Holiday Sugar Rush

This past week has gone by incredibly slowly! Block 4 is always tough because everybody is ready to go home. It was uncharacteristically warm for the majority of the week, which made matters worse - I am ready for snow. My class is going well. I am starting to like it a lot more because the discussions getting really interesting and I finally feel comfortable enough to participate. I chose a topic for my final paper: the power of ethnic lobbies to influence American foreign policy. I am really excited that I finally get to research it because it has been a topic that I have been thinking about for a long time. I am going to try really hard to not write it at the last minute - I have all of my books and other research together, I just need to read the books and start writing.

We have our last Relay For Life meeting of the semester tomorrow. Caitlin, Marina, and I are making pancakes for our committee. I am sad that it will be my last meeting for the school year! Our Ad Hoc Food Vision Committee finalized and distributed our dining survey...finally! We have already had 250 responses and the link has only been out for one day. I am excited to get the feedback. I have also been going around to different campus groups with a few of the other committee members to hold focus group discussions about dining.

Tonight we made gingerbread (well, actually graham cracker) houses! They add to our Christmas decor in the apartment, which Cayla appropriately described as, "Christmas threw up in here!"

My Eco-Friendly House: wind turbine, peace garden, solar panels on the roof, and the three colored gumdrops to the side are recycling bins
(paper, cardboard, and co-mingle)

Gumdrop Hippies in front of their house
(not pictured - candy compost pile)

Helen Keller Snowman & her minions (Three Blind Mice)

Block 4 - It's Already Here!

I cannot believe that this semester is almost over! The older I get, the faster time flies by. I started "Theories of Contemporary International Systems" on Monday. I am not entirely pleased with the class, but I think that it will be an interesting experience. My class is co-taught by two professors with very different view points; it is nice to hear both sides of each issue! One aspect of the course that I do not like is that I have class in the afternoon. It completely messes up my entire schedule! I have had to re-arrange several meetings, work hours, etc, etc. already and this is only week one. I am thankful that I only have two more weeks of this. We have quite a bit of time off in this class to write our final paper: twenty-five pages (must be the new fad) on an aspect of international relations of our choosing, worth 80% of our grade. I am irritated that this somehow resulted in no class on Fridays or during the fourth week of the block. Seriously, we are supposed to be able to complete assignments such as this on the block plan without excessive bonus time. Luckily, I have quite a few other projects in addition to school that can use a little extra attention!

In other news, we decorated our apartment for the holidays last Sunday! I think that it is safe to say that we have the most festive dwelling on campus; our apartment is boarder line excessive.

Holiday Spirit in El Diente 302

Thanksgiving Gems

Bridgett Being Domestic (whoa!)

Playing with Fire...

Kenyon's Beverage of Choice (just kidding!)

Happy Thanksgiving, Dog

Christmas Tree Cutting

After Thanksgiving dinner, we went Christmas tree cutting. It was freezing, but quite the experience! PS - When have we EVER cut our Christmas tree this early?

Car Ride Pile Up

Special

Thanksgiving Snow

Family Photo Op

Bridgett and I dragging the tree all by ourselves! (until Bridgett got lazy and I finished the job myself...)

Mom's "Super Cool Bath House" Find

Wood House Gangstas' (the ax was sweet)

Happy Thanksgiving (yesterday)

-Daryl Cagle

Almost Thanksgiving!

It is almost Thanksgiving Break and I am so happy! I cannot wait to go home! Mom called me today and we went over the menu for Thursday. I am excited to help with all of the cooking! I am almost finished with my class. I have a presentation tomorrow on genetically modified crop management, quick packing, an apartment clean up, and the drive home. Instead of having a huge project due tomorrow, I only have a small one, which is strange. My BIG paper was due on Monday at 9:00 am. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. My entire weekend was devoted to writing, but I am pleased that I was able to research, edit, and write twenty-five pages in forty-eight hours. The Block Plan really teaches us how to work efficiently and effectively. It takes a lot to get me really stressed out these days...that paper should have, considering it is worth 70% of my grade, but I have written more than twenty-five pages in less time than I gave myself before, so it did not seem too daunting. Besides the school projects, we have been having a LOT of Relay meetings. I am also working on the committee to put together the bid process for CC's food service (this spring). We have to work quickly in order to start asking for proposals by the beginning of January.

