Arizona Adventures

by Richard Santi

A beautiful Prescott sky during monsoon season!

Hello again!

Prescott is home to one of the most unique cultures in America with old shops, saloons, beautiful trails and outdoor scenery unlike anywhere else. The old west charm and multitude of possible activities make Prescott an ideal place to explore, and a great location to fill your free time with fun adventures. Embry-Riddle truly has a great hometown.

Every once in a while, it can be fun to get out of town and explore the surrounding area, and Prescott lies in the very middle of numerous attractions that make great day or weekend trips. I want to share with you some of my favorites!

Jerome, Arizona

45 Minutes from Campus

Nestled on the side of Mingus Mountain, this old western mining town will bring you back to the prospecting days of the 1800s. Truly what is in my opinion one of the most unique treasures of the West, you can walk the streets totally unaware of what century you are in. It is home to numerous shops and great restaurants and is supposedly one of the most haunted cities in America! You could spend an entire day there, or even just drive in for dinner.

Sedona, Arizona

1 Hour 20 Minutes from Campus

The beautiful red rocks of Sedona make for a fantastic nature trip.

The red rocks of Sedona are probably one of the prettiest sighs you’ll see in the whole country. The unique geological formations are perfect for a cool nature hike, or any other outdoor activity. Everywhere you go, there is not a bad view. You could easily drive over and spend a couple hours taking it all in with your friends. Us pilots are especially lucky as one of our practice areas includes Sedona!

Scottsdale/Phoenix, Arizona

1 Hour 45 Minutes from Campus

If you are looking for some big-city fun, Scottsdale sits just on the northeast end of Phoenix and is home to fun restaurants, shopping malls, museums, and much more. Embry-Riddle students are incredibly fortunate to go to school in one of the prettiest natural areas of the nation with large mountains, forests, and beautiful prairies. However if you area city person, or are even simply craving a city adventure, America’s largest state capital is just a short journey away from campus.

Payson, Arizona

1 Hour 54 Minutes from Campus

On the ground at the beautiful Payson airport. A perfect destination for pilots.

This one is mostly for the pilots, as it’s a short flight. You could make it there in about 30-45 minutes, and the airport has a fantastic diner! You could rent a plane and easily make the trip with your friends to have a great breakfast while watching planes land. An added bonus is the beautiful forest that surrounds the town.

Grand Canyon National Park

2 Hours from Campus

One of the seven natural wonders of the world is just two hours from campus.

Perhaps one of the most amazing sights you’ll ever see is just a couple hours north of campus. It’s a great location for a day trip with friends, and there is simply nothing like it. Enough said.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona

3 Hours 9 Minutes from Campus

Lake Havasu will give you the feeling that you are on a different planet!

Arizona is a desert state, but if you like water-skiing and other water related activities, there’s all of that and more in Lake Havasu. It is one of the quintessential spring break locations. The town has unique resorts and restaurants, and it is a popular flying destination for pilots.

Tucson, Arizona / Pima Air & Space Museum

3 Hours 18 Minutes from Campus

Some of the world’s coolest airplanes are on display just a few hours south of campus.

If you are looking for a cool aviation-themed getaway, the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson will make a great day or weekend trip. There is a large indoor and outdoor display with some of the industry’s most iconic airplanes.

There are many other locations around Prescott that make great adventures. These are just a few of my personal favorites. In Arizona you can make your own adventures, as every town and every mountain has its own cool charm. Adventure awaits you here at Embry-Riddle!

My Summer Internship as a Software Developer for Compassion International

This summer I got to intern with Compassion International as a Software Developer. The Software Engineering (SE) program at ERAU taught me a wide range of skills, so I didn’t really know where to start looking for internships. I applied anywhere and everywhere from large aviation companies to small tech startups. Along the way I realized that the things I had learned went far beyond just academics. While the SE program has provided me with the necessary skills to be prepared for industry, I have learned professional and interpersonal skills through communicating with professors and being an RA. I started to seek positions that would compliment that. I wanted to find something that combined the experience I have had academically with something community driven and people focused. That’s when I found Compassion International.

At the entrance to Compassion International in Colorado Springs.

Compassion is a Christian global non-profit ranked in the top 15 U.S. charities. Their goal is to sustainably release children from poverty. The organization is currently working in 25 nations (Bangladesh, Colombia, Kenya etc.)  with over 2 million children in the sponsorship program at 7500 centers. Compassion also partners globally with 11 countries (England, Australia, Italy, etc.) to provide sponsorship and funding. Sponsors can communicate via letters directly to their sponsor child and the funds they provide go straight to the church and Compassion Center that the child is a part of. Compassion Centers are in poverty-stricken communities and run by local church leaders where a child is fed, clothed, and educated. The goal is to support children in the program from a young age through college/trade school to help break the cycle of physical and emotional poverty.

