Alex O'Neal's Blog

For my May Project, I volunteered with St. Louis Language Immersion Schools (SLLIS) at the Spanish School. I spent about two weeks working in one of the kindergarten classes. Since the school was founded, my father has been on the board for SLLIS and I’ve always been interested in how an immersion school works.

In 2009, the first two schools, the French and the Spanish School, started with a few kindergarten classes and every year a new grade was added. Now those schools go all the way up to fifth grade and SLLIS has added a Mandarin School and an International School, which teaches a bilingual education to sixth through eighth graders.

Day 1:

Although I knew what the school was about, walking in on my first day was a little nerve racking. I didn’t really have any idea what I would be doing or how much I was going to be using my Spanish. I would have hated to say something wrong. When I first walked into the classroom, the teacher was standing with his back to me and all the students were sitting in a circle around him. At this point a young woman who was sitting in the comer walked over and introduced herself. She is a senior at Saint Louis University and she is majoring in education. She has been working as a TA for most of the year, but she has only been in my kindergarten classroom for a couple of weeks. It was nice to know that there would be someone else in the classroom to kind of ease me into things.

Lily filled me in on the class’s schedule. In the mornings before I come in, all the kids practice writing Spanish vocabulary words in their notebooks. Then when they finish with that they write stories and then share them with the class. That is what they were doing when I walked in. As soon as they were done with that, Prof. José threw me right into the mix. He handed me a packet that I was supposed to go over with the kids. It was supposed to help them practice their beginning sounds – in English (thank goodness!). Lily worked with some kids and I worked with others.

Afterwards, we went outside for recess. The kids were very curious to meet the new girl. A young, red-headed girl named Evelynn took to me immediately. She told me all about her family, her favorite jokes and we even came up with a secret handshake!

Afterwards we came back inside and the kids had snack. I worked with a few more kids on their beginning sounds and then we all went to art class with Prof. Fabiola. While the children all stood in a circle and played “espejo” (mirror). Meanwhile, Lily and I sat in the room and tried to clean off excess paint from some artwork the students had crated. They are going to be sold at a fundraiser event that Prof. José Manuel is organizing and he wants them to look perfect.

After art, the kids ate lunch and then we went back to the classroom to work on math before ending the day with recess. All the kids seem really smart and well-behaved. I am excited to continue working at the school.

Day 3:

For the past two days, the schedule had been pretty much the same as my first day, except the kids have been taking tests in the computer labs. The entire school takes these tests three times a year to measure where their performance is. Yesterday was the reading and writing test and today was math. It’s really interesting to see what level all the kids are at. They are all so different, and come from all different backgrounds so you really never know what level they are at. Although some of the results were a little skewed. The kids are only 5 and 6, so sitting there and taking a test on the computer that has no visible end can be boring. A few kids started to huff and puff whenever they would hit “next” and another question would pop up. And a few kids would just click at answers randomly without listening to the question first. But overall, the kids did really well. Prof. José Manuel was so proud of his “kiddos” (his words, not mine). He was beaming when he was able to see a sharp rise in the test results. One boy in particular, Gabriel, was really surprising. Gabriel comes from a home where they speak Spanish exclusively and he also has some speech problems. Prof. José Manuel and I were both very impressed when he proved to be one of the most improved students of the day. 

Later on in the day, while the kids had some playtime after lunch, Prof. José Manuel told Lilly and I about his teaching experiences. He is from Mexico and he taught there for many years before coming to the United States. When we asked him whether you like teaching here or in Mexico more he said Mexico: "There is more structure. Here, every state has its own rules and expectations. Back home, across the country all the kids learn all the same things."

You can really tell how much Prof. José loved what he does. He is super supportive of the kids in and out of the classroom. He coached the two soccer teams that the school has and never misses a chance to tell me which kids played well the day before. He's been to Spain, Russia, and France and each time made sure to take some time to visit and observe at a school.

Day 9:

Today was VERY busy. I came in a little early because I knew prof. Needed the extra help. Friday mornings, the entire school comes to the gym for assembly. This Friday, my kindergarten class was performing a dance. So the morning was a tad hectic. The kids all had shirts to wear as costumes for the performance but they were all different colors. Never rely on a 5 year old to remember what color shirt they are supposed to wear. Never. After about 10 different shirt swaps we finally got everybody all dressed. Then we went into the assembly where the rest of the school and their parents were waiting. One student, Nesiah, clung to my hand as we walked in. She is the smallest in the entire class and so, so cute. She was very nervous because prof. chose her to introduce the performance in front of everyone. We had practiced the day before but she was still a little uneasy. Right before she has to go up, she turns to me with their big brown eyes and says will you go up with me? Of course, I had to. So we went up together and she introduced the class's Brazilian dance in English and in Spanish.

The kids performed and they did great! But after all the fun, the real work began.

As I mentioned before Professor Jose Manuel is in charge of the school fundraiser. Which is tomorrow. And there was still a lot to be done. First I had to make posters listing all the prices for the food, then I printed out extra flyers, then I cut and stamped a bunch of tickets. Prof. Was getting calls all day about the event. I think the highlight of his day was when Anheuser-Busch dropped off their donations: 1253 free cans of beer for the event. He kept saying, "I wish you were 21 so that you could come! It's gonna be so fun".

All The money that they raise is going towards getting more technology for the school. As of now there are tablets and the older students can use laptops but they definitely could use more. A lot of the computers are slow and make it hard to get things done.