Happy Thanksgiving! I have quite a bit to be thankful this year! :)

Too true...

-Scott Stantis

PS

I booked my flight for Jonkoping, Sweden today - departing January 10th! Hopefully my visa application will be accepted...

Almost Finished with Block 3

The title says it all - I only have three more days left in Environmental Management! Granted, my work is far from over - I have a final paper due at 9:00 am on Monday that I started today. My paper must be twenty-five pages in length and create a management strategy for an important environmental issue. I am focusing on the management of genetically modified soybeans from the EPA's perspective. The twenty-five page requirement is going to be a major problem. One would think that because I am "starting this late" (not really, late would be starting on Sunday!) that I am going to have a problem meeting the page requirement. In actuality the problem is much worse - I am going to have to trim and slice and dice my paper to get it down to twenty five pages! My professor asked me if I was planning on writing a thesis or my final paper...I say, let's combine the two and celebrate with vegan cupcakes when finished! I love reading environmental laws and regulations...a bit too much! Thank goodness - this project is 70% of my class grade!

Everyone is probably wondering why I put off writing my final paper until now. Well, the answer is simple and two fold: 1) I do not have time to start final projects in advance due to the extensive amount of homework I have every night and the few (haha) other activities I am involved in, and 2) I like to type a paper in one shot. I know I can do it because I have written longer papers in shorter time periods before.

So what was I up to this week that occupied my time instead of the intriguing topic of GM soy regulation? Last night, we held the first Innovative Minds (IM) Lecture of the 2007-2008 school year! David Calley of Southwest Windpower talked about his innovative upbringing, projects, and company. Though the turnout was lower than expected, we definitely had quality over quantity for an audience - the questions asked of Dave following the lecture were great! The private, pre-dinner for twenty-four at the President's House was my primary job. Luckily, we were able to recently recruit one of my friends to help on the IM planning committee this fall! Connie, my boss in CC Communications, was out of town, so I was in charge of co-hosting the dinner and dealing with all of the lovely little problems that accompany important events. Yesterday, I discovered that no one had ordered alcohol for the event - it was pretty funny to see me manage that one, given my lack of experience in both the consumption and arrangement. Despite problems, the dinner and the lecture went extremely well! I am so happy that it is over so that I can focus on the eight million other things that I have to do.

My paper calls! More updates later...

No Travel this Week = Crazy!

That's right, things have finally slowed down in the travel department! I actually spent this past weekend at CC. It was nice to get a little bit of sleep and play catch-up with all of the things that I have been unable to prioritize until now. We went to see the semi-annual dance workshop on Friday night, which was definitely...interesting. I really liked several of the more traditional numbers, but have to admit that I do not understand "modern" dance at all. I made the famous vegan chocolate cupcakes for a post-outing snack. They turned out quite well, though I tried to put sprinkles on after the frosting had dried, which resulted in sprinkle-less cupcakes.

I have been frantically working on my visa application for Sweden. The Swedish government requires so much information to travel there! Luckily, I have it about finished and should be able to mail it tomorrow if my insurance information arrives. I was also able to go grocery shopping this weekend, so I have had fun making hummus and fresh veggies dishes. I am going to make some cranberry cookies (thanks for the recipe, mom!) in a bit.

I cannot believe that it is week three of this block already! I need to get some research together for my final paper - twenty-five pages, due next Monday. I am writing on management strategies of genetically modified food, which will be interesting/disturbing (because of the current lack of regulation). I have to say that I am looking forward to actually knowing what I am eating in Europe, which is more than I can say in the USA!

