Graduation Pictures

GSPIA Class of 2009

Pitt Panther & I

Family Picture

The guys I play darts with every Wednesday

Marshall & I

My prof/boss & I

Sandra & I

The girls

Gala Pictures

Mark, his wife, Charlie & Becky, Me & Marshall

The girls & I

Marshall & I

Beautiful in Blue

Chris & I

The younger staff members of the JI

There was a kiddie area...I didn't go down the slide b/c of the dress :(

The Gala was at Heinz History Center so there were all kinds of cool things around

Sandra & I

Becky & I

Less than a month to go...

Things have been busy as usual. School is going well. We're running a half of a board retreat halfway through April for our consulting client, so that should be interesting. Other than that, nothing too exciting there.
I've sent out my resume to a bunch of companies, primarily international development consulting firms, but haven't heard back from anyone yet. I sure picked a fantastic time to graduate. There aren't many jobs available right now. Kevin said I can keep working at the Johnson Institute over the summer, so I will at least have something after graduation. I'm going to try to pick up another job around here as well until I find something permanent. Hopefully I'll have something at least by the time our lease runs out at the end of July. A good friend of mine here wants to start an organization to combat human trafficking in Latin America, and we've been talking a bit about that. I may become Chair of the Board of Directors and help him and his fiancee get that set up.
I had a lot of fun over spring break when Liz & Lisa came out to Pittsburgh. It was nice to do some of the touristy stuff that I've been wanting to do. We went to Phipps Conservatory and the Mattress Factory (a modern art museum). Both were lots of fun. I also went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade, which was kinda fun, but too long and cold so Ari and I left halfway through. Soccer season ended last week. We didn't win any games, but we had fun. Finally, last night was our GSPIA Gala. I had a really good time. (Mom, I ended up having a date after all. A friend of mine and I went with our friends Charlie & Becky.)

The pictures:
Liz, Lisa, and I at Phipps


Some random headless statues outside the mattress factory


exhibit at the mattress factory


at the mattress factory


another exhibit...everything slid back and forth between rooms. you could put the beds halfway back and they made chairs on one side and a bed on the other. we were just being goofy


out salsa dancing with my neighbor andrew (who doesn't salsa, but came with us just to hang out) and my friend shawn (who does salsa)


Ari, Cristian, and I at the St. Patrick's Day Parade


Everybody at our favorite bar down the street from Charlie & Becky's for St. Patty's Day


Soccer team picture...our team got smaller and smaller towards the end...this was before our last game


I'll post Gala pictures soon.

i have less than 2 months left...whoa

School updates:
School's going well. For once, I didn't have a ton of work due in the past week or so and had a chance to catch up on some other stuff that needed to be done, although that will change after break. I finally heard back from my professor from last semester, and he said he's going to start looking at and revising my paper (on globalization and happiness) for publication. I'm excited about that. I'm going to do a paper on a similar topic, but in a different area/different focus for another class this semester dealing with civil society presence in peace processes and how that relates to happiness.
Work is also going well. I'm submitting my final proposal for the leadership portfolio I've been working on developing this week for my boss to present at the faculty meeting next month, so that's pretty cool. We have a lot of events coming up in the next month or so too. A diversity in the workplace lecture and workshop, then our exemplary leader conference. Colleen Rowley, from the cover of Time Magazine a couple years ago is coming. She was recognized as being the FBI whistleblower after 9/11. She seems like a pretty awesome lady. It's against her personal code of ethics to accept awards or honorariums, so we decided to get rid of the whole award thing, and turn it into a lecture series.

Life & Everything Else:
I started applying for jobs and posting my resume places last week. I've posted my resume on USAJobs and Abt Associates, and applied for a research assistant position at the Brookings Institution within their Global Economy and Development program. I'm also going to apply to Chemonics Entry Level Professionals program. I'm sure there will be a lot of other places in the next couple weeks.
Fun stuff in the past couple weeks...we had a mardi gras party here, went out for my friend Becky's birthday, hung out with the neighbors a couple times. One of them was the music director for a high school music so his roommate and I went to see that this past weekend. It was some musical called Children of Eden, and it was pretty good.
Spring break is this coming week. I'm heading home Friday, then Liz and Lisa are coming back to Pittsburgh with me Tuesday! Can't wait =)

Becky & I out for her birthday

Mardi Gras Party
Me, Sandra & Ashley

Manuel & I

yay Mardi Gras!

Sandra decided to take pictures of us in the midst of negotiations during our Darfur simulation for our NGOs and Humanitarian Disasters course

Quick update: School is going well. I'm especially enjoying my GIS course and consulting. The consulting is a really good experience although our client is a bit frustrating. It's typical small ngo issues though. The executive director knows a lot about what the org is doing service-wise and absolutely nothing about running an organization...and therefore the board of directors has no idea what their role and duties are. We definitely have our work cut out for us.
Last week, I was sick, so I didn't go to school Monday morning or Tuesday. (I did go Monday afternoon b/c I didn't want to have to make up my EMT lab.) I'm feeling much better though.