So far I still really, really enjoy my experience here. I have finally mastered all the kids’ names and can even recognize whose voice is whose. I'm still blown away with how much Spanish they know. All the teachers speak in Spanish most of the time and only use English when it seems like the kids don't understand.

Day 10:

Today we went to the ZOO!!! It was so fun! All the kids were super excited to see the animals. Some parents were chaperones along with Prof. José, Lily, and me. The kids were super happy to have their parents there.

Day 12:

Today was my last day. It was kind of sad, I’m not going to lie. Prof. José was very gracious and offered to pay for my lunch. He also gave me a gift and a card. I spent most of my day just playing with the kids because I knew I was going to miss them. They practiced their new dance that they are going to perform next week - I might go just to see them again. Although this has not convinced me to become a teacher, this experience was really fun and I would do it again in the future.

Augie Kram Mendelsohn's Blog

When I first went to meet with my May Project sponsor she described something very different from what I had previously been told I would be doing. She told me that I would be working on completely redoing the Animal House’s social media while also socializing with cats every single day. I thought I would be cleaning a little each day and spend the rest of my hours at the Animal House socializing with kittens.

On the first day my partners and I walked in and were given a very quick rundown on the Animal House’s sanitation rules and procedures. We were shown every cat in the whole building and were given small jobs to get each of us started. Some people were sent into the cat rooms to deal with cats in a cage the size of a small room. When a person enters the room they have to be wearing plastic shoe covers and clothes that cover their body from head to toe. This was due to sanitation reasons, and not because of safety issues.

Each person had to accomplish multiple tasks while in the room. You had to scoop the litter boxes, sweep the room, reorganize the blankets and toys, play with the cats individually, clean and refill the water dishes, and clean and refill the food bowls. When you were in the room you had to make sure every cat felt enough affection and that everyone was clean and safe. If you did not perform any of these stages or jobs you normally had to completely redo the whole list of tasks. The rules were strict but they were all created so that cat diseases were never spread and that the cats were always living in a nice area.

While all the other JBS volunteers were cleaning the big rooms I was told to fold the laundry. No one could ever imagine how much laundry has to be completed at an animal shelter. They have multiple machines going all the time cleaning blankets and towels. They probably had close to 400 towels of different shapes and sizes. When I was told to do the laundry I thought it might take twenty minutes and I would be ready to play with cats right after that. It turned out I would be doing laundry for the next two hours. I quickly fell into a pattern of folding and organizing but it was a lot of work. Most of the other students had shifted around the building to one or two different jobs while I was stuck doing laundry.

Quickly after finishing folding I was handed a kitten that was only a few weeks old. I was told that this cat was younger than most of the other kittens at Animal House but the kitten was huge for its age. Earlier I had seen one of the students playing with a kitten that looked young but in fact was actually older than the kitten I was told to socialize.

This cat that I was playing with was one of the cutest animals I had ever met. It was jumping around the play area climbing on walls and constantly playing with toys. It loved to be swaddled and purred for close to twenty minutes straight. It almost fell asleep in my arms multiple times but was quickly awakened by some flashy toy that caught her attention. I was assigned to play with the kitten for an hour and I enjoyed every second of it. This was the exact reason why I signed up to work at an animal shelter. I was hoping that I would be helping cats that were born into bad situations but also having the ability to have fun while preparing cats for adoption.

The first day was an intense introduction. I had to complete manual labor, clean up for cats that were not completely healthy, fold laundry, and help socialize a kitten.  Throughout the rest of my time at the Animal House I worked on mostly the same jobs with a couple more items that I had to accomplish for busywork.

I met my favorite cat just while walking around the Animal House. She was an adolescent female cat named Patricia that was caged with her brother, Dean. They were the most energetic cats in the entire facility. When they were taken out to play they would sprint around the room chasing and hitting rubber balls around. It was a kind of soccer played between the two cats. One of them would hit the ball and bounce it off of any wall or object in its way. Then the cat would grow bored and its sibling would take over. This could go on for hours because they never seemed to lose any of their energy. I loved how Patricia would play like this with her brother but was also very fond of human contact as well.

This fondness of humans was not embedded in each of the cats. At one point I was attacked by one of the cats while I was working in one of the room-sized cages. I had just finished cleaning and rearranging the entire room when I sat down in the cage to play with them for a bit. I was using one of the toys given to me before I entered the room and most of the cats were playing with the toy like they should. After a while the excitement in the room died down and I started to brush and pet the cats around me. They all loved this part of the room cleaning because they loved the affection and human contact that was required. After dealing with the most outgoing pets I started to approach the more introverted ones. I first dealt with the ones that were alone but then I went up to two of the cats that were hanging out in the corner of the room. I pet the one closer for me for a few minutes then reached over to pet the one that was slightly farther away. The second my hand had reached that cat she flipped and clawed at my hand. I threw my arm back and launched the brush I was holding into the wall. The cat didn’t do much damage to me but I will always remember my May Project by the tiny scar I acquired.

For the second part of my May Project I worked with a marketing and consultation group. It was mostly remote work because I was pretty sick during this period of the project. My main assignment during this time was figuring out a program and creating a set of guidelines and tutorials on how to work with it. The program itself was not too difficult to understand but the tutorials I had to create needed to be well written and easy to use for the reader. I had to reword the tutorials several times to make sure that they were well-written before they would be used.