Last Thursday was our Relay For Life Kickoff at CC! The kickoff is the first time of the school year that we officially advertise Relay and give people a chance to sign up. I am so excited because we had four teams sign up! Plus, everyone I talked to actually knew what Relay For Life was! This year is going to be fantastic! Oh, and did I mention the theme is "Candy Land?" That was my idea. :)

On Thursday, we will have our first Innovative Minds lecture of the school year! I am on the planning committee and am quite excited. Innovative Minds is a lecture series that one of my favorite professors, Dan, conceived two years ago. We bring in interesting speakers that have an innovative approach to business, a product, etc. The speakers give a public lecture, speak to classes, and experience the city. Besides bringing in cool lecturers, the series seeks to form bond between CC, the Colorado Springs community, and other places. One of our favorite speakers last year was Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream!

David Calley, president and founder of Southwest Windpower will be our speaker on Thursday. He created a residential wind turbine, which is totally cool! I am working hard on the last minute details for his visit - the lecture, pre-dinner at the President's House, etc. It is always stressful to put these events on, but worth it.

That is about all that I can think of at the moment. Tomorrow I get an email from Ben - yippee. Enjoy the lovely fall leaves if you still have some - we do, and I love them!

Promised Photos

The 2008 Colorado College Relay For Life Planning Committee
Taken at Relay U - Pueblo, CO

The 2007-2008 Sodexho Student Board of Directors
Annual Meeting in Huntington, CA
October 12-14, 2007

The Eco-Environment & Sustainability Sub-Group (I am the chair)
Sodexho Student Board of Directors
Taken at the Anti-Mall

Sodexho's "Greenies"
Dan, Emily, Me, and Lauren

SBOD Panel and the CC Relay Kickoff

After Relay U last Saturday, I returned from Pueblo to start packing...once again. I left for a trip to Hilton Head, SC on Sunday and returned from DIA very early on Monday morning. The trip was to the Southeast Leadership Conference for Sodexho, which is where all of the Sodexho managers at the colleges and universities in the region meet with the clients (presidents, etc. of the schools). I was invited to participate in a panel to talk about my experience on the National Student Board of Directors and dining trends. Last summer, I was invited to participate on a similar panel for the Mid-west/Mid-south region in Austin. It was fun to see five of my Board friends and I always enjoy talking about my experiences with Sodexho! We stayed on the beach at Hilton Head, which was completely gorgeous. I had to leave directly after the panel on Monday in order to make it back to CC for class by 9:00 am on Tuesday. I did get to walk on the beach Monday morning and it was beautiful - I love to be by the ocean! The panel went really well. All of the clients seemed to enjoy it and asked us some great questions. My all-time favorite question, "There has been a lot of talk about sustainability. What does this mean to you?" came up, and apparently I gave a really good response! I have been invited to talk to a few other clients on an individual basis about sustainability and the green dining movement, which is very exciting!

Yesterday was the Relay For Life Kickoff at CC! We set up lunch and information in our student center (Worner Center) about Relay and basically 'kickoff' our publicity for the year. The Kickoff went incredibly well! One of my committee members made this awesome promotional video featuring the committee on why they Relay. Subway donated and we made dozens and dozens of cookies at my apartment the night before. We already have four teams signed up! The best part was that nearly everyone I talked to already knew what Relay was, which means that our event is really becoming popular! Year Three is going to be fantastic!

CC Relay Awards

I almost forgot anther great part of the Great West Relay For Life Summit - awards! I have to brag a little bit because I am SO EXCITED!

Colorado College made Youth Pacesetter Status for 2007! The Pacesetter Program is a challenge to accomplish various elements of Relay planning by certain deadlines. There are also criteria for event income growth and for meeting financial goals, set for each event by the American Cancer Society. I worked on a team with two others to create the Youth Pacesetter program this year as one of my projects on the Youth Task Force. There were only six events that achieved Youth Pacesetter Status out of the fifty-one Youth Relays in the Great West Division!

Team C^2 with our Pacesetter Award

In addition to being a Youth Pacesetter, Colorado College also won FIRST in our school population group for Income Per Capita. We raised $15.51 per student at our 2007 Relay. We are so excited about being first because our enrollment category for this award is 0-9999 students and CC only has an enrollment of 1900! In 2006, the CC Relay won second place for Income Per Capita and we set a goal to be first in 2007...mission accomplished!

