Can't Stay Away...

Today I made my first official visit back to SMC since graduation! I've been on campus a few times to help my sister move in or pick her up, but nothing official...but today was my big-girl debut at SMC! I had a MEETING there! A meeting where I was a not a student! It was great!

Every month Vermont Campus Compact has a network meeting where everyone who works in community service/service learning/activism/civic engagement etc... at a college that is part of Vermont Campus Compact gets together and does professional development, shares thoughts, promotes events, that sort of thing. When I found out that the October meeting was at SMC, I immediately RSVPed yes!

The meeting was in the Pomerleau Alumni Center, which is a new building on campus that I had never been into. It was fantastic to see Heidi St. Peter and Erin Collins, both of whom had definite impacts on my decision to become a VISTA and to come to Middlebury. Erin was definitely one of the most influential people I met while at St. Mike's - she was one of the staff members who went on the Extended Service trip to the Dominican Republic with me and we really connected. It was so wonderful to catch up with her!

The meeting was interesting - we had a few guest speakers come and discuss the housing and homelessness situation in Vermont, provide information about a new program called Common Good Vermont which is intending to tap into the synergies going on within the Vermont non-profit community and lead exercises in regards to learning outcomes for the students that we work with. It was great to see some of the Burlington-area VISTAs (one of whom is a member of my Relay team for the marathon...we discussed training a bit!) and be back at the place that I called home for the past four years.

I'm going Trick-Or-Treating for canned goods with the Volunteer Services Organization on Halloween, which should be fun. I'm battling a cold right now so I didn't run today, hopefully I will feel better by Saturday so that I can get two runs in over the weekend...

On a side note, I've started to catch up on Glee online...it's on at the same time as Modern Family, which is a new show that I absolutely adore, so I haven't been able to catch it in "real time." I'm really enjoying the episodes online though! Check it out if you have a few minutes!