Exploring Colorado

The role of the USA office in Colorado Springs where I was an intern, is to support the sponsors, children, and centers. This support includes everything from finance management and marketing, to IT infrastructure and data processing including development of education curriculum for each country and a technology system to allow safe communication between countries. I worked as a Developer on an IT team to build an internal application for the global programs and travel department. The team I was a part of does pair programming and Test-Driven Development, so I spent a good portion of the summer building automated user interface testing and working together with other interns. The classes that I had taken in Software Quality Assurance and Analysis and Design of Software Systems were so helpful during the project. It was exciting to know that while I was growing my skills professionally, the application I helped to build has tangible and real effects beyond my personal role at the organization.

Impact Session with the President of Compassion – Santiago ‘Jimmy’ Mellado.

The internship at Compassion was well rounded and amounted to more than just a job. Part of the program is a field visit so I spent a week visiting the Compassion Guatemala National Office and visiting the children there. The purpose of this trip was to provide us with context and into the work that is done in the field and how it relates to the daily office work in the states. In the US Office, I was poured into each week professionally and personally. I learned how work really is more than a title and a set of tasks. An effective workplace is one that cares as much about the person’s individual growth as they do about the progress they make. I was placed with a host family to live with as well as with a mentor in the organization to meet with weekly and seek professional and personal guidance. Each week we had “Impact Sessions” with the executives such as the current and former CEOs of the organization, the Vice President of Marketing and Engagement (formerly responsible for stuffed crust pizza at Pizza Hut), Vice President of Human Resources (instrumental in the formation of Blockbuster Video, Einstein Bros., and Boston Market). These sessions each week were to expose us to different life lessons and career paths and to learn from their incredible experiences. The program was also designed for the interns to become a close community. Every second outside of the office was spent exploring nearby cities and climbing Colorado mountains until we felt like a family.

A Compassion sponsor child watching as the intern team built his family a new house.
Visiting the home of a Compassion Family in Coba, Guatemala

I could not have imagined a better place to be an intern. ERAU provided me with both the personal and technical skills in order to succeed this summer.

Compassion Summer 2019 Interns after receiving news that we are one of the top 100 internships in the U.S.

Morocco Study Abroad Pt. 2: Sahara Desert

Morocco has abundance of diverse landscapes; from the crashing waves of the coast, jagged mountains in its center, to the mysteries of the desert in the east. Two other AMIDEAST students and I decided to check visiting the Sahara Desert off the bucket list and took a two hour train ride followed by a ten hour overnight bus to the far east town of Merzouga. Upon arrival, we were greeted by our host at the local Riad (a Moroccan styled hotel) where we rested before going on our two day camel trek.  Our guide, Youssef, greeted us in a bright, sapphire colored gown and dark headscarf.  Each of us took turns getting on our seated camel, and holding on for dear life as not to get flung off when it stood up. We departing in the early evening as the beating sun set and the temperature cooled.  After riding our camels for an hour and a half, we arrived to an abandoned nomad village.  Under a fire and the light of a small solar lamp, our guide made fresh Tajine, a vegetable and meat stew.  After the meal, we arranged blankets outside one of the crumbling clay houses and slept under the stars.  The silence of the desert and brightness of the stars was unlike any other. The land and the sky harmonized and formed a feeling of peace.

In the morning, we trekked to a nomad’s house in the black desert, a part of the Sahara characterized by coal colored rocks and sand. As we continued our journey, we could see the plateaued mountains of Algeria along the horizon.   We arrived at our lunch spot where we would spend majority of the day under a collection of trees to wait out the heat before continuing our journey. We were served a fresh salad and a nomad prepared “Pizza.” He stretched out the dough, placed a mixture of vegetables and spice, rolled it into a calzone. He then put out a brush fire he lit previously, and underneath revealed a mosaic of black rocks that were heated from the flame. He placed the pizza on top of the rocks and covered it with a metal tin, and let it cook for 30 minutes.  The other students and I paid close attention to the traditional cooking techniques, joking how it would be our new party trick at the next barbeque we attend back home. As the sunlight became dim, we trekked another hour to our final destination in the desert, a collection of caravan tents. We met several groups of people taking part in a similar excursion as us, and we all shared a delicious meal together. After dinner, all the guides collected together with drums and began to play while humming and chanting in Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh (or Berber) people. The Amazigh are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa and they have a large presence in Morocco. Their language differs from Arabic in letters and over thirty variations can be heard spoken in the MENA region.  After the music and late night sand boarding, we returned the caravan where we once again set our beds under the stars. The night consisted shooting stars and the brisk bites of the freshly cooled air.

