NWTRC Journals 1

Running Head: NWTRC JOURNALS

Fall 2009 Internship: NWTRC Journals

Corinna Adams

Western Washington University

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WEEK: September 22 – September 23rd

Before school started, I had to take the time to re-connect with Julia Bozzo, my site

coordinator because I had not talked to her all summer. She was sympathetic to the hardships I

was enduring, yet frank about the importance of finishing the video project I had begun Spring

quarter. I was pleased to be back at NWTRC. During the summer I had made time to volunteer

at another therapeutic riding center and I gained much respect for NWTRC because of it. The

other site was not nearly as organized, calm or in my opinion as safe as NWTRC. It was

interesting to me to see how two organizations that outwardly have the same values and mission

can carry it out so differently. I spoke with Julia about this, she was interested in hearing the

differences as well. This meeting to get back into the swing definitely related to Standard 17

(CSHSE, 2009) in that I had to rebuild rapport with Julia. A game I play often pops up with little

sayings and one of them says something to the effect of relationships being like flowers that need

watering or else they wilt and die instead of blooming (Maxis, 2004). Not speaking with Julia

over wilted our relationship a bit.

WEEK: September 23rd – September 30th

This was a tough week because I realize now my absence in the program does not just

affect my relationship with Julia but with everyone who still lives up here in Bellingham during

the summer. Friday while I was at lessons I realized I was rusty. I couldn’t remember exactly

what tack went with each horse and forgot a couple of other things as well. It didn’t help that

Danielle, a young volunteer from Spring quarter who stayed and continued to work at NWTRC

during the summer, kept jumping in and telling me how I was doing things wrong. I was aware

when I was struggling, but I like to try to figure things out on my own before asking for help. It

would have been fine if she was trying to help me, but it felt more power and status related.

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During Spring quarter I had been kind of a “golden child” in the program. I worked really

hard to learn everything quickly, be proactive and show how committed I was to the program.

Now it seems like I’ve been dethroned. It wasn’t just Danielle either, there was a new person,

Danni, who started working with Julia during the summer because she wants to become a

certified therapeutic riding instructor. I noticed that a lot of the responsibilities and praises I had

earned during Spring quarter have now been bestowed to her. It is strange because I feel so

jealous. It makes sense that someone who has been working all quarter and who will still have

the time to work consistently for the program would advance versus someone who has not been

there for two months, but it still raises these feelings up. I guess because I still want to feel like I

am making a difference. I felt important and impactful Spring quarter. I also feel like there will

not be much I can do about this because I will only be helping at Friday lessons because of the

way my school schedule worked out with the riding schedule.

I will be accomplishing most of my hours on campus in the Student Technology Center

working on the video editing. I have to get that done before November 7th, which is the day of

the NWTRC Auction Dinner. Julia wants the video to be the main program.

Friday after the session I called and talked to my boyfriend, Chris about my thoughts.

This relates to Standard 20 in that I had to be aware of my feelings and reaction to the new

dynamics at NWTRC. It also relates to Learning Objective #1 because although I was feeling

unpleasant, I could not take it out on anyone at my internship. It would be unfair and

unprofessional and harmed professional relationships. So that is why I took the time outside of

the program, to talk to Chris. I was glad I chose to talk with him because he helped me to

remember that I am still accomplishing something big for the program. I will still be impactful

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because the video I am working on will help NWTRC with attracting new donors, participants

and volunteers.

Week: September 30th – October 6th

This week has been very frustrating. I have been trying to work

on the informational video for NWTRC. Unfortunately there is a certain computer set up that I

have to work with. A Mac computer hooked up to a machine that takes the footage I recorded on

a mini DV tape (Image) and converts it into a video file on the computer that can be used in a

video editing program. I got all set up with importing the video to a file and waited. I have three

mini DV tapes, each having 60 minutes of footage. The video has to be imported in “real-time”

meaning, I had to sit and wait for 60 minutes of footage to be converted. I did this once and then

went to save the files on my external hard drive. I personally have a PC at home and therefore

my external hard drive is formatted to a PC. Apparently that means that only a PC can write onto

the device. A Mac can recall and copy the files, but any modifications cannot be saved. Also for

similar reasons the Mac computers on campus are not actually hooked up to the schools network

hard drive, which means that when somebody saves things on a Mac to their personal drive, they

will not be able to recall the file on any other computer on campus. Also the personal drive does

not hold that much memory. All of this means that in order to save any progress of work, I have

to buy an external hard drive that is Mac compatible and large enough to house the video editing

process.