My next major task was to organize and count every item in the storeroom. I had to keep track of every single item in the room while doing it all as quickly as possible without any errors. It took many hours and was very repetitive but it was actually quite fun. Compared to folding laundry I would work in a storeroom any day. But on the other hand it did not feel as meaningful as working with cats that were pushed aside by society.  My last project for the consultation firm was researching promotional goods. I did this by searching for the best prices for objects that I thought would be the most memorable and fun for the customers. They had to be cheap and small, but still be large enough to be made with logos all over them to attract new customers.

During my last year at JBS, my English class focused on the topic of meaningful work and it opened my eyes to the workforce of America. It showed that the most important people in our society are the ones that give everything they are back to society. While I was working at the cat shelter I felt like I was giving back and doing meaningful work because I was personally changing the lives of the animals at the shelter. While I was working for the consultation group the work was more enjoyable at first but didn’t feel nearly as fulfilling as the work at the Animal House. The last couple tasks that I worked on with the consultation group were not very tough but were time consuming. I enjoyed all of the work that I accomplished during my May project and I hope that my blog encourages more meaningful work in the JBS community.

Toby Martin's Blog

Bio Dryland Day 1: After the long and windy bus ride from Ladue to Rolla the final part of bus ride was upon us. The last section of driving in Salem, Missouri was furnished by playing a game in which we counted the number of cows you could count and whoever had more by the end won. After about forty five minutes the bus turned left and we were turning into the Dryland grounds. Up and down the hot dry dirt road went until we were at our docking place. The door swung open, we piled our stuff out and walked down to the Orientation Gravel Bar. As Newman gave his speech I thought to myself, “How am I going to endure another boring Biodryland session” even though this time I wouldn’t necessarily be doing any of the hard work. After orientation we went to Lunch. Lunch consisted of some decent hotdogs and potato chips. After lunch we split up into the different classes and one went to stream another went forest and another went to Riparian Zone the place between both. I went to Forest and watched my group work very diligently to collect date on the different trees on the forest transect. As dusk set in lots of bugs started to come out so I was happy I had barrowed bug spray from one of my cabin members. My cabin consisted of Beacher, Caleb and Zach. The others, I can’t remember their names but it is boys Cabin 3 the only cabin I have ever stayed in. After Forest went back to the Pavilion where I found out it was our group’s turn to make steamboats. Steamboats consist of hamburger meat, potato, ketchup and spices and other condiments. Josh Kazdan, the other counselor in my group decided to include a black bean patty, what was being included in the vegetarian menu in his so I did the same. We wrapped them up in tin foil and headed down to the South Gravel Bar. From there we collected wood, built a fire and played mafia. Maddie Shands lead a good game of Mafia where everyone cheated when they were supposed to have their heads down. As dark set in we pulled our food out of the fire and ate. My steamboat tasted amazing and I ate Turner Carlson’s too because he didn’t eat any of it. After eating we roasted smores and told stories. This next part is my favorite part of the trip. Josh Kazdan told the three most entertaining stories I have ever heard told around a campfire. His first one was about going to a Japanese wash house where he was the only one circumscribed, about three people he knew that went to California to trip on LSD but ended up kidnapping a challenged person and about going on the spring break service trip to a very hicktown where a taxidermist did a Zebra. Keep in mind all of this in front of Ms. Gosnell which was by far the funniest part. After this we walked back up sat around the fire and went to bed. That night Dryland got tons of rainfall and huge storm set in which was pretty cool to listen to in a old cabin in the middle of the woods. One lightening bolt was so loud I swear it landed next to the cabin.

Bio Dryland Day 2: On day two we were woken up by a very energetic Newman that asked us to pick a letter and he picked a random tree that started with that letter and read an excerpt. From there we went  to breakfast which I ate eggs, bacon and bread and had some orange juice. After breakfast the teachers Ms. Goran, Dr. Conklin and Ms. Ward explained what everyone would need to wear for the their classes. We broke up into classes I went down to the stream first with Dr. Conklin and my group. The rainfall had made it so Sinking Creek was now super deep and the path there was super muddy. The stream actually I think is very fun because you get to catch crawdads. Picking up big rocks and finding little lobsters under them is very entertaining. After this we went back to camp and switched to forest. Forest was the same old thing pretty boring. Later that day we got to go back down to the stream and do some saning. Saning is when you drag a net across the water and see what you catch. Lots of minnows were caught and collected which was cool to look at. However, on the way back from the stream the second time we had to cross this very deep muddy part and I was wearing my dry shoes. Therefore I went back on this obscure pathway in the forest and got lost of a little which was kind of scary. However I retracted my steps and made it back no problem. `Lunch that day consisted of turkey samewhiches and dinner was pasta that was very good. That night my group stayed in so most of the couselors sat around the campfire and played rat screw. A card game in which you slap when there are two of the same cards played or a sandwich. That day probably went by the slowest because everyone was working very had on their packets.

Bio Dryland Day 3: Day three was probably my favorite because we floated down the river just Joe, Jack and Newman and I in order to test the rapids to see if we could have a float later that day. After reporting our findings to Ms. Bahe we ended up having a great float later that day. We sat around at the end of the float on the gravel bar and hung out in the sun. It felt great to finally hang out and give the kids a break that were all working hard. Newman brought some oranges and everyone started throwing them at each other which was funny. Jack Mulligan dared Will Forsen to take a bite out of one after it had been in the creek water which was kind of gross. I told many freshman that if they gave me foot massages I could give them A’s on their packet so Collin Bradley did. After the float I took a freezing cold shower in the Men’s Bathroom. That night we packed everything up while the kids worked on their packets until very late so we could make a quick departure in the morning.

