GSIS Trip to Washington, DC!

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This past Spring Break was without a doubt my favorite one so far! Our GSIS program puts on a trip to Washington, DC every Spring Break so that students can have the opportunity to go talk to people who actually work in the intelligence agencies. This past week, my fellow students and I went to briefings all over the IC (intel community) and we learned so much about our career field that we have chosen. On Sunday, Lauren and I explored the city.

 

 

 

It was the 100th Anniversary of the gift of the Cherry Blossom trees from Japan!

 

At the Smithsonian Castle!

On Monday we went to briefings at INSCOM (the Army Intelligence and Security Command) and NGA (the National Geo-spatial Intelligence Agency). The new NGA building is AMAZING. It is all glass and brand new. There’s even a gym and restaurants on the bottom floor! We weren’t allowed to bring any electronics or else I would post a picture. After dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, my group walked around downtown DC and got to see a ton of cool old buildings. They were so amazing.

The Hard Rock Cafe where we ate was right next to Ford’s Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was shot! SO COOL!

Tuesday, we went to the Department of Homeland Security and the National Security Agency. We visited the Cryptological Museum and even got to play with an Enigma machine from WWII! That night, we got to visit the Navy Memorial.

Wednesday was a day of sightseeing and having meals with Professor Austin’s contacts from the DOE and the MDA. First we went to the International Spy Museum, which was so fun! We got to see cool spy gadgets and pretend that we were spies undercover. There were so many cool things to look at. Even better was the fact that a lot of what we saw, we have already learned about in our classes! I also learned so much from the lunch and dinner appointments. It was great to actually be able to talk to analysts and people who know the intelligence business. We had some great discussions.

St. Patrick’s Church! How fitting for St. Patty’s Day!

We walked all the way to the Jefferson Memorial! It was definitely farther than it looked. Good thing I brought my tennis shoes!

 

Thursday we got to listen to a Foreign Policy class held at the Department of State. It was all about US/Chinese relations. We were there with students from other universities, and there was a question and answer session which was really interesting. In the afternoon we got to go to the J. Edgar Hoover building, or FBI Headquarters. It is so huge! And… it kind of looks like a big mushroom. But it was still super cool.

And of course, that night we celebrated St. Patty’s day listening to an Irish band in an Irish restaurant. The Rogues helped us celebrate Professor Austin’s birthday, and she was so embarrassed! But we all had a great time.

Friday we got briefed by AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) and NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigation Services), after which we got to visit the FBI Academy! I don’t have any pictures of that day because I didn’t bring my camera, but it was absolutely amazing! Here are just a few tidbits of information that I collected over the week:

1. A good, strong resume is a MUST in order to even get considered for a job in the IC.

2. Relevant experience is so important.

3. Taking Chinese is a very good idea! They loved that I was taking Chinese classes!

4. Networking is crucial! It’s all about who you know and the contacts that you have.

5. Washington, DC is the place to go!

Overall I had such a fantastic time and I can’t WAIT to put my degree to use and go back to DC someday!

“I am not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.”

-William Allen White

Overcoming Unforeseen Obstacles

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Sometimes life is full of surprises, whether they are good or bad, we are not always ready for them. Fortunately, we have the ability to choose whether these obstacles change our lives for the better or for the worse.

This school year has been very difficult for me due to a major obstacle in my life. My grandmother, the woman who raised me, passed away in the middle of January, right when the Spring semester began. She became very ill at the end of the Fall semester in November and slowly her health began to decline.

This has made schooling very difficult because my mind has not been on school work, but more so on family. I have spent a lot of time going to California to spend time with my grandmother during her last weeks And then I had to help my family plan the memorial and we had to find a time where we could all meet.

We had a huge family reunion on behalf of my lovely grandmother and got a chance to spend time together and reminiscence of all the good times we had with her. It’s been difficult to go on with my life without her, but honestly I have received help from my friends and I decided to see the school’s psychologist at Embry-Riddle. He was very helpful and insightful and gave me great advice. I never thought I could ever ask for help, but when I started realizing that I wasn’t feeling up to par, I knew I needed help. Embry-Riddle has such helpful staff and understanding professors. I just told my professors about my loss and they have helped me to get through this semester. I am very lucky to be at this school, because I do feel like they care about me.

My advice for anyone who has to go through a stuff life-changing situation such as mine, is to try to see a professional and lean on your friends and family, it will help. And if you are in school, make sure you communicate with your professors, they will listen and they will understand and try to help you as much as possible. Although it takes a while, life does continue on. Just keep swimming, and soon your life will be back on track to where you want it to be.