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This is not good because it is just going to cost me more time. My deadline is coming up

quick. So anyway, I could definitely sympathize with a man in a Youtube video I saw recently.

The man is sitting in his cubical and becomes visibly upset with his computer. After scowling

and taking a few whacks at the monitor with his keyboard he gets up and walks out of range of

the camera. Moments later he returns. With a sledge hammer, he then proceeds to destroy his

personal computing device in a surge of precise Thor-like motions (killmyPC, 2007). Awww

sweet release. I was able to refrain myself from such actions, but it was close. `

Week: October 7th – October 14th and October 14th – October 21st

Did not do much this week. On the 7th in the morning while at work, I had a severe

dizzy/nauseous spell and almost passed out. My manager took me apartment and then my mother

actually came up to Bellingham to get me to take me back to Tacoma. A year and a half ago I

had some similar episodes. I went to the doctor then and went through a range of tests. No test

was conclusive. For some reason the episodes stopped and I had not had one until the 7th. I

stayed in Tacoma until Monday the 12th for doctor appointments and tests. I did purchase the

external hard drive, but I have to wait for it to get here.

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Standard 20 is about personal limitations. I have felt very limited the past few weeks.

Technology has been limiting in discovering new computer rules and its limitations. My health

has been limiting in that I need to be aware that something is wrong with me and we have not

figure it out yet. I was afraid to drive even.

Week: October 21st – October 28th

This week has been much more productive! In fact, I feel like I have done nothing but worked on

videos. Julia had also wanted a video of the pony that will be auctioned off at the dinner for marketing

purposes. Julia, Kendra and I went out to where the pony is and took video and pictures of him. Then

Kendra and I worked for five hours straight creating a 3 minute video of him (Adams & Moerlein, 2009).

We are pleased with it. The best part about all of this was having Kendra there to work with. I did not

realize what a difference it made having an extra pair of eyes and opinions when creating a video. I did

most of the actual technology action, but Kendra helped in choosing what images, video shots and music

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to use. Kendra also helped me to not get caught in little details and to keep me on task. It was interesting

for me to have someone working with me on something I was used to doing alone. All part of developing

those interpersonal work relationships I suppose.

The main video is coming along as well. Having to work only in the Student Technology Center

and only on one specific computer is frustrating though. I get to work on my interpersonal skills quite

often because of having to use a specific computer with special programs; there have been numerous

times I have had to ask others about using the computer. This can be very wearisome when I can see they

are only using the computer to check Facebook or that they are using normal applications such as Word

or Excel that are available on any lab computer. Most people are nice enough to move on when I ask how

long they will be on the computer because I need it for video production, but I have had a few wave me

off and continue harvesting fruits on their Farmville game. I am most thankful when I arrive to an empty

chair though.

Overall I am just trying to focus on getting this video done. I have been missing a lot of class but I feel

like this is more important. Julia has been very worried about this and the Board is waiting as well. I had

hoped to have the video ready for a showing before Halloween, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.

Week: October 28th – November 4th

This has been such an adventurous time. Julia showed me some more example videos of what she

would like and I realized a couple big missing factors: narration and history. I have a lot of visual

accounts of what we do in lessons and the interviews from mothers but there is no objective, general

overview voice. Luckily Kendra knew someone who was able to do a quick voice over narration for the

video and considering he only read through the script once, he did a great job. Unfortunately the

microphone we used was really crappy. There are a lot of popping and puff noises that cut the audio. I

will have to work really hard to fix these issues.

Kendra and I actually attended a NWTRC board meeting Tuesday (the 3rd), and showed them the

rough cut of the video. It was incredibly nerve wracking. I know I am not a professional video production

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professional but I still wanted the board to think it was good. All the pieces are together but as I said the

audio is not clean. We also had technical difficulties and time issues because of the rendering and writing

process of the video. It took over an hour to convert the video into a .wav formant which video viewing

programs such as Quicktime can use and then found out that for some reason my pc would not play the

video correctly. We had already shown up late to the meeting and Kendra then had to go back home to get

her MAC to play the rough video. Very stressful. Yet, the board really liked the video. They had great

feedback and were understanding about the pieces that were missing. I wrote down all that they said,

including making the transitions between clips more smooth, adding in volunteer accounts, and some

changes to the script. It was wonderful. No one threw any tomatoes at us or anything! This also completes

part of my Learning Objective 2 to attend at least one board meeting.