Bio Dryland Conclusion: Overall I am very happy I went on Bio Dryland because it is such a special place and it felt good to help the teachers out in running such a cool biology event down there. Also I had a good time getting to know the Freshman class which is a great class because they are all so nice to each other. Its crazy the amount of effort it takes to get the gear down there, teach a class, and feed everybody so they definitely need a lot of help. Ms. Bahe has also been doing that for so long which I find really impressive. It was also nice to get away and spending time in the woods is a good break after a long school year. I’m glad I got an opportunity to help out the John Burroughs Science Department.

Forest Park Section: At Forest Park I learned a lot about labor. First of all it is not a fun job so it made me want to study a lot harder so I don’t have that job when I’m older. Mulching trees is not a fun job and we had to complete almost all the trees located next to the jewel box. I worked by carrying the mulch in the wheel barrow, throwing it next to the trees and spreading it out. Lunch breaks were nice even though I only went to one with the guys because I worked from eight to eleven. We went to place on the hill that was fun and saw our boss Rus. Rus was a very cool guy and I had fun talking to him. He is from Houston, Texas and I was going to school in Fort Worth so we had that in common. I was happy to be fixing up a park though in my hometown and that I actually use also it was nice to explore and get to know the park a little bit better. Rus had told me that Forest Park had just been ranked one of the best parks in the United States by a recent pull and it felt good to contribute. Working as a group and signing a time sheet also taught me the importance of being on time and taking responsibility for your actions. This is unique because it simulates working in the real world where if you show up late you lose your job. I’m happy I had this experience.

Evie Oglesby's Blog

Dreyland:

For my may project I was lucky enough to be able to return to Dreyland one last time as a Bio-Dreyland counselor. The First day we got into buses and traveled to the camp, once we arrived we unloaded the vans and met at the gravel bar to receive cabin and group assignments. After we put all of our stuff into the cabin we ate lunch before our first session. My group, group C, started in the forest, where we split up into three sub-groups and looked at trees in different parts of the transect line. The group I was in looked at the lowest intervals, A-B, B-C, and C-D, otherwise known as the riparian zone. We measured the dbh of trees and then identified them. After forest we had stream, in the first stream session we caught and marked crawfish and did chemical tests on the water. When we had finished our sessions we had cookout the first night. At cookout the seniors, Sam, Whitney, Safi and me, were in charge of making the fire, and coming up with games for the freshmen to play. When we got there it seemed like none of the freshmen were going to help gather wood, which made our job a lot harder, but in the end we were able to get a huge fire going. Since we also had the first cookout there was nowhere to sit yet, so we gathered the freshmen and moved three fallen trees to use as benches. The freshmen were super reluctant at first, but eventually we were able to get the biggest tree that we could find over to the fire. On cookout one of the things is cooking the steamboats that we made at camp, which can usually take some time, so the seniors had to come up with a bunch of games to play while we waited. Once the food was ready everyone just sat around the fire eating, talking and making s’mores. After cookout was finally over we headed back to camp and then went to bed. The second day was basically the same structure; we ate breakfast then got ready for our first session. We started off in the forest again, this time my group was in the lower slope and we measured tree heights and gathered soil to test later. In the stream we caught crawfish again to see if we could get a rough population density for the area, then we measured depths and velocities of various parts of sinking creek. After lunch we went into the forest again, this time in the rain, and walked the entire transect line to make observations of the three zones. Then we went into the upper slope and looked at ground cover. For stream we riffled, which is like collecting small microorganisms which we can observe later. After dinner we had two more sessions first stream, where we looked at the organisms that we found and then forest where we examined the soil that we had gathered, because this was mainly student work, the seniors had a lot of down time where we played more than a few games of uno. It was also storming that night so the group on their cookout had to come back to camp which made things a little bit crowded. On Tuesday, we had our final two sessions. First we went into the forest again; our group went back to the riparian zone and we looked at different wildlife and insects that we found. There was an unofficial contest to find the coolest bug, and our group should have won. The last stream session is when we seined. We took two big nets and caught larger fish and more crawfish. After lunch there was mandatory fun time organized by the seniors. Luckily the rain stopped enough for us to have an awesome float trip, which was super fun. Then we got to hold a volleyball tournament between the different cabins. Leading up to the winning team playing the seniors and of course the seniors winning. The last part of the fun time we played dreyland themed taboo, the seniors made cards in advance for different things that were Burroughs related. The last night was very relaxed, while all of the freshmen were franticly working on their packets the seniors and the teachers chilled by the fire and once the cookout came back all of the seniors headed out to the gravel bar to hang out for a little bit. It was nice to relax after all of the craziness the freshmen put us through. Once we had to go back to camp we all played cards for a while until about midnight and then we went to bed. In the morning we cleaned up camp, loaded the vans and watched the kids finish their packets. Two seniors were asked to ride up the hill and unload the luggage, so Kate and I did not have to hike up, which was a definite plus.

The Monday after, we had to grade all of the kids work. So the first session seniors graded all of the forest packets and the second session graded the stream. Grading was fairly uneventful except for every once and a while there would be kids who people really felt bad for. Overall it was a great experience and I was very glad to go to Dreyland one last time.

