a baseball bat factory. Our accommodations for all 12 of us for the entire week came to $57! We were really fortunate to find this lodging. We're staying at a hotel built above a women's shelter and they gave us a really good deal.
To pay for the trip, everyone in the group made two $100 payments. For the rest of the fundraising, we sent "Adopt-a-Breaker" letters describing our trip and asking for donations. Our trip quickly met our goal. I feel particularly blessed and received a lot of support from my friends and family and even a few businesses in Frisco, my hometown.
Our group meets every Thursday to discuss the issues we will deal with on our trip, go over our itinerary and bond as a group. Our first two meetings were the definition of awkward, but now we are pretty close. All of the ASB groups got together for a retreat several weeks ago and each group had to perform a skit. Our skit had a rap to the beat of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air." It was pretty awesome. The trip is going to be a lot of fun.
Other groups are going to Colorado, South Dakota, North Carolina, Detroit, New Orleans, Nashville, Minnesota, and Dallas. I know several groups will be working on conservation, one with a childrens hospital, and one with Habitat for Humanity.
It should be quite the adventure! I was a little hesitant when I signed up, but now I feel like I have no regrets! Hopefully, I will be able to blog every night while we're on the trip, depending on what the internet situation is.
Again, I would like to thank everyone that donated and given their support. You have helped us reach our goal, and very quickly at that!
To learn more about Mizzou's Alternative Spring Break visit: http://asb.students.missouri.edu/
Alternative spring break is organized through Mizzou. I applied to go on a trip last semester. On the application, I prioritized different issues that each location would be addressing. I chose "health" as my first choice, followed by environment and Habitat for Humanity/urban issues. I was chosen and placed on the Louisville trip!
In Louisville, we will be addressing food access issues that effect children. Here's the issue that downtown Louisville is facing: as the city has grown, the middle class has increasingly moved away from the city toward suburbs, taking all of the grocery store businesses with them. What's left in the inner city is fast food restaurants and convenience stores, leaving more low income families without healthy options and increasing obesity rates. This is especially hard for young children, especially when they grow up thinking the only places you can get food is McDonalds and KFC. Many of them don't even know what a well-balanced meal looks like.
It's a pretty daunting issue to take on, but what we'll be doing is working hands on with kids at one of the middle schools. We will be going to an area of downtown Louisville called "Smoketown." It is a predominantly African-American community that faces gang problems alongside their food access problems. Many of the kids as young as middle school-aged are involved in gangs. There are two gangs in this area. The younger kids are in a gang that call themselves the "Goonies" and the older high school kids are in a gang called the "Taliban." Both are divisions of the Bloods.
Specific activities we'll be doing are the following:
-Working on a farm to grow produce. It's called "Oxmoor Farms" and we'll be taking the kids out there to teach them about fruits and veggies.
-Making dinner at "Gilda's Club." Gilda Radner once said "Having cancer gave me a membership in a elite club I'd rather not belong to." We'll visit the "Gilda's Club" in Louisville to make everyone dinner and socialize with the visitors
-Painting a mural. One initiatives that Louisville has taken is to create corner stores called "Healthy-in-a-Hurry" which are accessible to kids in the community. We are going to paint a mural with the kids on the walls of the one closest to their middle school.
I know there are some more we'll be doing, but we haven't been given a copy of the itinerary yet. We will also have some free time and we'll be spending that at Churchill Downs and a baseball bat factory. Our accommodations for all 12 of us for the entire week came to $57! We were really fortunate to find this lodging. We're staying at a hotel built above a women's shelter and they gave us a really good deal.
To pay for the trip, everyone in the group made two $100 payments. For the rest of the fundraising, we sent "Adopt-a-Breaker" letters describing our trip and asking for donations. Our trip quickly met our goal. I feel particularly blessed and received a lot of support from my friends and family and even a few businesses in Frisco, my hometown.
Our group meets every Thursday to discuss the issues we will deal with on our trip, go over our itinerary and bond as a group. Our first two meetings were the definition of awkward, but now we are pretty close. All of the ASB groups got together for a retreat several weeks ago and each group had to perform a skit. Our skit had a rap to the beat of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air." It was pretty awesome. The trip is going to be a lot of fun.
Other groups are going to Colorado, South Dakota, North Carolina, Detroit, New Orleans, Nashville, Minnesota, and Dallas. I know several groups will be working on conservation, one with a childrens hospital, and one with Habitat for Humanity.
It should be quite the adventure! I was a little hesitant when I signed up, but now I feel like I have no regrets! Hopefully, I will be able to blog every night while we're on the trip, depending on what the internet situation is.
Again, I would like to thank everyone that donated and given their support. You have helped us reach our goal, and very quickly at that!
To learn more about Mizzou's Alternative Spring Break visit: http://asb.students.missouri.edu/
Thursday, February 24, 2011
The Simulation Room
Just got back from my CALEB Club Meeting. We have some cool things planned for the kiddos. While we were going over everything, the woman coordinating the event, a MUSSON faculty member, gave us a tour of the simulation lab where the event will be held.
WOW! Talk about cool.
The lab is a large room with seven different dummies on hospital beds. There were a couple of nursing students there practicing. Then she showed us a separate room with an $89,000 dummy that reacts to EVERYTHING. You can give it medication, insert needles, etc. It urinates, breaths... it walks, it talks, it's almost human! (Actually, it probably doesn't walk, but you get the point). The room itself was a simulation of a typical hospital room, equipped with cameras and a one-way mirror so nursing students can go back and see what they need to work on. I also saw some homemade fecal matter.
I can't wait to use this equipment for the event. I won't be graded on it!
WOW! Talk about cool.
The lab is a large room with seven different dummies on hospital beds. There were a couple of nursing students there practicing. Then she showed us a separate room with an $89,000 dummy that reacts to EVERYTHING. You can give it medication, insert needles, etc. It urinates, breaths... it walks, it talks, it's almost human! (Actually, it probably doesn't walk, but you get the point). The room itself was a simulation of a typical hospital room, equipped with cameras and a one-way mirror so nursing students can go back and see what they need to work on. I also saw some homemade fecal matter.
I can't wait to use this equipment for the event. I won't be graded on it!
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