A Field Trip During Spring Break?

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It’s spring break…that means I had a field trip for my Natural History of the Region class! I have to admit even though Arizona is my home state I was not completely thrilled that I would be spending four days of my spring break camping in the desert learning about the ecosystem. I must say though that I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had! We departed school at 8:00am last Saturday; from there we drove to Tucson making plenty of stops along the way to observe the plants and animals of the area. We mostly went through the Sonoran Desert, where Phoenix and Tucson are located. Sunday was my favorite day of the trip! We went to the Desert Sonoran Museum, it was very impressive. I was able to see tons of plants and wildlife. The museum is outdoors and a “living” museum, so I was able to see everything from horned sheep to bobcats and saguaros to agave. I really had a great time at the museum and took tons of pictures, but unfortunately I left my camera cord at school so I’ll have to include them in my next blog! On Monday we traveled even farther South and made our way to Safford Arizona.  We were able to drive all the way up Mt. Graham where there was snow. It was such a different climate than the desert scenery we had gotten used to seeing at our prior campsite.  Finally I was able to shower Monday night. (That was probably my second favorite part of the trip haha) On Tuesday we finally headed back to Prescott. It really was a fun experience. That class has quickly climbed to one of my all-time favorites at Embry-Riddle, I’m so glad that I “had” to take it!

The end of flight course festivities!

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At the end of every flight course is the part that stresses every flight student out: the check oral.

Upon successful completion of the review activities, orals and flights, comes the check oral. This is where you sit with a standards instructor for two hours and have a verbal test of required course knowledge. For my flight course (FA 122 Private Multi), I am required to know certificates and documents pertaining to the pilot and the aircraft, performance limitations of the DA-42, and airworthiness requirements. Also required knowledge items are operation of systems, system and equipment malfunctions, principles of one engine inoperative flight, and emergency and survival equipment. All this knowledge is tested in two hours! So you can start to see why this is one of the most dreaded, and stressful, flight activities.

I have my mock oral tomorrow. It is comforting to know that this is not the actual check oral, but it is invaluable practice with a standards instructor to be tested on the required knowledge and be told what items, or areas, may need improvement before the check oral. Embry-Riddle requires all flight students to go through mock orals and mock checkrides before doing the check activities to ensure the student is ready.

To be honest, I am very nervous! Luckily, I know I am prepared and I know I can do this! I tell myself before every mock or check activity that I can do this, I know I am ready, and I WILL pass! This positive mentality helps to calm me down and prepare. I highly advise some process to help calm yourself down, as this helps for any test or situation in which you feel very anxious. I hope you will be as prepared as I am when you get to checkrides so you will not feel stressed, but comfortable and relaxed instead!

The Adventure in the Saturn Wagon

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Whelp, this semester truly is a roller coaster! It’s been so much fun but so stressful at the same time. Midterms are coming up this next week, and I am so nervous! I have so much schoolwork and volleyball stuff to do, and on top of it all, my good old car that I’ve had since I got my license decided to go crazy on me! I have called the whole overall experience “The Adventure in the Saturn Wagon,” (partly because it reminds me of Indiana Jones and partly because it has a nice ring to it). :] I was driving down I-17 on my way to Pinetop, and right otuside of Flagstaff, my car emits a loud BANG and smoke comes out the back end. I, of course, pull over to the side of the road. Prescott was an hour behind me, so I couldn’t call my roommate to come pick me up. I was thirty miles outside of Flagstaff, and I didn’t know what to do. Luckily my grandparents were going to Pinetop that weekend from the valley anyway, so they were able to make a detour (that took about 7 hours!) through Flagstaff to rescue me. I LOVE my grandparents! They are sooooo nice to me! I LOVE YOU, GRANDMA MARILYN AND GRANDPA JOE!! Almost equally as lucky was the fact that I was on the phone with my grandpa about fifteen minutes after I stopped, and a tow truck pulled behind me and asked if I needed a tow! What should have been a three hour wait turned into a trip right into Flagstaff, where I hung out with my grandpa’s brother Tony, his wife Wista, and their huge boxer, Samson. I say that the experience definitely qualifies for an adventure! Although my poor car is still dead, at least my grandma let me borrow hers! Thanks Grandma!