Freedom School:

            Day One:

The second thing that I did for May Project was volunteer at an elementary school in the Ucity area called the Freedom school. They have students in kindergarten up to fifth grade. On my first day I did a lot of behind the scenes work. Since they had spirit week the week that I was there they needed a lot of help getting things ready. On Tuesday I spent all of my time creating passports for all of the kids. These were for the spirit day activity on Wednesday. So I had to first cut all of the papers for the inside then I wrote each kid’s name on their passport and cut and glued their picture to the page. Once those were done I cut out all of the covers and put one on each kid’s passport, folded them and then stapled them. Lastly I organized them by class and wrote their date of birth and country of birth on each one. It was a very time consuming task.

Day Two:

After I had made all of the kids’ passports I was very excited to see what they were going to be used for. For their spirit week the school put on culture day, all of the kids were split up into different groups and they “traveled” around the school to classrooms that were themed as different countries. There were a few parent volunteers who taught about the countries, because many of the students come from refugee families in the area or have parents who have been missionaries in other countries. I was stationed in Kenya helping the kindergarten teacher Ms. Mercy who was actually born in Kenya. It was super cool to hear all about Kenya and interact with the kids at the same time. Each country also had a different game that the kids played. Seeing how the kids were so eager to learn about different places and their culture was awesome.

Day Three:

On Thursday I helped a lot behind the scenes again. This was mainly because Friday they had their field day and the teachers needed a lot of help getting things ready because they do not have a huge staff. So while the kids and teachers were all watching a talent show I spent the day running around like crazy. First I laminated a huge banner to hang up, and then I created ten team signs, one for each team. Then I had to gather supplies for each game, so I had to see what the game was and what it needed then run around the campus to get all of the materials that I needed. The last thing that I did was put stakes on all of the signs for the games.

Day Four:

Friday was the school’s field day and my last day volunteering. I was assigned to be a leader for one of the groups and I was a little bit nervous because this was the most responsibility that I was given the whole week. It turned out to be so much fun. We went around and played all of the games, we actually ended up winning all of the competition ones that we played. After the games there was a mini awards ceremony where each kid got a medal and we took team pictures. I think that Friday was my favorite day because I got to interact with the kids more, which is the reason that I signed up to work there. All of the kids that I met were so great, they always listened to what they were supposed to do and it made the whole experience more enjoyable.

Week 2

Week 2 came a lot more easily than week 1, as I was already in a routine with my time management and the expectations of the kids at Pillar.  This week at Pillar would be a big one because their field day was on Friday, which meant a bunch of preparation and finding activities to occupy 4 year olds for an entire four hours straight.  Unfortunately, this week was plagued with rain, which forced us inside the church basement or big gym for recess everyday.  We encountered many injuries because the basketballs were always left out, and four year olds seem to have no concept of the pain that throwing a basketball into the head of a friend will cause.  The other new trend was bandaids.  Once one preschooler got a bandaid, then every single other child wanted one, whether or not they actually needed it.  They also screamed that they were bleeding after every fall, even if there was no mark on their body to back that story up.  I spent most of my time at Pillar cutting paper this week, as it was their second to last week of school and we had to prepare many books and projects for them to take home.  Given that there are 19 children in the class, this was an incredible amount of time and I left with blisters on my hands at one point.

St. Louis Magazine was incredibly fun this week, as Helene decided that I would write an online article about graduation gifts, "Five Great Graduation Gifts for Guys and Girls."  In the beginning, this appeared as a simply easy and timeless task, but it was quite possibly the exact opposite.  I had to find 10 gifts, 5 for guys and 5 for girls, at all different stores around the entire St. Louis area.  They had to vary in price and type to appear to the large demographic of readers.  Then, I had to call every store and ask them to send me an image of their product to use for the article.  Unfortunately, some stores were less than cooperative (Jcrew was not too happy) and at other stores, we had to contact their headquarters to ensure that we weren't copyrighting their products (Tiffany's took almost three days to figure out!!)

This may project was an incredible experience for me, and I think that the combination of vastly different jobs allowed me to really understand a lot.  Time management was crucial throughout these three weeks, as attempting to balance Pillar, St. Louis Magazine and lacrosse practice everyday at 3 proved to function like a job, especially when there was rarely any time for lunch in the day.  Pillar was overall so fun, and I absolutely loved all of the 4 year olds that I got to be with.  They were always so happy and carefree, could make me laugh at any time and made May Project feel like a fun three weeks for me.  St. Louis Magazine was an eye-opening internship just because I had never dealt with a magazine before, nor did I have any clue as to how it worked, how it was run and every single little detail that went into publishing and articles.  The copyright on pictures and images, constant shoots around the office and brainstorming 24/7 about possible ideas for the cover was almost overwhelming to me, as I realized that it may not be my calling to work for a magazine!  I did feel like I wielded a lot of power, and having the pleasure of writing my own online article was a real blessing.  Although it was a tiring and long three weeks, Pillar and St. Louis Magazine both helped the time fly by and helped me learn so many things.  I also think that I would recommend to maybe only stick to one May Project, because having to deal with 2 in one day and practice was much more stressful than I had actually anticipated...It was a lot of rushing from place to place and ensuring that I was on time and ready to go.

