Kate’s senior project

 It's the last day of working in the Development Department. We didn't do much today, just working together to put sheets into envelopes and seal them, and moving stuff to the locker room. Thank god no more folding napkins. Feels like just another day but there will be no more days like this, it's definitely a weird feeling. We had a celebration lunch to celebrate everything we've done during our senior project, it was takeout from Tuckers. I'm grateful of everything they've done for me actually, they put up with me the whole time. By today I have 55 hrs 15 mins, and that's the end of my senior project. 

I worked from 11-12, and then 1-2. Today is remarkable because we finally folded all the napkins! The room is filled with baskets of napkins, and the rest of napkins that don't fit into the boxes just sit randomly across the room. It was such a view. At reunion and graduation nights we can just look at the tables and be like, you see the napkins? Yeah we folded all of them. By today I have 53 hrs. 

It’s crazy how the senior project flew by. It was intimidating before I started, because I knew the Development Department is responsible for graduation and all the connections with alumni, which means I have to reach out to strangers who only share the same high school background with me. On top of that, I hate making phone calls, especially to people I don’t know. Therefore, after making the decision to work in the Development Department, I’ve been anxious about what I would do. Would I make a thousand phone calls everyday? Would I have to call strangers only to be hung up on? All the uncertainty taunts me until the first day of my senior project.  I remember vividly what we did the first day. Making phone calls, having meetings, meeting new people…all of the above didn’t happen. Instead, we counted plates. I have this video of the three of us, Wes, Carly and me, sitting on the carpet and counting plates, completely confused with why we are doing this. What Carly said later reall...

  It’s crazy that another week has passed by. This week is somehow way faster than last week, probably because I’m getting used to the work I’m doing. It’s really interesting in fact, although we call ourselves “interns” I still found pleasure in doing small but useful things. They make me feel my value (not trying to say doing errands is the only thing I can do). For sure there are greater things waiting ahead, but it’s nice to get started on small things. I learnt there are different sizes of letter envelopes this week, and sometimes people put the smaller ones to bigger envelopes so whoever gets the mail can put either cash or paychecks in them. There are surprises too, because things don’t always go as planned. Sometimes I have games or early practices, so I have to leave early accordingly. That means I won’t have enough hours in. That frustrates me because I hate it when things don’t go as planned, but obviously I can’t skip practice or games. My solution is to get my hours ba...

 Today I worked from 10-2. This four hours really is about folding napkins and a little bit of writing thank you notes, considering the amount of napkins we have to fold. But I think we’re almost there! I counted how many piles of napkins we’ve done and the conclusion is we’ve folded 1,300 napkins and we have only 500 more to go. That’s easy work if the three of us all do it together, and I think Wes already covered some of the 500 as he took over the napkin folding room after I left. Next week is going to be easy, and that really cheers me up. We’re so close to the finishing line! I’m at 51 hrs now.

 Today’s pretty interesting. We had 2 meetings in a row, and we focused on different things. The first meeting we focused on part of the history of Proctor and the importance of giving back to Proctor. The second meeting is way more straightforward, it’s about the rundown of commencement. I never knew the budget for the commencement as high as $150,000 if my memories correct. Or I typed one extra zero. Other than that I went to fold napkins again. I worked from 9:15-11:45, and 12:45-2. That adds up to 47 hrs.

 Today we worked on folding more napkins and writing thank you notes. I worked from 9-12, and then 1-2 as we had a game. I lost track of how many napkins I folded, but I think we’re getting there. Now the room where I fold napkins is like a to go place when there’s nothing we can work on. And at this point I can remember things I write on my thank you notes word by word. And I worked extra from 7:30-10:30, because one of my mentors also my dorm surrogates. Now I think I’m at 43 hrs 15 mins.

 Today we worked the whole morning on a surprise. I really want to say it but it’s supposed to be a secret so I have to keep my mouth shut. Really it’s not that big of a deal but some of you guys out there may like it so you will have to figure it out yourself. It took 5 of us to prepare the surprise, if I hear anyone says anything bad about it I WILL FLIP THE TABLE(jk). Other than that I went on to fold more napkins. At this point it’s an entertainment. I worked from 9:45 to 12, and 1-4. That’s 5hrs 15 mins, adds up to 35hrs 15mins. 

Today we folded some more napkins. I think we’re at 500 now, out of 1,800. Other than that we finished the rest of the alum research. Some of the alums are simply impossible to find, because we don’t have their addresses and I don’t want to stalk them. That’s creepy duh. We worked from 9:15 to 12, and then 1 to 3. That’s 4hrs 45mins, and in total 30 hrs. 

 Today we counted chairs in the theater and made sure the names on the chairs are correct. Other than that we also did alum research, which is basically looking up the alums and putting down a link that introduces them so some of them could be in the latest Proctor magazine. Some of them are just impossible to find. I did find the rest of them, and it’s just fantastic to see what they are doing now. It’s so subtle to see people who graduated from the very same high school I go to doing different jobs and living their lives out there. I went to work at 9:45 and worked to 11:15, and came back at 12:30 and worked to 3. So that is 4 hrs, and the total hours is 25hrs 15mins. 

 It’s hard to believe it’s been a week! It’s been great so far, and everything is so different from what I expected. I’ve been doing errands and I jokingly call myself an intern, because that’s what interns do—things the others don’t want to do. I didn’t know that’s what newbies do so that’s something new. But I like what I’ve been doing so far, because it’s realistic: I will do things like those if I were an actual employee. I think this week really gives me experience on what to expect in a real work environment, which is precious. My goal is to learn what it feels like to work, so what I learnt so far definitely helps.

 We finished our reunion photos cutting today. We put most of them in the blank buttons, but there are a few being left out because there are not enough buttons. Then we sort of listened to the meeting between the department and the head of school, which they talked about what they going to do at graduation and other related ceremonies. It's interesting to listen to meetings like that, because you learn how people plan things out and get them done. Other than that we sealed some envelopes and boxes, packaged some gifts. We worked from 9:45 to 12:15, and then 1:30 to 3:30. That's 4hrs and a half, adds up to about 21 hrs and 15 mins in total. 

 We had a game today so we had to leave early. I worked from 9 to 11:45, as the bus was leaving at 12:15. I still got my works done though. I worked extra hours from 7:30pm to 10:30pm, cutting the pictures of Class of 1971 so they fit into the pins. The pins will be used at the alum's 50th reunion ceremony. This morning I adjusted the sizes of the pictures. It was hard work because each picture has to be different sizes so the faces fits. The total hours I have now is 16hrs 45mins. 

Today isn’t that different from yesterday. Just doing errands again. Today is folding napkins though. We folded 300ish napkins; supposedly we need 1,800 napkins, but we decided to worry about the rest later. We signed up for LinkedIn this afternoon and looked for people we might know. I found 2 people who went to the same college I’m going this fall. I worked from 9am to 3pm, 5hrs in total. That’s 11hrs so far.

Today is May 9th, and we worked from 9am to 4pm. I worked in the Development Department, with my mentors and Carly Sipp and Wes Koziol. It felt like we were interns, because mostly we’re just counting plates and cards for the graduation ceremony. I organized the list of names from Class of 1971 and will print their yearbook photos tomorrow. I worked for 6 hours, so I can have 30 hrs this week and work less hours next week. Because of my sport, I don’t have a regular working schedule yet. I will figure that out ASAP. And I attached a video clip I took today below.