Our #1 Per Capita Award (Caitlin, me [hair was out of control], Marina, Krystle)

Youth Task Force 2007 - I miss these guys way too much!

Fall at CC, World Vegan Day, and Relay U

It's finally fall at CC! I have been waiting for the leaves to change for weeks. On Wednesday, it was nice enough to take photos, so I toted my camera around to all of my activities hoping to get a few good shots.

Tree on Worner Quad

Gorgeous colors

Thursday, November 1st, was World Vegan Day! I celebrated by wearing one of my controversial PETA t-shirts and by making a few new recipes. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes with cinnamon icing (recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World) for my CC Relay For Life committee meeting that evening. Everyone loved them and was, of course, surprised when I educated them on the ingredient list. Speaking of vegan baking, our dining hall recently hired a new chef for the Vegan/Vegetarian/Healthy station. I had a Campus Dining Advisory Committee meeting on Wednesday and pre-partied for World Vegan Day by eating the most amazing chocolate chip cookies, compliments of the new chef, for lunch. Yesterday, I saw Jessica, our Dining Director of Operations, who had me try the cookies of the day, cranberry walnut. I am starting to regret not being on the meal plan! :) I am going to have to attempt to play my cards right and become a "tester" for vegan dessert options.

My cupcakes = yum

I am working on all of my study abroad paperwork, visa, etc...and I thought the application process was time consuming! At the rate I have been going this semester, study abroad is going to seem like a vacation. Well, not exactly, but it will be a nice change of pace. I received grades for Block 2, Economics of Innovation, this week as well: A-! I am absolutely ecstatic! Dan is one of my all-time favorite professors at CC, but also one of the hardest professors on campus so I am pretty excited about my grade! My current class, Environmental Management, is going really well. It is also a lot of work, but I love doing my homework because it exactly matched to my interests. I have been lucky this semester to take three blocks from three of my favorite professors!

Last night, my apartment-mates and I had a fall party. We made a fall-themed dinner and carved pumpkins! Caitlin and I were up past 3:00 am putting together our presentations for Relay University, which was held today in Pueblo. Relay University (Relay U) is similar to Summit, but on a smaller scale. Every member of each Relay committee (community and college events) is invited to receive training on their specific committee position and Relay as a whole. Caitlin and I helped plan Relay U this year as part of our duties as Region D Council Members. We are lucky to have awesome Council Co-Chairs and great Council Membership - they are incredibly receptive to youth involvement and integrate us into Council and higher level Relay leadership as frequently as possible. We taught the two breakout sessions for Event Chairs and did a twenty-minute piece on Youth Involvement. I also ended up running the audio visual for the entire day. We rented a school van and took nearly our entire CC Relay planning committee to Relay U for the day. CC was the best represented event there: sixteen strong! We dressed up "80's style" going off of our "Born in the 80's, Just like Relay!" group theme, which was just for fun. The theme of Relay U was Wizard of Oz, which was pretty uninteresting and I had to dress up as the tin man at one point, which was mortifying. Other than than, we had a great day and everything went relatively smoothly, minus issues with the manager of the local ACS office.

I have been working on laundry and getting life situated before I leave again tomorrow. I am flying to Hilton Head, SC tomorrow afternoon to participate in a panel for the National Sodexho Leadership Conference. It will be a quick trip - I will be back in time for class on Tuesday morning. I am looking forward to having next weekend off - my first free weekend in months!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Pumpkin Day! I will admit that between class, meetings, and homework, I was not able to do anything too exciting to celebrate this spooky occasion. I did make a ton of applesauce this afternoon (I froze most of it) and some pumpkin pudding. I helped with reverse trick-or-treating to benefit the AppreCCiate scholarship, the first student-run, student-funded scholarship at CC. We visited dorms asking for donations in exchange for candy! I also had a great Campus Dining Advisory Committee Meeting today! Our District Manager (for all of Colorado), Jeff, came to the meeting; it was nice to meet him. We accomplished a lot and have defined some ambitious goals for the year. We grabbed lunch for Rastall, our dining hall, and I had some of the most fantastic vegan chocolate chip cookies ever!