The pressure is on though. The final video MUST be done Friday for the set up of the dinner auction! I

am so nervous.

I have put in 25+ hours of work on the video just in this week. It is all the little things though. All the big

parts are done; it is just the little bits of sound bites, straightening out transitions, and other little things

that get me and of course the rendering. I will have this done.

Halloween at the center is really fun because the kids get to go trick-o-treating on horseback!

However rain has been really stubborn and terrible. We were able to make the most of it though. This

week we even had the first ever horseless lesson! We had made it through two of the three lessons on one

day and it had just started to pour. Julia felt really bad because she didn’t want to have to cancel third

lesson because the riders and parents had already arrived. So I suggested we have the kids hunt for the

candy in the barn. By this time the rain had lightened up but we had already put the horses away. Julia

like the idea of hiding the candy and just having the kids look for it, so we did that in the ring without

horses. It was really fun because we pretended we were horses and “trotted” and “cantered” around the

ring to find the candy.

.

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Week: November 4th – November 9th

The dinner was awesome! Kendra and I had a lot of last minute details to work out on Friday and

Saturday, like getting the right equipment from WWU’s Classroom Services, doing a quick powerpoint of

the live auction items and checking and rechecking the video. Nevertheless we did it. The video played

beautifully for the dinner and people loved it!

We had to be there extra early and made sure to help set up tables, auction items, the video table,

etc. Then we were able to be greeters at the door. The event was already sold out with 130 people

expected and in actuality around 140 ended up showing up! It was bustling. It was interesting to watch all

the volunteers come together and perform so well without any real direction. It was as if everyone

magically knew their places and just did what needed to be done. I was able to meet and talk with a range

of people who are involved with the organization in non-direct and direct ways. I met board members in

the kitchen and shared dessert with parents and donors. I really enjoyed the whole event. Clean up was

also quick and efficient. Mike, Julia’s husband, said that they had never left so early in past years because

clean up always took so long. I was just really happy.

Kendra, me and Danielle (volunteer) greeting guests.

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Table settings. Each table was the name of a horse in the program (Zorro) or a famous horse like “Black Beauty” or “Misty”.

Panorama from the stage of people checking out the silent auction tables and visiting.

Week: November 9th – November 16th

Now that the dinner and lessons are over I feel much more relieved, at least about internship. I

have had a lot of stress about my classes so having the video done makes me feel like I can refocus on

school. The video does have a few tweaks to be done. I had many parents come up and ask for DVDs of

the video. I want to get them out to them before Winter Break. Some of the audio still is not where I want

it so I have asked my roommate who is a professional musician and producer to help me to re-record

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some of the narration. Once that is done it will be easy to insert the new audio into the video and then

make DVDs!

November 16th – Present.

I have now finalized the DVD for the final time! At least 20 copies have been made. I am really

happy with how it has come out and am excited to get the video out to people. I was even able to give a

copy to a fellow WWU student in the Recreation Program who did a presentation on NWTRC. Genell

was her name, and she said the video out help out their presentation a lot. It made me feel good to know

that the video is already making good connections for the program. Hopefully seeing it will encourage

other Recreation majors to look into volunteering at the center. Now all that is left is wrapping up the

paperwork and writing my paper. But this is how I feel.

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References

Adams, C., & Moerlein, K. (2009, October 21). NWTRC- Fundraising Auction [video]. Retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqJdtRX2isc

Council for Standards in Human Services Education. (2009). National Standards. Retrieved from:

http://www.cshse.org/overview.html

Killmypc. (2007, March 29). Kill my PC [video]. Retrieved from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqkGfinCFs0

Maxis. The Sims 2. (2004). [Computer Software]. Redwood City, CA: EA Games.

Walker, Dave. (2007, April 17). You vs technology [cartoon]. Retrieved from:

http://www.weblogcartoons.com/2007/04/17/you-vs-technology/