Week 2

To all of my loyal readers: welcome to week two of my adventure! After a long weekend, Graham and I returned to the firehouse Monday morning refreshed and ready for another exciting week. With wide eyes, Graham and I walked into the firehouse to a smiling Susan. Smiling Susan is rarely good. In fact, never good. Because it means one thing: a big filing project. And oh boy, this was this a BIG filing project. First, we were handed a big folder of the Chief's records of the 2015 invoices and a big folder of Susan's records of the 2015 invoices and we were told to consolidate the two. Unfortunately, these invoices were sorted by date and the final filed invoices had to be sorted by company, so Graham and I spent the morning filing both piles into folders for the various companies, and then pulling out the company folders one by one and making sure that there was only one copy of every invoice. Now that probably doesn't make sense to you, because I explained that very poorly, but then again you probably don't really care and probably just skimmed over that section. And I don't blame you. I would have as well. Regardless, the tedious task took the entirety of the morning, and 11:30 could not have come soon enough. Today's choice: Five Guy's Burger and Fries! Graham and I were actually both craving this Friday, but with the big game against MICDS that day (lol) we decided that it was better to save for Monday. I ordered a double cheeseburger with bacon, with no toppings, and Graham ordered a double cheeseburger with bacon, with quite literally every single topping. We both thoroughly enjoyed our meals, albeit the fact that we were walking blobs of grease afterwards. Truly a fantastic burger however, scoring an 8.5/10 (making it the second highest scoring meal, I believe). We returned in the afternoon to another smiling Susan, which only means more filing. This time we had to do the same task with the 2016 invoices. Luckily this pile was much smaller, and we were able to finish it in the afternoon. What a day, what a day.

Tuesday morning, Graham and I walked into a not-smiling Susan. This meant we were being handed off to the firefighters today to complete their tasks. Now if you haven't been able to tell thus far, if we were with Susan for the day, expectations were we would be doing filing, and if we were with the firefighter, expectations were we could be doing manual labor. So, today was a day for manual labor, which was rather nice after a very shall we say "relaxing" day of filing yesterday. In case you forgot, Tuesday means maintenance day at the firehouse, so Graham and I got to join the firefighters in cleaning the upstairs this morning. We mopped and vacuumed and did whatever other cleaning tasks we were assigned. The firefighters were so pleased with our efforts, they offered to buy us lunch today! The restaurant of choice was Jimmy Johns, and asked for a #16 and Graham went for the #4. As the paid for our meal, we ate lunch today with the firefighters which made for very interesting conversation. While I was devouring my Turkey Bacon Club, we talked about the life of a firefighter, why they chose to be firefighters, what they do on their 96 hour breaks, etc. Overall, the meal scored a 7.5/10, but the company and conversation was truly priceless. Ok that may be a bit cliche, but in all reality it was a very interesting and entertaining lunch break. In the afternoon, Graham and I were assigned to wash the grease off of the deck, as the firehouse was having an Open House this weekend and wanted the patio to look clean. Graham and I obliged, and after a few hours of scrubbing, the patio was once again white and day two seven was over.

Wednesday morning we walked in to see Mr. Niemeyer, the firefighter who coordinated the project for us. This was actually only the second time that we had seen him, and the first day that he was in charge of us (the first day he had meetings or something). He decided today would be another good day for car washes, and with the open house coming this weekend, asked us to wash the Chiefs car, the two fire trucks, AND the two ambulances. Fortunately Graham and I had become pretty good at the whole car washing thing, so we're able to finish 4/5 of the cars in the morning, leaving only one ambulance for the afternoon. Today for lunch we decided upon Crazy Bowls and Wraps. Graham went for a crunchy chicken bowl, I went for a buffalo chicken wrap. Both filling and delicious, scoring an 8/10.  We returned in the afternoon to a smiling Susan. Uh oh. She wanted us to finish up some last filing after we wash the ambulance. So Graham and I quickly washed the ambulance, finished filing the last 2016 invoices, and all was good.

Day 9 meant the last day for Graham and me. We were originally scheduled to work for 11 days, but due to our success in lacrosse, we now only needed nine days. With the house very clean, the trucks shiny, and the files filed, it took Susan and the crew a little to decide what Graham and I should do for our final day. They eventually decided on cleaning the windows! This firehouse has a lot of windows, and after the entire morning of spraying peppermint scented cleaning stuff and wiping, only about 2/3 of the windows were clean. Now for lunch, Graham and I were in predicament. On one hand, it was the last day so go big or go home, but on the other hand we had the state quarterfinals this afternoon. Ultimately, there was only once choice that was a big bang but also healthy (enough): the one and only OB Clarks. I ordered the OB Special, essentially a French dip, and Graham ordered a chicken sandwich with proven cheese. The sandwiches were satisfying and healthy (enough), but since it's OB Clarks I kinda have to give it a 10/10. Hooray OB Clarks! Anyways, Graham and I returned for our final two hours of work, and spent this time cleaning the remaining windows in the house. When 2:30 hit, it was a sad moment. It was over. Susan and the crew started bawling and we all had one last big group hug. Just kidding. It was a pretty uneventful and anticlimactic ending to be honest. We said out thank you's, they said their thank you's, and we went our separate ways.

As a whole, I enjoyed my may project and my time spent at the Brentwood Fire Department. Although the work we did was not the most exciting, I felt very good about helping to make the lives of the firefighters and Susan easier. They all quite literally devote their lives to the good of others and are truly extraordinary people. Well as they say, all good things must come to an end, and the end of this blog side is the end of something good. I hope you all have enjoyed reading (and by that I really just mean Hollie because I'm not sure anyone else is really going to read this whole thing).