Flashback moment: here’s a picture from my first trip to Prescott for college in my trusty station wagon, almost three years ago! I sure hope my car can be fixed… a lot of great memories go along with that car! We bonded over the years! (Okay, kinda corny, but I grew attached okay?)

 

 

 

And if I can’t get it fixed, then I guess I’ll move on and start a whole new (car) chapter of my life! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, but for now, I’m glad that I was lucky and safe and things turned out the way they did! Like my former coach and great friend Tom Cannon said (after I recounted to him the tale of my poor car), “Bad luck isn’t so bad when it’s followed by lots of good luck!” True statement! And now I’m back at Embry-Riddle safe, with a temporary car, and I’m able to focus on school and volleyball and have a grand old time doing what I love! Let the adventures continue…

“An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.”

-Gilbert K. Chesterton

Spring 2012!

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Wow! I cannot believe that it’s already midterm time! This semester has been going great for me so far. I’m taking 18 credits this semester and even though I’m constantly busy it hasn’t been as torturing as I expected.  My current classes are Personality & Profiling, International Relations, Natural History of the Region, Microeconomics, Chinese Computers( taught in Chinese), and Contemporary  Chinese Literature( also taught in Chinese).

This is the first semester I have taken content courses taught in Chinese and I have really been enjoying it! In my literature class we read short stories then will eventually write our own.  This class has really given me confidence with Chinese. I am able to read over 100 page stories now! I have also been able to learn tons in my computer class!

International Relations is one of my most interesting classes. We get to read classic authors such as Machiavelli and Thucydides. I feel like I have been challenged to think in new ways in this class which is great! My Natural History of the Region class is a really great course! It is basically a natural science class all about Arizona (my home state). Over the first few days of spring break we will go on a field trip to the Tucson area, I’m pretty excited.

Personality and Profiling is another great course. In this class you get to profile an individual for your final group project.  It has been a very different, yet really interesting project so far. My final class is microeconomics, which I am taking through Yavapai College (the local community college).  This class has also been going well.

This spring semester has been great so far, though I must admit the main thing on my mind is my upcoming study abroad trip to Beijing this summer! Hopefully I can stay focused until then!

 

Prescott Valley Police Department

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As promised before, I want to share my experiences with my new internship at the Prescott Valley Police Department. Unfortunately, I have not found too much free time to head over there too often, but the time I do set aside has been well worth it! I had the chance to go on a patrol ride with another Volunteer. He is actually attending graduate school at Riddle. (small world!) He is a really nice guy and he helped me to learn a lot more about law enforcement. Unfortunately, there was not too much excitement the day we went out for a ride. One guy ran out of gas at an intersection, so we got to direct traffic. There was also a car accident with a school bus (no one was harmed). Looked like the lady driving the car was not paying attention and rear-ended the bus driver. We stayed on the scene until officials came and took over. We wrote a few parking tickets, and did some house-watch requests. It was pretty fun!

I also spent some time trying to perfect my recovery of fingerprints on objects such as glasses and windows. It is a LOT harder than it looks. But it was a great learning experience and the head of the forensics department told me that my lifted prints looked better than some of the officers’. (shhh…we do not want to hurt their feelings. ha ha)

Just recently, I had the opportunity to go to Flagstaff to the big forensics/evidence lab. We took evidence from 5 different police stations around here (Prescott, Prescott Valley, Sheriff’s Department, Chino, and the Indian Reservation) and put them in the evidence van and took it all to the lab in Flagstaff. It was a nice drive. I learned a lot more about the chain of custody and how important it is to log everything that is done with the evidence because it will be used later in court. It is really interesting!

If you are interested and intrigued with security, forensics, and/or working for the government or law enforcement, I would really suggest volunteering for your local police department. They are all very helpful individuals and they are very willing to teach you as much as they know and once you have worked with them, I bet you any one of them would be willing to write you a nice letter of recommendation which will come handy once you are looking into a future career in the government. It is a lot of fun and educational!