We woke up at the break of dawn and completed our trek back to Merzouga on the richly pigmented sands with the sunrise behind us. The journey to the Sahara was and will be one of the most memorable experiences I have ever had.  It was incredible to spend a few days in the desolate and peaceful land and also learn more about the culture of the Amazigh people that inhabit the region.

Morocco Study Abroad Pt. 1: The Beginning

Since the moment I landed in Morocco, this study abroad experience has been nothing short of an adventure. Taxiing over to Rabat, I quickly blended into the hive of 26 other confused Americans, all sharing their university and degrees, while desperately trying to recall the others’ names. When I share my background of aviation with Embry-Riddle, I get the usual squinty, confused face followed by questions such as “How many planes crash on average?” and “Are airplanes really safe?”

We spent orientation at the Oumlil Hotel, a 4 start hotel in the neighborhood Adgal. I like to think of “4 stars” as where a maximum of 4 out of 5 of the basic necessities will be available at any given moment: lights, air conditioning, wi fi, plumbing, and locks. The service received, however, was unlike any other with warm genuine greetings from everyone coupled with quick assistance to address any of our concerns.

During the first week, we dove right into the nitty gritty of everything we will love about being abroad, as well as the challenges we will endure. This included topics such as culture shock, or adjusting food and water; I have yet to get sick, Allhamdulila. Included in our orientation was a day dedicated to sightseeing the major sites of Rabat, where we toured through the fascinating Roman ruins of Chellah, saw the tombs of the previous King in the elaborate architecture of the Mausoleum of Mohammed V, and concluded with venturing through Kasbah de Oudaias, a 12th century gateway that leads into a charming neighborhood of white and blue houses overlooking the Atlantic.

After a few days into orientation, we were paired off and greeted by our host parents. We taxied over to the neighborhood L’Ocean, a quiet mosaic of tall apartments near the water.  I was thrilled to meet my host family, and equally “thrilled” to learn they did not speak a word of English.  This is the case with most host families that work with AMIDEAST, the program I am studying abroad through. This immersion technique has demonstrated improvement of a student’s language abilities, or in my case, skills in Charades.

Three weeks in, we have been saturated with information and the pace has stayed the same since orientation with the start of classes and participation in out-of-class cultural learning activities. As the dust settles and routine kicks in, I look forward to the learning this study abroad experience continues to hold. I plan to be abroad for the academic year to get a prolonged immersion experience, and this whirlwind of a start is only the beginning.

I’m in Ireland Right Now on Study Abroad!

I love this University, the people in it, and the things I get to do which right now includes the travel portion of my semester-long Ireland course through the College of Security and Intelligence. Follow my Facebook posts below to see what we’ve been doing…and just remember, as a student at ERAU you can do this too!

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Road Trippin’ – University isn’t just about studying – get out and experience the U.S.!

One of the greatest things about Prescott isn’t its surroundings (although they are GORGEOUS). The best thing about Prescott is its location between numerous travel destinations. Not only is it centrally located 4-5 hours between ~11 national parks, it is only 4 hours drive from Las Vegas and 6 hours drive from downtown LA. Those locations don’t appeal to you? No problem, check out Lake Powell, or SixFlags Magic Mountain in CA, the Grand Canyon, or Moab, UT, or…..

You get the point. Check out the video below to see a few of the locations mentioned above, which I have had the amazing opportunity to visit! [And remember, I’m only a freshman!]

 

 

There are so many out of state road trip opportunities near to Prescott, when coupled with all the things there is to do IN Prescott you’ll never find yourself short on things to do.

Flying home for break?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you plan on flying home for Christmas break it might be better to book those tickets now if you haven’t already!! Ticket prices can increase exponentially over the holidays as families try to get their loved ones together for the occasion, so don’t get stuck with out transportation or worse yet, a very expensive travel bill!!!

Most college students who have to fly home for the holidays buy their tickets months ahead of time. We like to do this because the tickets are cheaper, we can plan around our finals, and as Christmas gets closer we won’t spend most of your gift money on a plane ticket.

This is basically a plane ticket home from college

Buying a ticket and flying home by yourself may seem a little scary for those first timers but, don’t worry it’ll be fine. Its really not as difficult as it seems. What I would advise a first timer to do is research the luggage requirements, terminal location, and the baggage check process. Once you know what to do its really no big deal. It is also extremely important to arrive early at the airport and if possible have someone drive you. This way you don’t have to worry about parking a car or paying to park a car. It s a lot easier that way!!!

I hope these tips have been helpful 🙂 Happy Holidays Everyone!!!