May Project Day 1: The day was sunny and mild, the sun emerging from the cluttered horizon as we turned left in Eulalie. We pulled into an ally parking lot, locked the car, grabbed our good attitudes and walked into the firehouse. This was a moment of great anticipation for us May Projectors because the fire fighter who organized our project was not scheduled to be on shift that day. The firefighters at the Brentwood Fire Department and most other departments in the Saint Louis area work 48 hours on duty and 96 hours off duty. In order to keep the house fully staffed and functional Brentwood employs three complete teams. And on this particular Monday, our sponsor, Mr. Niemeyer was not on duty. So as we walked through the doors we were happy to see that those in the lobby knew exactly who we were and we're happy to see us. We met the interim chief (after the old chief retired last week) Mr. Terry Kurten and Susan, the house secretary/administrator. After a quick outline of our basic expectations we were introduced to the active crew who then gave us a tour of the house. The Brentwood Fire Deparment consists of engine deck on the west side of the house where four two-story garages lie perpendicular to the road. Inside, the fire trucks and ambulances are stored, cleaned, and maintained. While we were touring the inside of the truck we observed the extreme complexity of the equipment. Take some time to guess how much a fire truck costs now a days. Thinking? Got a guess? Here's a hint: it's high. Did you adjust your guess? Is it higher now? I'd probably raise that number a little bit more. So now does your guess seem a bit ridiculous. You're probably close. A fire truck costs $800,000. That's a lot of scratch! East of the engine deck, is the administrative side of the side. On the first floor are numerous office spaces for the different positions, a conference room, and a copy room/supply closet. Above are the living quarters for the active crew: a large common room with a tv, comfortable chairs and a ping pong table, a full sized kitchen and dining room, a work room with desks and whiteboards, multiple dorm rooms and bathrooms, and an outdoor deck. Below both of these spaces is the basement- relative unused and empty except for the work out room and laundry room. The current fire house is relatively new so all the amenities are modern and nice! After our tour we reported back to Susan for our first task- filing. Tyler and I spent the majority of our time on that Monday morning in the conference room quickly working to print and stick labels onto Manila folders that were then but into one of the many filing cabinets in the back room. Our project was organized by street name so as the day progressed we becameMay Project Day 1: The day was sunny and mild, the sun emerging from the cluttered horizon as we turned left in Eulalie. We pulled into an ally parking lot, locked the car, grabbed our good attitudes and walked into the firehouse. This was a moment of great anticipation for us May Projectors because the fire fighter who organized our project was not scheduled to be on shift that day. The firefighters at the Brentwood Fire Department and most other departments in the Saint Louis area work 48 hours on duty and 96 hours off duty. In order to keep the house fully staffed and functional Brentwood employs three complete teams. And on this particular Monday, our sponsor, Mr. Niemeyer was not on duty. So as we walked through the doors we were happy to see that those in the lobby knew exactly who we were and we're happy to see us. We met the interim chief (after the old chief retired last week) Mr. Terry Kurten and Susan, the house secretary/administrator. After a quick outline of our basic expectations we were introduced to the active crew who then gave us a tour of the house. The Brentwood Fire Deparment consists of engine deck on the west side of the house where four two-story garages lie perpendicular to the road. Inside, the fire trucks and ambulances are stored, cleaned, and maintained. While we were touring the inside of the truck we observed the extreme complexity of the equipment. Take some time to guess how much a fire truck costs now a days. Thinking? Got a guess? Here's a hint: it's high. Did you adjust your guess? Is it higher now? I'd probably raise that number a little bit more. So now does your guess seem a bit ridiculous. You're probably close. A fire truck costs $800,000. That's a lot of scratch! East of the engine deck, is the administrative side of the side. On the first floor are numerous office spaces for the different positions, a conference room, and a copy room/supply closet. Above are the living quarters for the active crew: a large common room with a tv, comfortable chairs and a ping pong table, a full sized kitchen and dining room, a work room with desks and whiteboards, multiple dorm rooms and bathrooms, and an outdoor deck. Below both of these spaces is the basement- relative unused and empty except for the work out room and laundry room. The current fire house is relatively new so all the amenities are modern and nice! After our tour we reported back to Susan for our first task- filing. Tyler and I spent the majority of our time on that Monday morning in the conference room quickly working to print and stick labels onto Manila folders that were then but into one of the many filing cabinets in the back room. Our project was organized by street name so as the day progressed we became more and more familiar with the many streets in Brentwood. We labeled and filed so quickly that we actually beat the delivery of the supplies (more labels and folders) we needed to finish the project. So as we waited for the arrival of the supplies we cleaned and disinfected the weight room. After wiping all the weights squeaky clean we took a lunch break. We went to Nacho Mamas. It was yummy. When we returned the supplies had arrived so we quickly finished the labeling and filing. We then moved to the copy room where we were instructed to completely reorganize and neaten the supply closets. After a bit of planning and lots of sorting pens, pencils, and paper the 5 shelf chaos turned into a thing of beauty. Clean and organized we left the supply closet and he fire house for the day, satisfied after a good days work. We vacuumed those floors like we born to do. We moved reclining chairs sucking up crumbs previously left untouched. We got on our hands and knees reaching the farthest corners in the farthest bedrooms. We made it our mission to vacuum every square inch of the upper living quarters of that Brentwood fire house. And it was a success. 