ERAU Campus Ministries

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The Embry-Riddle Catholic Campus Ministries started three years ago with one girl named Astrid offering surveys in front of Charwells to anyone that would be interested in joining or starting up a Catholic club on campus. The Ministries has since grown to dozens of students joining together every Sunday night and many other off-campus activities to celebrate their faith. During Freshman year I searched for a Catholic church and somewhere where I could worship with or without school involvement. There are several Campus Ministries on campus that cater to all walks of life and are accepting of everyone.
Last Semester was kind of rough and although the Catholic Ministries has been extremely supportive and active in my life, I decided to check out this group on campus called Chi Alpha, or XA. I had heard about this group since freshman year and several of my friends were involved in the group. Initially hesitant, I checked out some of their meetings and events in order to see what Chi Alpha was really about. My first adventure with them was the trip to Lake Powell in late September, during which some 40 students, some XA and some not, went to Lake Powell for a weekend of adventure. We met up with the XA from ASU and got to meet a bunch of people. I knew almost nobody in our own group but as the hours went on and the more fun we had tubing, cliffjumping, playing on the beach, exploring the island on the middle of the lake and getting launched fifty feet into the air by a device know as the the Eviscerator, I got to meet a bunch of new friends. The Lake Powell Adventure was a blast but the people that I got to meet then got me interested into going to some of their other events. I have been to several of their events and am glad that my friends got me involved in them. I highly encourage them to any wanting to pursue any sort of religious involvement with a group willing to accept anyone.
The Catholic Ministries here are open to anyone that wants to attend Mass or get involved with their community.

Lake Powell with XA

Spring 2012

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So far this semester has been crazy, I am taking 18 credits, am an MSIII (junior) in the Army ROTC program here and am a little swamped by all the extracurricular activities I am trying to do. Last semester was even busier and I didn’t really have time to write some blogs because of everything that was happening but I am back!
Today I saw a large group of people on a tour of the school and I remembered what it was like when I came here on my first tour with my parents. I remember being impressed right away with the academic environment here and how I felt that I would be able to fit right in with the classes that the GSIS progam would offer. Just the other day in the bookstore I saw a family visiting for their first time and looking at the GSIS books. I haven’t bought every book I need for the semester so I was in there buying one and took a few minutes to talk to them. Their son was interested in joining GSIS so I was just telling him the names of the classes I took last semester and the ones I am taking this semester to hopefully add to his excitement of joining us next year. My schedule last year was:
Studies in Global Intelligence 1
History of Terrorism (my favorite class so far)
Officership I (Army ROTC class)
Information Protection & Computer Security
U.S. Government
and this semester:
Studies in Global Intelligence II (War Games, Senior Capstone Course)
Corporate Security Management
Officership II
Emergency Management & Contingency Planning
Intelligence & Technology
U.S. Military History

I don’t know about you but those classes sure sound pretty cool and intense. Well, intense is right, I am swamped this semester but the odd thing is that I like it because I came here to learn this stuff and I enjoy it. Now it if was math, business statistics or anything involving the laws of physics than you would probably be reading pseudo-rants about how Math rules my life but fortunately I never have to take it again! Mathematics, like killer bees, are things I avoid because I find no positive by having interaction with either.
The Army ROTC has been very different this year because I am a junior, or MSIII. I haven’t reported much on it yet but let me just say that I am learning a lot more about leading by being put in actual leadership positions when I am in charge of others and am working with my peers to produce a positive end result. I have made quite a few mistakes this year but I am continually learning from them. I was a part of the Ranger Challenge team last Fall and that was quite an adventure, being able to take part in the competition again and to experience that with my friends. If anyone ever has questions about joining the ERAU Army ROTC program please email me at LEONS1@my.erau.edu

The Ranger Challenge Obstacle Course

The Ranger Challenge Obstacle Course

The Obstacle Course

Possibly the greatest picture

President’s Day Weekend

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Thank goodness for President’s Day! Every college student LOVES three-day weekends! Especially college students at Embry-Riddle!

This three-day weekend is much needed and very much appreciated. Today was especially great. I got to sleep in, then Lauren and I went to the theaters and saw Red Tails. I thought that it was an excellent movie and it gave me a whole new perspective on pilots during World War II! It almost made me want to become a pilot!

Tonight, I was able to go to a bonfire with some of my friends from my church. It was so fun to go and just have fun and relax. We made smores, ate Oreo’s and Goldfish, played Kick the Can (with a Dr. Pepper bottle, because none of us had a can!), and told scary stories. It was a typical weekend bonfire with a bunch of awesome people and I was so glad that I went! That’s one of the good things about Prescott. There are so many places where you can be outdoors… you can go out to have a bonfire, go shooting, go hiking, go kayaking, or whatever else you want to do to be outside! And President’s Day weekend is the perfect weekend to do it. Gotta love being in Prescott! I hope everyone has a great President’s Day!

“Sometimes the cure for restlessness is rest.”
-Colleen Wainwight