Fun stuff: Friday night, my neighbors and I went to this restaurant a couple blocks up the street that has jazz artists on Fridays and is also well known for good desserts. So we went up there for some jazz and I had a glass of wine and this fantastic chocolately goodness called the bomb which is a shell of chocolate cake with chocolate mousse on the inside.....yummy!
Then Saturday, a friend of the neighbors, who I met through them, had an open house followed by a cocktail party for prospective clients because he finally got his recording studio all finished, so I went to that with the neighbors to support him.

This week I start training for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon. I did 2.1 miles today! (ok, I walked a tenth of a mile every half mile, but it's a start, and I've been sick.) Any contributions to the Mary needs running shoes are more than welcome. This whole marathon thing is expensive! It was $65 just to register. Amanda is definitely coming out to run it with me, and Liz and Lisa are thinking about it. The marathon is May 3.

And a couple pictures:

me and the girls at a friend's birthday party

me, the neighbors & Jesse (Jesse is the tall one)

Well, it's still below freezing here in Pittsburgh, but it's not below zero at least. Not too much exciting going on. I'm mostly busy with school. I went to a gallery crawl downtown with Chris, Becky and Cristian, and we met up with Tommy and his roommate and and another of their friends this past Friday night. We went to a bunch of art galleries and had a lot of fun.

Trivial Pursuit/Movie Night at Tommy's

out after the gallery crawl

It currently feels like -9 degrees here in Pittsburgh...

Well, I've survived my first two weeks of classes. I've decided not to do EMT clinicals. It was just going to be way too much with everything else. Classes are pretty interesting. I had my first consulting class last night and our clients gave brief presentations about their organizations and what they need. I'm in a group of 6 and we're going to be working with the Sexual Assault Response Team of Allegheny County on board development and leadership issues. That should be pretty interesting, although like a 2nd part time job. I think it will be a really good experience.

I have still managed to find some time for fun.

Oh, just realized I never posted about New Years. One of my neighbors...actually, a friend of theirs, but he's always around...owns a recording studio downtown, so we hung out there for a bit, had some sandwiches, had a nerf gun war, then went outside to watch the fireworks. We then came back to our house where Sarah was having a party. It was quite fun.

Sarah & I

Nerf Gun War

We had a game night the other night to play the new game mom got me for Christmas, Partini.

Cristian Brian, Me, & Sarah

Anyways, back to more recently...one of my other neighbors needed a date for some dinner last weekend. He's a musician and accompanies Alcoa's choral group and they had their annual dinner at Le Mont, which is this really nice restaurant up on Mount Washington with a fantastic view of the city (except it was foggy Sat night). The food was excellent, and it was a lot of fun.

Brian & I at Le Mont

Then Wednesday night, my friend Tommy took me out to dinner at Dave & Busters. We had a lot of fun playing games and stuff.

Tommy & I playing skee ball

so much for an easy semester...

i'm already overwhelmed! if i pretty much disappear for the next 4 months, this is why. Here's a brief summary of my classes.

EMT training: 6 hours of class a week; 3 hours of lab; i'm also looking into EMT clinicals...if i ever hear back from the secretary...which would involve 36 hours in an emergency room and 36 hours on an ambulance. I will get certified as an EMT at the end of the semester.

Global Information Systems (GIS): looks like a really interesting course. however, incredibly time consuming. 1 assignment could take 15-20 hours and we have one due every week.

Consulting for Non-profits: haven't had this yet b/c the prof (also my boss) had back surgery the week before Christmas and is still recovering. We're starting next Thursday. We're dividing the class into 3 groups and doing consulting work for 3 non-profits in the area. I'm hopefully going to be working with the Sexual Assault Response Team on board development and other governance/management issues. This also involves hours of outside work, visiting the organization, meetings, research, etc.

Micropolitics: NGOs, Development, and Civil Society: looks ok. i have a paper due a week from Monday already. not too excited about this course, but it's required and it's the first time it's been offered. hopefully it won't be too bad. other people seem excited about it.

Case Studies in Responses to Emergency Situations/NGO Responses to Humanitarian Disasters (there are multiple titles for this course): half semester course which thankfully was switched to the first half of the semester so that'll be out of the way by the end of February. Seems like it's going to be a very interesting course. The last 2 classes are a role play of applying what we've learned to what's going on in Darfur, so that should be kinda fun.

So yeah, my plan for an easy semester so I had time for job hunting seems to have turned into an 80hr/week semester somehow and I still need to fit in the job hunting. I'll figure it out though. Always do =)

Hope everyone's doing well. I'll talk to you all in May...haha. Oh yeah...I'm also going to train for a half marathon somewhere in there with Sarah. The Pittsburgh Marathon is May 3, and they have a half marathon option that we're going to do. Yay for running 13+ miles.

Picture Post

Elementary School Reunion Dinner

Camping trip to French Creek State Park

Random sign in Spanish on the trail to Hopewell Furnace

Playing games

Christmas

Ari & Cristian's wedding

Ari & I
Sarah & I
Gary & I
Our table