Great West Relay For Life Youth Summit

This year, I have been privileged to be a part of the Great West Relay For Life Youth Task Force (YTF). The YTF is a group of seventeen high school and college students who work with three American Cancer Society (ACS) staff members. Members come from all over the twelve most Western states in the US, excluding California. We had two official meetings in Seattle, attended the National Collegiate Leadership Summit in Dallas and the Great West Leadership Summit in Reno, and were in touch constantly via conference call and email. We worked on a variety of projects and programs throughout the year, which were distributed and rolled at at our Summit this past weekend. My primary project was designing a Youth Pacesetter with two other members. The program sets a timeline for the events/deadlines essential to planning Relay, challenging all Youth Relays to stay on track and to meet and exceed expectations. The year has been stressful at times, but ultimately incredible. I have learned so much from my fellow YTF members because we all come from such different backgrounds and have had diverse experiences. It has been amazing to work with sixteen of the best leaders in the Great West Division!

Summit Video Filming in Dallas

Our work culminated at Youth Summit this past weekend. I arrived in Seattle on Wednesday, after finishing my final paper, making over 300 copies at our local ACS office, haphazardly packing, and driving to DIA. Caitlin and I arrived close to midnight and completely crashed. I had been back in Colorado for less than three days before leaving, so I was tired! On Thursday, we helped Kelly, our YTF chair, and Nicole, our staff lead, organize, prepare, and finalize the last minute details. The rest of the group arrived throughout the afternoon and evening and we went straight to work. I have become a pro at preparing presentations in short periods of time - I can whip out a PowerPoint presentation in under twenty minutes and outline a verbal presentation in even less than that.

Summit participants attended one workshop for their position on their Relay committee (ex. Event Chair, Team Development Chair) and four breakouts on more detailed topics (ex. Team Recruitment, Fundraising Development, Survivorship Development). In between the breakouts/workshop and meals, all 300+ high school, college, and ACS staff participants got together for General Sessions. Everyone arrived for dinner on Friday while the YTF frantically decorated the general session ballroom, presentation rooms, prepared presentations, tracked down lost packages, etc. On Saturday, Summit officially started with our opening general session. Our keynote speakers were Dr. Gordy Klatt, founder of Relay, and Pat Flynn, "mother of Relay." We were fortunate enough to have Pat speak at the Colorado College Relay this past spring, and it was very exciting to see the two creators of Relay at our Summit.

Our theme for Summit was "spy," as exemplified by our introductory video. We decorated in line with the theme and all of our general sessions featured skits with "famous spies." Participants were fingerprinted and greeted by secret agents at registration too! On Sunday, we had a real FBI agent speak during one of the general sessions. The theme was very fun to work with and we all enjoyed running around in black and sunglasses!

I taught a workshop with my buddy Jason for Event Chairs and Co-Chairs that went incredibly well! We were a little nervous because neither of us had time to practice, but the two hours flew by and at the expense of bragging, people were talking about it all weekend! I taught Team Recruitment with another YTFer, Walter, twice, following the workshops on Saturday. That one was a little rougher because Walter and I do not complement each other quite as well, but it still turned out great. We held a "casino night" with dessert, a DJ, and professional casino games for the Saturday night participant activity. The YTF, of course, stayed up until the early hours of the morning each night working on the next day.

On Sunday, our closing speaker was Jeff Ross, the most inspirational speaker from the ACS headquarters, and in our opinion, the world! It was a fantastic end to a wonderful summit! Our wrap up party was very difficult because we have all become such great friends over the year! We are definitely planning a YTF 2007 reunion in the future because some of us are graduating or will not be able to be on the YTF next year for one reason or another.

Caitlin and I flew into DIA and returned to CC at 2:30 am on Monday. Block 3 began at 9:00 am. I am in Environmental Management and love it thus far! In fact, I actually need to go to class right now, so more later!

