Summer is often interesting around NAITSA. It’s also a bit odd. I’ve had a few students visit me, but the institution is usually very quiet. We don’t have any big summer events, our restaurant and bar, The Nest, is closed until late August, and there are generally less staff in the office on a regular day as people take their much needed vacations scattered throughout the summer. Don’t be fooled though… just because we seem to be quite quiet around here – we’re still working hard. The past little while I’ve been doing some work with the Faculty Development and Performance Evaluation task force and getting some major headway with this group of amazing and inspiring intellectuals. I’ve also been working on developing my SMART goals for the year ahead (I’ve got some pretty cool stuff on the go) as well as working with the Registrar and some others to get co-curricular transcripts implemented.
One of the most exciting things coming up for the four executives is the upcoming Leader’s Hall conference, a conference dedicated to the professional and personal development in student leaders across Canada. I’m mostly excited for this because I’ve never been to a national conference, so the networking opportunities are incredible. The other neat thing about this conference is that this is Leader’s Hall’s first conference. I have high hopes for the conference, especially with Gallivan (NAITSA’s Health and Dental provider) is sponsoring it.
Other than that, not much else is happening until mid July, when we head out to Red Deer for the ASEC Goal Setting Conference. I’ll post about that one closer to the date.
In the meantime, other than work, I’ve been enjoying both the rain and the heat that we’ve had for the past few weeks here in Edmonton, and I’ve been watching the World Cup like crazy. I’m one of those insane people who actually wakes up early to watch the games at 5:30 and 8:00 in the morning. I’m also insane in that I cheer for three different teams. I cheer for Italy because I’m Italian, and you can’t not cheer for your country of heritage. I also cheer for England because I’m also English, and again, I can’t not cheer for my other country of heritage. And finally, I cheer for Brazil for no real reason except that they’re an awesome team.
I know there’s one team that I’m NOT cheering for, and that’s Germany. The only reason I’m purposely not cheering for them: to annoy Tim, because he seems to think they’ll win the cup. I like to cheer against him, and it’s pretty fun.
Finally, something you should definitely check out if you’re interested in writing, is Writing Excuses, a podcast by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells that lays out their tricks, tips, and pitfalls of writing for aspiring authors. Each podcast is only fifteen minutes long because, as they say “You’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart”. It’s definitely worth listening to if you’re into writing.
Otherwise, have a wonderful week and hopefully I’ll be posting again in another week. Cheers!
-Tess