Home > Thursday, September 06, 2007

Katrina, Anderson Cooper, and a call from the White House

Here I am again, behind the computer at the writing desk to bring you this week’s blog. After spending so much time writing these blogs, and then after leaving for six weeks for Summer of Service, I kind of missed it.

This week has been crazy of course. What else in AmeriCorps would I expect? We have begun to really train at our jobs with Habitat for Humanity, and that has been interesting to say the least. My job is Field Coordinator, which means when Duane (the one person who knows everything), needs something, I make sure that it happens. Cynthia, a team leader from Perry Point, has been doing this job for the past month, but I’m learning, and I am excited to do more behind the scenes work.

Life After AmeriCorps Day was also this past week, and that was a rousing success. It got me interested in, well, my life after AmeriCorps. I went to seminars on Studying Abroad, and how to become more involved at my university, as well as an excellent discussion on how to start my own non-profit. I have always been interested in management, and I spoke to one of the founders of the St. Bernard Project about his experience, and he was able to give me great advice on how to approach the area.

This week also sticks out because two friends of mine came down from Maryland to volunteer. They had been planning on coming for a while now, and it just so happened to be that my project was at Camp Hope, and they would be staying there for the week. So it was really cool to entertain them and show them the touristy things about New Orleans. I have been down here for about six months, and I am familiar with the area enough that I am not enamored with everything again. This was a great way to see things for the last time.

As you read last week, I was interviewed by Anderson Cooper for his two year anniversary on Hurricane Katrina. This was an incredible opportunity for me to meet someone that I admire in the journalism world, and I expressed an interest to take over his position one day on CNN. In all honesty, he was a really nice guy and didn’t turn down a single autograph request or photo-op. My life has been a little hectic lately, as just a couple days after the interview, I received a call from the White House telling me that I may have an opportunity to participate in an event with the President of the United States. I almost dropped the phone. I don’t know exactly what is will be, or if will even happen, but I thought it was really cool.

That’s all for now. Until next week!

- The Tribe