The Group Modeling our "No Cancer" SWAT -style vests

Boston Field Trip

I am in the home stretch of my Block Two course: Economics of Innovation. I have been studying the economics of technological change, policy implications, the history of innovation, in addition to current trends in innovation on both a micro and macro level. As if the Block Plan was not challenging enough, we cut our class time from three and a half weeks down to just two weeks. I am not sure exactly how much work I did for the first two weeks of the course, but it was upwards of four or five hours a night. However, we were rewarded for our efforts! Last week, my class spent Monday though Saturday in Boston observing the climate of an innovation epicenter at its finest.

The Boston Courthouse

I do not even know how I can re-cap last week. It was so incredibly busy! We got to Boston around 5:00 am on Tuesday morning (yay red eye flights) and had our first meeting at 11:00 am, which gave us approximately three hours of sleep because it took forever to check into our hotel. We met so many interesting people between Tuesday and Friday! We went all over Boston via the T and also walked a ton! I really think that we saw every inch of the city. We spent a lot of time at MIT and Harvard, touring labs and meeting with researchers and professors.

Harvard Medical Campus

Sunset on the Charles River

The MIT Technology Museum was incredible. It featured a sample of MIT's cutting edge technologies such as fold-up electric city cars. We also saw the robotics lab and the tactile technology lab, which had some "smart kids toys" that are so technologically advanced they could be used for about eight million other things. We visited the Harvard Med and Business schools, met with a bunch of start up entrepreneurs, venture capital companies, and finance people. We also checked out historical sites like the courthouse where the Boston Massacre took place and Samuel Adams' grave.

The Charles River with MIT in the Background

On Thursday, we checked out South Boston. We visited the Federal Reserve, saw the site of the Boston Tea Party, and were warned not to venture further south than the T station. We also went down to the water for some high-quality Boston seafood. I had a salad and educated my peers on the unsustainable nature of large fishing operations.

True Boston Weather, aka the Disappearing Fed

We left the hotel before 8:00 am every morning and never returned before midnight. I had dinner with Bridge on Tuesday and Friday, but had class dinners with guests on the other nights. We did not sleep at all, but it was worth it! I was sort of at a disadvantage because I had just returned from CA/have not slept for two months, but I can crash over Thanksgiving break.

Chinatown Adventure with Bridgett Last Tuesday Night

On Saturday I made Bridgett come with me to the Boston Vegetarian Expo! Saturday was a "free day," so Bridge and I hung out all day. I found out about the festival thing from a veg magazine that I read on the plane from CA and it magically happened to be while I was in Boston. It was amazing - dozens of vendors and organizations with information and food samples. Bridgett even had fun! It was insanely crowded, but totally worth it. It was so cool to be in a room where everyone was like me!

Before the Boston Veg Expo, I went to visit/meet up with Bridge at BC. Her campus is gorgeous! It is about a half hour outside of Boston, easily accessible on the T. We took a super quick tour, saw her dorm room (roommates were sleeping, even though it was 10:30 am), etc.

Fall at Boston College

Then, we went back into downtown Boston to meet up with my friend Meghan Behnke, who goes to BU. We all had brunch together, which was fun because I have not seen her for almost two years. After that, Bridge and I went to the veg festival. Then, we decided to go shopping - Bridgett's reward for "hanging out with a bunch of hippies." That was pretty fun. We went to the North End, which is the Italian district because Bridgett had to see that. My class went there for dinner on Wednesday and it is super cute. I had some excellent sorbet and Bridge tried Cannoli. We found an incredible farmer's market on the way back! It was incredibly cheap! I had to exercise serious self-control to keep myself from buying tons of fruits and veggies that I could not take back to CO. I have no idea where this stuff came from, but there were mangoes bigger than my head (no joke) and enormous carrots, among other gargantuan veggies/fruits. Bridgett and I got everything cheaper than posted, or free in the case of the massive carrot, because the guys selling the produce liked us...haha.

The Giant Carrot

It was one crazy trip! We returned to CC around 2:30 am on Sunday morning. I presented an argument on the reasons why small firms are the future of US innovation to my classmates and community businesses executives this morning. Now I am working on the accompanying ten page paper. The paper plus packing and preparing handouts, power points, etc. for the Great West Relay For Life Youth Task Force Summit (leaving tomorrow) should keep me busy for the remainder of the day.

Fall in Boston