May Project Day 2: When we arrived on site the second day we were greeted by many new and friendly faces. The change in day meant a new shift of fire fighters, fresh off a 4 day break. Susan, per usual welcomed us as we walked into the lobby, snagging a Kit Kat from her candy bowl. She introduced us to Jake who was in charge of giving us our assignments for the day. We started off with an exciting one! Dusting the railings on the two staircases in the house. Adrenaline pumped through Tyler and I's veins as we picked up the orange micro fiber rags and began running our hands along the rails. We gripped the metal railing like a marker fits around the top of the marker, firm and snug but comfortable too. We made are way up and down the hand railings sparing no parcel of dust, vanquishing all dirt and making the railing safe to cleanly hold again. After this big tilt we moved on to another cleaning task- vacuuming. Some experts are opposed to vacuuming, claiming that it strips life of its natural excrement. Other view it as a detriment to the safety of modern furniture. Mario Buatta, a random woman attributed to this quote on the Internet, claims that "dust is a protective coating for fine furniture" and therefore should be left alone. But Tyler and I decided that these traditionalist theories were outdated and overall insulting to those hard working progressive people living in this new age. So we decided to push the haters aside and conquer the dust so that the many boys and girls after us can live in a world where they have the freedom to clean their furniture and carpets if they so desire. We made it our mission to cover every square inch of the upper living quarters. And our mission was a success. We vacuumed under beds and under chairs, sufficiently ridding the carpet and floors of all crumbs and grim. Satisfied with our work we broke for lunch. We went to Carl's. It was yummy.   In the afternoon we returned back from lunch to find the sky had finally opened up and the constant grey drizzle of the morning had ceased and gave way to a clear, sunny, beautiful day. With this new weather development we were assigned to wash the Chiefs cars for the afternoon. Both the Chief and the assistant chief are issued to drive fire equipped red Ford Explorers. And after a month or unwashed us and generally nasty spring Saint Louis weather they were well overdue for a wash. So we went to work. If you are going to wash a car by hand a fire department engine deck is the ideal place to do it. Hoses line the walls equipped with nozzles capable of multiple different settings. In each garage on the floor are big drains with squeegees to push the water down and out of the garage. So we were more than capable of washing the two explorers. We sprayed them down, gave them a good soaping, rinsed them off and then made sure to dry them with precision and care. An hour or two later both cars looked good as new. So we dried  ourselves off cleaned up the garage and retired to our cars after a good days work.

May Project Day 3: It has now come to my attention that I have written 1200 of the required 1500 words in just the first 2 day reports, and as much as I love ridiculously  detailing our days here I don't want to bore any of you readers and I certainly don't want to overachieve as a second semester senior so from now on I will begin to do the minimum. It's been a good ride and I truly enjoyed voicing my prose to you so far but as we all know, all good things must come to an end, and all great things end sooner. So here goes the basic, dry minimum- in the morning Tyler and I helped Susan compile a list of all the residential streets in the city of Brentwood. We cross referenced a master map with an incomplete list of street names filling in where need be. After we filed we relabeled the drawers of the tool kit in the engine deck. Simply reprinting the existing labels and peeling the old ones off before sticking the new ones on. Then we took a lunch break. We went to Fort Taco. It was surprisingly yummy. In the afternoon we moved file cabinets from one room into another room, making better use of the space. After we finished moving the cabinets we were done for the day. 

May Project Day 4: In the morning Tyler and I moved items from the old fire house (which is now being used for storage) to the new house. The chiefs picked and marked which items they wanted and then left us to get them into the new house. Once we had transported the items we cleaned them. Then we broke for lunch. We went to Lion’s Choice. It was yummy. In the afternoon we moved the cleaned items into a room creating a new filing room. We then filled the shelves with the necessary items and were finished for the day.

May Project Day 5: In the morning Tyler and I washed the ambulance and the fire truck. Being large vehicles this task took a long time seeing that we had to had soap and hand dry everything. We finished just before lunch. We ate at Saint Louis Bread Company. It was yummy. After lunch we washed the inside and outside of all the windows on the garage doors. Some of the windows were high so we used a ladder. This was concerning because it was Friday the 13^th. But luckily we didn’t die.

May Project Day 6: In the morning, on the start of week two, Tyler and I started to tackle a large filing project. We were to organize the fire department’s invoices from the past couple of years, cross reference them with a set of copies, and then place the full new set in alphabetical order inside a filing cabinet. This project took us the entire day. We broke for lunch in the middle of it and ate at Five Guys. It was yummy.

May Project Day 7: Tuesdays, as previously mentioned are maintenance day at the firehouse and on this Tuesday we helped the crew with cleaning. In the morning we vacuumed the entire house, dusting where needed. Since we were working directly with the crew we took our lunch break with them and ate together at Jimmy Johns. They were all very interesting guys and getting to know them was a pleasure. In the afternoon we cleaned the deck.

May Project Day 8: On Wednesday we spent the entire day washing the many vehicles at the fire department. We washed both trucks, both ambulances, and both chief’s cars. As described earlier washing the vehicles is a time consuming process so these activities took the whole day. During our lunch break we at Crazy Bowls and Wraps. It was very yummy.

May Project Day 9: What turned out to be our final day of may project, thanks to a lacrosse playoff win, was spent washing the windows of the house. Our final lunch was spent at OB Clark’s were we enjoyed some celebratory chicken wings. Overall my time at the Brentwood Fire Department was very enjoyable. Everyone was incredibly nice and we were very welcomed!