Last week’s adventures were aplenty! Our first day of the week was a continuation of our Happy Volley Service in the cafeteria. We were up at 4 again to arrive by 5am at Findlay dining hall where campers would be eating their breakfast. This day we worked in the dishroom which was a mix of unloading plates, bowls and trays and sorting through and soaking silverware. Our group really enjoyed our time in the dishroom!
We did not have to serve lunch that day so we were let go around 11 to lay in the sunshine and relax!
Tuesday and Wednesday were great days. We had a tour of Pollock Dining Commons which included the dining hall where Penn State’s football team eats some of the time (Nittany Training Table) as well as learning how their menu can differ from those in other dining halls. This can happen by serving fancier entrées (usually with a higher protein content) and making sure the team has the proper amount of each nutrient.
We then heard Mr. Hopey talk about how the campus is structured with its different dining halls as well as learned about his very interesting career. We also went over four functions of management; plan, organize, lead, and control.
It is very important to plan ahead and the higher you are in management the farther you would look for different ideas and possible issues. You would of course need to be organized, not waiting until the last minute and ensuring that you take care of every little detail. Then the crux of many management theories; leadership, best done by example behavior, communicating face to face and trying to be in the middle of all the action. Lastly there is control where you evaluate the results of your project or event with the goals that you had created prior. Mr. Hopey also touched on the new uniforms that would soon be worn by every campus dining hall. There are different colors for different stations such as purple for those trained on the specific allergy station.
We also met with Mr. Pierce who went over different pieces of budgeting which most of us interns hadn’t thought a lot about, certainly not in depth. We discussed fixed and variable expenses as well the different aspects of our event that we would plan later on in our internship. This got us thinking of different possible themes, the food, beverages, labor, invitation cost and more. This was a great experience for us since we hadn’t thought much about this.
It is very important to plan ahead and the higher you are in management the farther you would look for different ideas and possible issues. You would of course need to be organized, not waiting until the last minute and ensuring that you take care of every little detail. Then the crux of many management theories; leadership, best done by example behavior, communicating face to face and trying to be in the middle of all the action. Lastly there is control where you evaluate the results of your project or event with the goals that you had created prior. Mr. Hopey also touched on the new uniforms that would soon be worn by every campus dining hall. There are different colors for different stations such as purple for those trained on the specific allergy station.
We also met with Mr. Pierce who went over different pieces of budgeting which most of us interns hadn’t thought a lot about, certainly not in depth. We discussed fixed and variable expenses as well the different aspects of our event that we would plan later on in our internship. This got us thinking of different possible themes, the food, beverages, labor, invitation cost and more. This was a great experience for us since we hadn’t thought much about this.
On Wednesday we met with Mr. Hurley who walked us through the Commonwealth system informing us that Penn State actually has 24 campuses with 13 of these being touched by the housing department with 8 dorms operating and managing food service directly at 3 of these campuses. University Park is of course the biggest campus but it was amazing to learn about the others in the state of PA and a little bit about how they work and how the overarching system itself works. This was a great discussion as we really hadn’t thought about this aspect of food service either! (or at least I certainly hadn’t!).
We then met with Mr. Meinecke about the staffing aspects of food service on campus. The hiring process is quite large and then placing students at appropriate dining halls can also be challenging. We also saw all of the paperwork that student’s would have to fill out when applying to work in any dining hall on campus.
We then met with Mr. Meinecke about the staffing aspects of food service on campus. The hiring process is quite large and then placing students at appropriate dining halls can also be challenging. We also saw all of the paperwork that student’s would have to fill out when applying to work in any dining hall on campus.
One of my absolute favorite events so far was working with Dr. Michelle Newhard and completing the Native American Medicine Wheel. This was just so interesting and enlightening by showing us how different personalities work and why certain people sometimes act certain ways. Michelle went around the room and described North, East, South and West ‘personalities’ and then asked us to think about which one we identified with and move to that corner of the room. Three out of four of us interns were Souths who generally trust others especially at face value, want others to be happy, are team players, are supportive, nurturing and often intuitive. West people weigh all sides of the issues, make decisions based on logic, are practical as well as organized with lists. East people are very idea oriented, see the big picture and have insight into purpose as well as adapting easily to change. Norths are assertive, action oriented, decisive, like to be in control and enjoy the challenge of difficult situations and people. All of these different directions were so interesting to learn about and really helped me see which direction the people in my life are and how I might be able to work better with them now that I have an understanding of their behavior as well as my own.
His speech started off with humor and a heavy Vietnamese accent. He certainly surprised me when he dropped the fake accent and switched to perfectly smooth English, demonstrating that we may often have existing stereotypes or biases when people speak a certain way. Since Dr. Robinson was a cognitive neuroscientist, it was really interesting to hear about the way our behaviours and reactions correlate to research about the brain.
Dr. Robinson spoke of his tragic past and experiences being excluded from others in society to illustrate an important point: that it is our collective responsibility to reach out and make others feel comfortable. That the social pain of exclusion is real and we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zones to make others feel accepted and loved.
All of the food for the event was also amazingly delicious and just incredible!
Maria had told us that students donate alot of the things they don't want and that there were often good sales. How awesome! We went around 9am and gosh, it was just crazy, it felt like Black Friday because there were shoppers with BAGS upon bags of loot! I have to say we didn't do too shabby either...
Then we took an unexpected trip to the Amish country. It was such a refreshing change of scenery and a look into a new way of living!
We all got so excited at the sight of horse and buggys!!
We also stumbled upon a tractor show, stopped by the Penn Cave souvenir shop, and shopped at the flea markets.
Week two was simply amazing and we're looking forward to learning more about everything!
Signing off, Aimme & Leah
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